Understanding optimism
Broadly put, Berlant's commentary on Optimism begins with an understanding of optimism that is slightly modified from the word's regular usage. The question of optimism and pessimism is essentially, "Will good happen to me or will bad happen to me?" Berlant turns from that idea to a more narrow description: she says that optimism is only a reflection of one's personal desire in life. That is the major idea of the book, that optimism and pessimism should be treated only after a person addresses their relationship to desire.
Understanding desire
Desire is described in this book as a kind of wrestling with fate. Berlant even writes in the introduction, "[Optimism] becomes cruel only when the object that draws your attachment actively impedes the aim that brought you to it initially." The mention of attachment is academically loaded; it brings to mind the thematic ideas that the book later elaborates, ideas primarily described in Eastern religions and in mysticism. By properly aiming one's desire for only those things that will actually increase flourishing, a person avoids the cruelty of hope.
Life on life's terms
The old Alcoholics Anonymous adage says, "You have to do life on life's terms." In a way, that is what the book describes as well. Instead of falling prey to desire, a person can celebrate whatever parts of life they can deliberately celebrate and appreciate. Berlant explains that much of life only seems bad because we often hang on to hopes and attachments in our psychologies that distract us from the sublime nature of reality and the narrative beauty of human life.
