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A Philosophy of Boredom

It has been described as a "tame longing without any particular object"
(Schopenhauer), "a bestial and indefinable affliction" (Dostoevsky) and "time’s invasion of your world system" (Joseph Brodsky), but very few of us can explain precisely what boredom is. By giving boredom some space in our lives we are giving ourselves possibilities – it is an invitation to reflect on what is important in life. In order to show the importance of boredom Lars Fr. H. Svendsen is presenting us with an intellectual challenge in form of an essay. 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. Bringing together observations from philosophy, literature, psychology, theology and popular culture, Lars Svendsen examines boredom from its pre-Romantic manifestations over Beckett and Andy Warhol to American Psycho and modern feelings of alienation and transgression. A witty and entertaining account that considers a serious issue, this book will appeal to anyone curious to know what lies beneath the overwhelming inertia of inactivity.

Praise for "A Philosophy of Boredom":

"Reading about sex isn't sexy; reading about humour isn't funny; and reading about boredom isn't boring. When an investigation into boredom is done well, as it is in "A Philosophy of Boredom" by Lars Svendsen of Bergen University, it is positively gripping"
(Times Literary Supplement)

"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)

"Boredom is life’s own gravity" is a wonderful conclusion. Also one fitting for this amusing, learned, and articulate philosophical study of one of humanity’s prime afflictions...You would be hard pressed to find a beter book to make do with this year than this wonderful little on which is, sometimes, despite the desolation at its core, oddly uplifting"
( Glasgow Herald)
"...a fascinatingly modern essay on ennui and amptiness...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)

"An exciting and learned book about the absolute zero of existence"
(Politiken)

"... 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"
(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 Worlds confused him with Dick Van Patten has dour Søren 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, New York)

"Far from boring, this is a highly accessible and entertaining study" (The Age, Australia)

"Lars Svendsen (boring name), a professor of philosophy (boring subject) from Norway (boring country) has written a quite fascinating book [...] which concludes that people are often more spurred into action out of boredom, or the desire to escape boredom, than through mental stimulation or interest. Boredom, he writes, is a typical phenomenon of modernity... relevant for practically everyone in the Western world"
(Times)

Translations: Brazilian Portuguese (Zahar Editor, Rio de Janeiro), Chinese - complex characters (Business Weekly Publ., Taipeh), Croatian (Felmont, Zagreb), Danish ("Kedsomhedens filosofi" published by Forlaget Klim, Aarhus), Dutch ("Filosofie van de verveling" published by Uitgeverij Agora, Kampen), English ("A Philosophy of Boredom" published by Reaktion Books, London), Finnish ("Ikävystymisen filosofiaa" published by Tammi, Helsinki), French ("Petite philosophie de l'ennui" published by Editions Fayard, Paris), German ("Kleine Philosophie der Langeweile" published by Insel Verlag, Frankfurt), Hebrew (Agur Publ. House, Tel Aviv), Italian ("Filosofia della noia" published by Ugo Guanda Editore, Parma), Japanese ("Taikutsuno Chiisana Tetsugaku" published by Shuiesha, Inc., Tokyo), Korean (Published by Booksea Publ., Seoul), Russian ("Filosofija skiki" published by Progress Tradition, Moscow), Serbian ("Filozofija dosade" published by Geopoetika, Belgrade), Spanish ("Filosofía del tedio" published by Tusquets Editores, Barcelona), Swedish ("Långtråkighetens filosofi" published by Natur och Kultur, Stockholm), Turkish (Tavanarasi, Istanbul), Urdu (Mashal Books, Lahore)

First published: 1999, Universitetsforlaget

Lars Svendsen: Biography and bibliography

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