Nein. A Manifesto is the brainchild of Eric Jarosinski, the self-described “failed intellectual” behind @NeinQuarterly, a “Compendium of Utopian Negation” that uses the aphoristic potential of Twitter to plumb the existential abyss of modern life — and finds it bottomless.

Nein is not no. Nein is not yes. Nein is nein.
Nein believes in nothing. Militantly.
Nein does not take questions.
Nein regrets to inform you.
Nein is not style. Nein is not syntax.
Nein does not thank you for shopping.
Nein is not the medium. Nein is not the message.
Nein says no. To a yes. That is a no.

Nein closes its eyes to your surveillance state. Your dating profile. Your dreams. And hears the sea.

Stridently hopeless and charmingly dour, Nein. A Manifesto is an irreverent philosophical investigation into the everyday that sounds the call to rediscover its strangeness. Inspired by the aphorisms of Nietzsche, Karl Kraus, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno, Jarosinski’s epigrammatic style reinvents short-form philosophy for a world doomed to distraction.

As tenets of a rather unorthodox manifesto, Jarosinski’s four-line compositions seek to illuminate our most urgent questions. And the least. The result is a compelling and thought-provoking translation of digital into print. Theory into praxis. And tragedy into farce.

Eric Jarosinski is a former Ivy League professor and expert on modern German literature, culture, and critical thought. His work has been featured in numerous international publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Believer, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Der Spiegel, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Wall Street Journal, Slate, and The Irish Times. His Twitter feed @NeinQuarterly has close to 100,000 followers in more than 100 countries. He lives in New York City.

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