A Philosophy of Boredom

Description

Although boredom is something that we have all suffered from at some point in our lives, and has become one of the central preoccupations of our age, very few of us can explain precisely what it is. In this book Lars Svendsen examines the nature of boredom, how it originated, its history, how and why it afflicts us, and why we cannot seem to overcome it by any act of will. A diverse and vague phenomenon, described as anything from 'tame longing without any particular object' (Schopenhauer), 'a bestial and indefinable affliction' (Dostoevsky), to 'time's invasion of your world system' (Joseph Brodsky), boredom allows many interpretations. In exploring these, Lars Svendsen brings together observations from philosophy, literature, psychology, theology and popular culture, examining boredom's pre-Romantic manifestations in medieval torpor, philosophies of the subject from Pascal to Nietzsche, and modern related concepts of alienation and transgression, taking in texts by Samuel Beckett, J. G. Ballard, Andy Warhol and many others. He also puts forward an ethics for boredom, discussing what stance one can adopt towards boredom as well as how one ought not to do so. This book arose from the author's attempt to relax and do nothing. Finding this impossible, he thought it better to do something, so he wrote A Philosophy of Boredom. A witty and entertaining account that considers a serious issue, it will appeal to anyone who has ever felt bored, and wanted to know why.

Lars Fr. H. Svendsen is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway. He is the author of many books including Man, Morals and Genes: A Critique of Biologism (2001) and The Philosophy of Evil (2001). The translator, John Irons, was awarded the prestigious NORLA prize in 2007.

When an investigation into boredom is done well, as it is in A Philosophy of Boredom ... it is positively gripping. Times Literary Supplement ... amusing, learned, and articulate ... You would be hard pressed to find a better book to make do with this year than this wonderful little one which is, somehow, despite the desolation at its core, oddly uplifting Glasgow Herald ... a fascinatingly modern essay on ennui and emptiness ... Svendsen's thesis is so cool that boredom, linked with desire rather than need, suddenly seems like a desirable state of being in an agitated age The Times ... a good, solid practical work of philosophy, in the tradition of Aristotle's Ethics and Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy ... a light touch and a playful attitude ... draws on a wide range of texts, from Martin Heidegger and Samuel Beckett to Iggy Pop and the Pet Shop Boys ... delightful and important' - New Statesman '... excellent ... anything but boring. Daily Telegraph For a serious work of philosophy, A philosophy of Boredom exhibits a light touch and impressive pop-cultural range. A typical page synergizes Kierkegaard ("the only thing I see is: emptiness") and Iggy Pop ("I'm bored/I'm bored/I'm the chairman of the bored"); not since Wayne's World confused him with Dick Van Patten has dour Soren been so deftly interposed with a modern cultural icon. This also inoculates the book from its most obvious pitfall. It's not boring Village Voice Far from boring, this is a highly accessible and entertaining study The Age A shocking, interesting, but also brilliantly entertaining analysis of one of our time's greatest problems. A Philosophy of Boredom offers an abundance of knowledge and an inspiring analysis Dagbladet An exciting and learned book about the absolute zero of existence Politiken