The Art of Life

In our individualized society we are all artists of life -whether we know it or not, will it or not and like it or not, bydecree of society if not by our own choice. In this society we areall expected, rightly or wrongly, to give our lives purpose andform by using our own skills and resources, even if we lack thetools and materials with which artists' studios need to beequipped for the artist's work to be conceived and executed.And we are praised or censured for the results - for what wehave managed or failed to accomplish and for what we have achievedand lost. In our liquid modern society we are also taught to believe that thepurpose of the art of life should be and can be happiness -though it's not clear what happiness is, the images of ahappy state keep changing and the state of happiness remains mostof the time something yet-to-be-reached. This new book by Zygmunt Bauman - one of the most originaland influential social thinkers writing today - is not a bookof designs for the art of life nor a 'how to' book: theconstruction of a design for life and the way it is pursued is andcannot but be an individual responsibility and individualaccomplishment. It is instead a brilliant account of conditionsunder which our designs-for-life are chosen, of the constraintsthat might be imposed on their choice and of the interplay ofdesign, accident and character that shape their implementation.Last but not least, it is a study of the ways in which our society- the liquid modern, individualized society of consumers- influences (but does not determine) the way we constructand narrate our life trajectories.