The Idler's Companion: An Anthology of Lazy Literature

by Ton Hodgkinson; Matthew De Abaitua

• ISBN13: 9780880015493
• ISBN10: 0880015497
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

The Idler's Companion combines amusing tributes to relaxation with earnest pleas for self-examination. The essays, poetry, and fiction excerpts in this delightful anthology are filled with convincing arguments for reclaiming our days from the monotony of the working world.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Acknowledgments
the Courtier
The Idler, No. 1	p. 2
Oblomov	p. 5
Cain's Book	p. 6
On Being Idle	p. 8
Enemies of Promise	p. 16
The Idler, No. 31	p. 16
Bartleby the Scrivener	p. 20
On Idleness	p. 30
Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young	p. 31
An Apology for Idlers	p. 32
The Idler, No. 30	p. 43
Oblomov	p. 47
On Presumption	p. 54
On Lying Bed	p. 58
the Epicurean
Be You Drunken!	p. 64
Miles: The Autobiography	p. 65
Barthes on Barthes	p. 70
Against Nature	p. 70
Eight Miles High	p. 75
A Season in Hell	p. 81
The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam	p. 84
Labor of Love	p. 91
Don Juan	p. 96
Dr. Faustus	p. 97
The Critic as Artist	p. 97
the Monk
Wisdom from Lao Tzu	p. 108
Swann's Way	p. 108
The Importance of Loafing	p. 109
Pensees	p. 128
Ode on Indolence	p. 133
Opium	p. 136
Provoked Life	p. 136
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell	p. 137
On Experience	p. 138
Ethics	p. 139
Pensees	p. 144
Walden	p. 145
Poems	p. 150
Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young	p. 151
Forest Notes: Idle Hours	p. 151
Damien Hirst Interview, The Idler, No. 10	p. 156
Lost Horizon	p. 156
the Unemployed
Wages	p. 160
Utopia	p. 161
The Right to be Lazy	p. 161
Who Will Do the Dirty Work?	p. 165
The Right to Useful Unemployment	p. 166
Interview with Charles Handy, The Idler, No. 3	p. 170
In Praise of Idleness	p. 173
Interview with Terence McKenna, The Idler, No. 1	p. 187
The Soul of Man Under Socialism	p. 188
Grand National Holiday	p. 190
Future Work	p. 204
The Gay Science	p. 208
The Right to be Lazy, Appendix	p. 210
Capitalism, Socialism, Ecology	p. 214
Pansies	p. 214
About the Editors	p. 217
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.