William Gaddis on Self-Help Books

"...prescriptions of superficial alterations in vulgarity read with excruciating eagerness by men alone in big chairs...[they] swung keys on gold-plated monogram bearing ("Individualized") key-chains, tightened their arms against wallets in inside pockets which held their papers proving their identity beyond doubt to others and in moments of Doubt to themselves, papers in such variety that the bearer himself became their appurtenance, each one contemplating over words in a book (which had sold four million copies: How to Speak Effectively; Conquer Fear; Increase Your Income; Develop Self-Confidence; "Sell" Yourself and Your Ideas; Improve Your Memory; Prepare for Leadership) the Self which had ceased to exist the day they stopped seeking it alone" (The Recognitions, pp. 285-6).

Also:

"The means, so abruptly brought within reach, became ends in themselves. And to substitute the growth of one's bank account for the growth of one's self worked out very well...
for as long as the means had remained possible of endless expansion, those ends of other ages (which had never shown themselves very stable) were shelved as abstractions to justify the means, and the confidently rational notion of peace, harmony, virtue, and other tattered constituents of the Golden Rule would come along of themselves was taken, quite reasonably, for granted" (The Recognitions, pp. 290-1).

Culminating with:

"Everything wore out. What was more, he lived in a land where everything was calculated to wear out, made from design...with only its wearing out and replacement in view, and that replacement was to be replaced. As a paper weight...lay a ceramic fragment from the Roman colony at Leptis Magna in North Africa...valueless as objet d'art...and little else, except that it had been made to last" (The Recognitions, pp. 319-20).