Boredom: A Lively History

220 Pages·2012·1.89 MB·English

by  Peter Toohey

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peter toohey
boredom
a lively history
YA L E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S | N E W H A V E N A N D L O N D O N
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Copyright © 2011 Peter Toohey
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All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any
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Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written
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permission from the publishers.
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For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please
7 contact:
U.S. Office:
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface 1
1 Putting boredom in its place 8
2 Chronic boredom and the company it keeps 48
3 Humans, animals and incarceration 82
4 The disease that wasteth at noonday 107
5 Does boredom have a history? 143
6 The long march back to boredom 170
Readings 191
Acknowledgements 205
Index 206
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Illustrations 6
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page 9
1 Sir William Orpen, A Bloomsbury Family, 1907. Scottish National 10
Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK/The Bridgeman Art
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Library. 9
2 ‘The Bore Track’, Strzelecki Desert, South Australia, 2007. 2
Photograph by K.-D. Liss. 12
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3 The Agony in the Garden, attributed to Lo Spagna (Giovanni
di Pietro), c. 1500–1505. © National Gallery, London/Art 4
Resource, NY. 14 5
4 Victoria Beckham at the Marc Jacobs Fall 2008 Fashion Show,
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New York, 2008. Photograph by Mark Von Holden/WireImage. 18
5 Arnold Böcklin, Odysseus and Calypso, 1882. Kunstmuseum 7
Basel/Martin P. Bühler. 19
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6. Carl Spitzweg, Der Kaktusliebhaber (The Cactus Lover), c. 1850.
Museum Georg Schäfer/akg-images. 21 9
7 Walter Sickert, Ennui, 1914. Tate Gallery, London. Presented 20
by the Contemporary Art Society, 1924. © Estate of Walter R.
Sickert. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2005. 23 1
8 A woman sells souvenirs outside Red Square, Moscow, Russia, 2
June 2008. Photograph by Adam Jones. 36
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9 Sir John Everett Millais, Mariana in the Moated Grange, 1851.
© The Makins Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library. 37 4
10 Edgar Degas, Women Ironing, c. 1884. © The Gallery Collection/
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Corbis. 39
11 Grave stele tomb marker belonging to a woman named Hegeso 6
from Keremeikos Cemetery, attributed to Callimachus, c. fifth 7
century BC. Photograph c. 1900 by Mansell/Time & Life
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Pictures/Getty Images. 40
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ILLU STRA TION S
12 William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Le jour des morts (The Day of
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the Dead), 1859. Sotheby’s/akg-images. 42
2 13 Frinton in Essex by Arthur Clegg Weston. Photograph in
possession of author. 43
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14 Opium smokers in the East End of London, 1874. From the
4 Illustrated London News, 1 August 1874. 55
15 Edgar Degas, La Coiffure (Combing the Hair), 1892–1895.
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National Gallery, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library. 62
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16 Self-immolating cockatoo. Author’s photograph 91
7 17 Cell in the prison in Warren, Maine, 2002. Associated Press.
Photograph Joel Page. 100
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18 Frederic Leighton, Solitude, c. 1889–1890. Maryhill Museum of
9 Art, Washington. Yale Visual Resources Collection. 103
19 Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia 1, 1514. The Minneapolis Institute
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of Arts. 118
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20 Lucas Cranach the Elder, Melancholia, 1532. Statens Museum
2 for Kunst, Copenhagen. 123
21 Edward Hopper, Rooms by the Sea, 1951. Yale University Art
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Gallery. 134
4 22 Aboriginal tooth-rapping ceremony, Australia. Engraving by J.
Neagle (1798). Science Museum/SSPL. 158
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23 René Magritte, Le Mal du Pays (Homesickness), 1940. Courtesy
6 Galerie Brachot, Brussels. 164
24 Jan van Eyck, St Jerome in his Study c. 1435. Detroit Institute
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of Arts, USA/City of Detroit Purchase/The Bridgeman Art
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Library. 166
9 25 Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Golden Age, c. 1530. Alte
Pinakothek, Munich, Germany/The Bridgeman Art Library. 167
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26 Insula. Illustration by and courtesy of Lou Beach. 171
1 27 Theodor Adorno on the beach. Achiv Gunther Hormann,
Uln. 184
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Preface 6
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WHO CARES ABOUT boredom? It’s trivial, and it’s something that
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children suffer, isn’t it? Yet boredom is one of the most unex-
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pectedly common of all human emotions, and for that reason
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it shouldn’t be ignored, or trivialized. It’s part and parcel of
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ordinary life, something that Hanif Kureishi caught brilliantly
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in his novel about 1970s’ London, The Buddha of Suburbia.
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Karin Amir, its half-Indian, half-Anglo hero is upbraided by his
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activist lover, Jamila:
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‘You’re moving away from the real world.’
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‘What real world? There is no real world, is there?’
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She said patiently, ‘Yes, the world of ordinary people and
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the shit they have to deal with – unemployment, bad
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housing, boredom. Soon you won’t understand anything
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about the essential stuff.’
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Boredom may be a simple thing and it may be as basic
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as unemployment and bad housing, but it’s a real emotion
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