The Agony of Eros was my first encounter with Han's philosophy, and I was especially struck by his argument that, despite being a trendy thing to say at dinner parties, capitalism is very much not a religion.

Every religion operates with both debt (guilt) and relief (pardon). But capitalism only works with debt and default. It offers no possibility for atonement, which would free the debtor from liability. The impossibility of mitigation and atonement also accounts for the achievement-subject's depression. Together with burnout, depression represent an unredeemable failure of ability—that is, it amounts to psychic insolvency.

Thank you, Marty, for introducing me to Han. And thank you, kind stranger who wedged my copy of this book into concrete so I could retrieve it after discovering it fell out of my pocket on an incredibly windy day.