A Philosophy of BoredomIt has been described as a "tame longing without any particular object" by Schopenhauer, "a bestial and indefinable affliction" by Dostoevsky, and "time's invasion of your world system" by Joseph Brodsky, but still very few of us today can explain precisely what boredom is. A Philosophy of Boredom investigates one of the central preoccupations of our age as it probes the nature of boredom, how it originated, how and why it afflicts us, and why we cannot seem to overcome it by any act of will. Lars Svendsen brings together observations from philosophy, literature, psychology, theology, and popular culture, examining boredom's pre-Romantic manifestations in medieval torpor, philosophical musings on boredom from Pascal to Nietzsche, and modern explorations into alienation and transgression by twentieth-century artists from Beckett to Warhol. A witty and entertaining account of our dullest moments and most maddening days, A Philosophy of Boredom will appeal to anyone curious to know what lies beneath the overwhelming inertia of inactivity. |
Contents
Preface | 7 |
Two Stories of Boredom | 49 |
THREE The Phenomenology of Boredom | 107 |
FOUR The Ethics of Boredom | 133 |
Postscript | 153 |
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Common terms and phrases
absence acedia Adorno aesthetic American Psycho appears attempt attuned Bateman become believe Bollnow Book of Disquiet bored boredom Catherine completely Concepts of Metaphysics Crash culture Dasein death describes E. M. Cioran emotion emphasised emptiness ennui Ernst Jünger eternal Ethics everything existence existential boredom experience expression feeling Fernando Pessoa film form of boredom Foucault Fragments Frankfurt am Main Friedrich G.W.F. Hegel give Heidegger's Hölderlin human Ibid identity individual interesting J. G. Ballard kairos Kant Kierkegaard lack live London loneliness look Lucinde Martin Heidegger melancholy modern mood never Nietzsche nothingness novel object one's oneself ourselves perhaps personal meaning Phenomenology phenomenon philosophy possible precisely problem profound boredom question reality reason relation Romantic Romanticism Sämtliche Werke Samuel Beckett Schlegel Schopenhauer seems simply situation situative boredom sort T. S. Eliot thing tion trans transcendence transgression utopia waiting Warhol William Lovell Wittgenstein words