162. Self-Help

The Allusionist

Helen Zaltzman

Arts, Education, Words, Linguistics, History, Entertainment, Helen Zaltzman, Etymology, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Self-help is a multibillion dollar genre of books, and Kristen Meinzer and Jolenta Greenberg of By the Book podcast have lived by the advice of more than eighty of them. They discuss the ways these books use language to get into your brain, the negging and the euphemisms, what can actually be helpful, and why we should be more like dog.

Content note: we discuss dieting and sizeism, and there are fleeting mentions of rape and abuse. There are also category A and B swears.

Find out more about this episode and get extra information about the topics therein at theallusionist.org/self-help, where there's also a transcript.

The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow and instagram.com/allusionistshow.

The Allusionist is produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. The music is by Martin Austwick. Hear Martin’s own songs via palebirdmusic.com.

Our ad partner is Multitude. To sponsor the show, contact them at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:

• Dipsea, the app full of short, sexy stories. Dipsea is offering an extended 30 day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/allusionist.
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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is the illusionist, in which I, Helen Zoltzman, read all the books about how to get
0:08.4	language to love me back. I'd not plan this, but today's episode is the third in an unintended,
0:14.5	but welcome many series about emotions. We have the episodes about cowardice and anxiety
0:19.6	and then sentimentality and empathy. And today, it's self-help.
0:24.1	Content note, we discuss dieting for a bit, and there are fleeting mentions of rape and abuse
0:29.0	there. I'll also category A and B swears. I'm really sorry to the person who left a very nice
0:34.7	review of this show, but did say there's too much wearing for their taste. I'm not trying to test
0:39.2	you, I promise. Sorry. Before we get to the self-help, I just wanted to tell you that I'm in a couple
0:45.3	of live events coming up soon. My brother's podcast The Bugle has just reached its 15th anniversary
0:50.9	and is doing a live tour to celebrate and I'm in one of those shows on the 27th of October 2022
0:56.4	in Birmingham and then doing a bit in Robinance's 9 Lessons and Carol's But Curious People
1:02.0	on the 16th of December 2022 in London. Links are at theillusionist.org slash events. On with the show!
1:18.3	I have absolutely no recollection of how or why I obtained this book, but I found on my bookshelves
1:25.4	a dark green volume printed in 1876 of the new edition of Self Help by Samuel Smiles, author of
1:33.2	The Lives of the Engineers. The book was first published in 1859. My updated edition has added
1:39.9	perseverance and it is as far as we know the first ever self-proclaimed self-help book. It was a
1:47.3	huge success. Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published the same year, Self Help outsold it
1:52.8	in its first year and went on to sell a quarter of a million copies by the time and the author's death
1:57.9	in 1904. According to the British Library, in the mid-1980s Margaret Thatcher's government wanted
2:03.3	to give a copy to every school child in Britain, although that's not how I a British child of the
2:08.0	1980s ended up with one. Not surprised they loved it though as one of the themes is how you can't
2:12.6	rely on government to help you so you have to self-educate and pull yourself up. The spirit of
	...

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