The Amateur Life - THE PAIN OF BEING HUMAN - Chapters 28-31 - Turning Pro Book Club at go.fsbb.io

Peter Saddington's book club explores chapters 28-31 of Steven Pressfield's "Turning Pro," focusing on the challenging aspects of pursuing a professional path and the inherent struggles of being human. Saddington highlights Pressfield's personal experience of dedicating a year to writing, isolating himself to fully commit to his craft, and the lessons learned from that intense period. The discussion delves into the idea of exile as a fundamental condition of humanity, a concept embraced by Gnostics, and examines how artists and addicts grapple with feelings of separation. Saddington unpacks Pressfield's distinction between "Jewish despair" and "Irish despair," illustrating how the latter stems from a deeper existential unease that material success cannot resolve. Saddington connects the "pain of being human" to the feeling of being "angels imprisoned in vessels of flesh."