Inspiration needed. I'm doing a photography/fine arts degree and I'm thinking of writing my dissertation on the human condition and all things that can affect us as humans
(emotions,nostalgia,childhood, et al.) . However, I come with a lot sentimental baggage from past months and I need some guidelines to get me clean and focused again. I would hugely appreciate your help either in fiction or specialised art books.

I insert a link to my blog, just to let you see where my head is at:
http://leftluggage-giannis.blogspot.com/

Thank You

You could do worse than G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. It is probably the most optimistic novel ever written by an Englishman. Better still, it combines optimism with intelligence. How many other books can you say that of?

How about the Dawn French autobiog Dear Fatty.

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Hi, I empathise as someone who also suffers from bouts of depression. I recommend An Equal Stillness by Francesca Kay as it combines fiction and art. It is a fictional biography of a female artist working in the 60's. It explores the problems of being a female in a primarily male world, and combining her work as an artist with being a wife (of a mediocre artist) and mother. The descriptions of her art work are very vivid and we learn what inspired her. Ultimately this is an uplifting book, one that left me emotionally drained, but in a good way. Good luck with your dissertation.

Passage by Connie Willis Passage
Knowledge of having to face our own demise sets us apart from the rest of creation as we know it.
Following that try (By Jerome K. Jerome) Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog (Penguin Classics)
I love Montmorency! (The Dog)

http://fatpuss.wordpress.com/
Try Fatpuss's blog. He always seems to be up against it, but that doesn't stop him. He's an inspiration to cats everywhere. His book's good too, and will leave you so baffled you'll forget all your problems!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1906558825/ref=dp_db_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

I suffer with severe depression and sometimes it becomes near nigh impossible to be able to concentrate and read. I can sometimes bring myself around to at least reading again by either reading a cheap pulp crime type novel, or even, if else fails, Matthew Lewis' fantastic gothic novel The Monk (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural). It is camp and over plotted but it is something that makes you forget about any bad things.

Anne B. Ragde Berlin poplars. Made me forget where I was and made me realise a ting or two about myself and my family. If you just want to laugh and forget time try Terry Pratcett. Fun fantasy that also questions things we take for fact. (feks gravity).

Very different but equally beautifully life-affirming books are:

Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Kahil Gibran: The Prophet
Danny Wallace, Join Me!
Lucy Eyre, If Minds Had Toes

The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly is a wonderful book: the fictional account of a political prisoner in Burma. It isn't affirming in the "omg how can I complain as I am at least not going through that" fashion (which I have always found terribly unhelpful). Rather it speaks to the human condition in a beautiful way. Here is someone who is truly content with being human.

The answers you're getting vary pretty wildly, and I wonder if that's because your question is a bit general or vague. What sort of fiction? of art books? what sort of guidelines? Went to your blog (very good except that white text on swan was difficult to read) to see what you liked reading, but am none the wiser. Give us a hint about what you're looking for.

I too suffer from too much 'sentimental baggage'. For some time I've found reading (and writing) difficult but I listen to audio books. I have three on the go (car, kitchen & bedroom) all from the local library.

Thank you so much for your suggestion! I would definitely give it a go.

First of all Monica, allow me to express my gratitude and a big, huge Thank You for your straight-to-the-point reply.Pardon me for being general, but that's because I am used in drawing inspiration from any field, thus I left my question so open end. But you are right, some hint would do.

Books like Fernando Pessoa's 'Book Of Disquiet', Tracey Emin's 'Strangeland', Roland Barthes' 'Camera Lucida', Antoine De Saint-Exupery's 'Little Prince' and 'The Wisdom Of The Sands', Tori Amos' 'Piece By Piece', all are books that I love and look into(also books about psychoanalysis and the culture of pain). Nan Goldin, Dianne Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe and Anthony Gormley are amongst the vissual field I've been paying attention to. Let me mention some films as well: 'La Jette', 'Cinema Paradiso' and 'American Beauty' too.

In hope that I have helped you, I am eagerly expecting your suggestions.

Thank you a lot for your suggestion. I would definitely check the book you mention. Everything you mentioned is like everything I am going through, whenever I let it into me. Hope everything you do, makes you a happier person. For being able to fight this, stong you are already. All the best.

The Grist Anthology of New Writing has some fantastic new fiction - short stories and poetry in it. Look at what others are currently writing / doing creative work about, and see the threads that run from you to them. Depression can be a tunnel, and give you tunnel vision, I know that as I get it myself. Looking at recent work by others in a respected anthology can be interesting. I can also recommend The Book Thief as fiction, Life of Pi, and if you want to dive into the darkness rather than escape from it - anything by Nick Cave, Kathy Acker, or Poppy Z Brite?
The Grist Anthology of New Writing
The Book Thief
Life of Pi
Blood and Guts in High School
And the Ass Saw the Angel
Exquisite Corpse
Oh, and I think you'd perhaps like these films:
Wings Of Desire [DVD] [1987]
The Pillow Book [VHS] [1996]
And for an interesting, comic look at 'insanity':
Harvey [DVD] [1950]

I too suffer from depression, mine is reactive depression rather than clinical. However, the symptoms are very similar.
I found/find that reading was/is a great help as long as I stick to happy/light reads, avoid in-depth stuff and sad stuff. Which was why I suggested the Dawn French book.

Hermann Hesse - Steppenwolf

film - Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky) deep insight into the human psyche. I love this film but appreciate it's not to everyone's taste.

"A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy O'Toole, black humour though, the best for riding through depression. You don't want to read about a happy family where all's hunky-dory. Short stories by Anton Checkhov too. Oh, Nick Cave's "The Death of Bunny Munroe" has had me laughing out loud. Hope it helps.

Here goes:
Double Game, Sophie Calle; Dr Clock's Handbook, Rothenstein & Gooding; The Long Way, Bernard Moitessier; Undercover Surrealism, Ades & Baker; Diary of an Amateur Photographer, Graham Rawle; A Handful of Dust, David Plowden; Adaptation to Life, George Vaillant; On Being Blue, William H. Gass; Strange Attractor, Mark Pilkington; The Journal of Jules Renard; The Nancy Book, Joe Brainard; Hell, Henri Barbusse; Transformations of Mr Hadliz, Ladislav Novak; Autonauts of the Cosmoroute, Julio Cortazar; Niels Lyhne, J.P. Jacobsen. And Stalker was an awfully good suggestion.
I suspect I'm speaking for everyone who's posted here when I say that if you've any more questions, by all means ask and when I wish you good luck in every way.

Oimoi (just about the only Greek I remember), I forgot to ask: What do you mean by 'the culture of pain?'

For depression I would recommend you urgently read 'Education, Edukation, Edukashun,' by James Rainsford. It's the funniest and most insightful novel I read in years. It may not change your life, but i defy you not to laugh out loud. As they say, 'laughter is the best medicine.' You can decide for yourself by reading the reviews here:Education, Edukation, Edukashun Hope this helps. Best wishes, Keith.