Like so many memes before him, Keanu Reeves has become self-aware—embracing his recent, Internet-fueled infamy as the star of “Keanu Is Sad” and fully harnessing its power in order to turn a profit. As the Guardian reports (via Vulture), Reeves has just completed his first book, Ode To Happiness, its title an intentionally ironic commentary on the morbid thoughts contained inside. From within its clothbound slipcase, the tongue-in-cheek book features black and blurry inkblot drawings accompanied by lines like “I draw a hot sorrow bath,” “In my despair room,” and “It can always be worse”—passages meant to evoke, as Reeves says, “That moment when you take that bath, you light that candle, and you're really just kind of depressed.” Or the moment you find yourself sitting on a park bench, grimly chewing a sandwich and wondering how you got there.
Reeves and his collaborator, L.A. artist Alexandra Grant, plan to sell Ode in a limited edition of 4,000 copies at around $50 apiece, and should his inside joke end up selling for serious money, Reeves already has plans for a follow-up: “I'm considering another idea I call Haikus of Hope. Basically like, 'I want to kill myself', and go from there.” But just to be clear, Reeves also claims that “Keanu Is Sad” has absolutely nothing to do with his project. “Oh, the Internet deal," he says in the interview, taking great pains to pretend like he doesn’t think about it every single day, adding, "It was brought to my attention. Yeah, it was funny. But no, the book predates that by a long time. We finished it in August 2009.” So any added interest that his book is receiving as a result of that meme is purely coincidental. Excuse us as we begin enunciating the word “right” and then stretch it out until Monday. R-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i