Random
Boredom 2010
James Ward
The other day I found myself waiting, and beside my waiting self was a newspaper. I looked at it. Of course, it was full of important stories about important people doing important things, and it would have been good of me to read about something of worth, but the only article I read the whole way through was one about a group of ‘Boredom Enthusiasts’ in London who had a conference last month. I have no idea why I was compelled to read about Boredom 2010 organizer James Ward‘s tie collection, which, as of June 2010 consisted of 55 ties, nearly half of which were solid-colored. “By December, his tie collection had jumped by 36%, although the share of single-color ties fell by 1.5%.” I must be channeling my inner Brit.
Only a day or two later a friend emailed me to ask if I had any favorite novels in which absolutely nothing, or almost nothing, happens. Oddly enough, none came to mind. I think this may be because I am often compelled by what may bore others and my definition of ‘nothing’ can be quite fluid depending on attention span or mood.
Of course there are the books about which people complain about nothing happens (High schoolers, I am looking at you.) The Old Man And The Sea is one but I am sure others (htmlgiant readers) might not categorize it in quite the same way. In David Markson’s Reader’s Block a different kind of nothing is happening, one in which an old man’s brain is sifting thoughts… Is it just me or do old men feature prominently in books about nothing and boredom? Makes it all the stranger that James Ward, mastermind behind Boredom 2010, is only twenty-nine. Someone cue the hand-wringing about the current generation.
Tags: boredom, james ward
I’m a day or two away from clicking on love dash shopping dot org (or similar htmlgiant spam link).
Second boredom post so far in 2011.
Not that I’m counting.
Bored people are usually boring, as that old tired saying goes.
i think lee rourke was at that conference?
this is funny: i found your comment in spam, c2k
How could I forget The Canal? Jesus Christ. I even interviewed Lee for HTML a few months ago.
Hah. Thanks. I almost re-posted, because I saw I was denied. Well, your filter is working somewhat.
Hah. Thanks. I almost re-posted, because I saw I was denied. Well, your filter is working somewhat.
I recommend
I recommend
I meant to say… I recommend Monsieur by Toussaint as a really nice book where nothing much happens.. Also Camera by the same. I have been trying to sell people it on that basis but it hasn’t been working out so well thus far.
I meant to say… I recommend Monsieur by Toussaint as a really nice book where nothing much happens.. Also Camera by the same. I have been trying to sell people it on that basis but it hasn’t been working out so well thus far.
I just read The Old Man and the Sea yesterday (first time since high school) and there are several shark attacks in that book. One of my favorite “boring” books is Carson McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding. Not much happens. The main character is pretty bored most of the time. Her childhood brain is being stripped away as she turns into an adult.
I just read The Old Man and the Sea yesterday (first time since high school) and there are several shark attacks in that book. One of my favorite “boring” books is Carson McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding. Not much happens. The main character is pretty bored most of the time. Her childhood brain is being stripped away as she turns into an adult.
Causes me to recall Dangling Man. Not that I’d recommend the book.
I would second Toussaint books.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1934824011/ref=nosim/completereview
Read The Pets. Great book, but character spends entire novel under his bed.
Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. is fantastic, and is basically just an old dude sitting around playing a fantasy baseball game he made up. Kind of crushing in its way.
there are different kinds of boredom
How about ‘Jealousy’ by Alain Robbe-Grillet? I haven’t read it in 20 years, but the happenings seemed tiny or slow.
I read it in 2010 over the course of a two months. Enjoyed it thoroughly in a distinct way. I would put it down often, look at it, think ‘no more brainbaseball’, and leave it for days at a time. I read many other books in the interims. BUT, every time I was actually in the act of reading it, I was content to be nowhere else but in Henry’s mind games.
I read Sam Pink’s Person last week. It was the my favorite ‘book-where-nothing-happens’ of the year.
These types of books are often my favorites.
Movies, too. I’m literally much more enticed to watch the films that people call slow, quiet, or boring, than I am to watch the fast and exciting films.
I finally saw Wendy and Lucy last year. Yes. yesyesyes.
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b2cshop.us
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I’ve actually been on a “boring” book kick of late. Read Markson’s This Is Not a Novel followed by Wittgenstein’s Mistress and both are fascinating and engrossing. Right now I’m reading Beckett’s How It Is and Man in the Holocene by Max Frisch.
Gotta read that.
Gotta read that.
Nausea by Sartre is a good one in the boredom stakes. Man does work, man looks inside himself for many pages, man keeps living. Also you could argue that The Outsider/Stranger by Camus has Meursault feeling bored a whole lot. Bored-sleepy, bored-angry, bored-dead.
You might enjoy Lisandro Alonso’s ‘Liverpool’… between you and I, I saw it maybe a year (?) ago, and this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to recommend it. It’s the sort of film that I characterize as a “cogitator”.
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I’m writing an article on Boring 2010 right now, and my coworker forwarded this post to me. What about Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem?
Oblomov by Goncharov is one. And hte ultimate book in which nothing happens is Gerard Reve’s The Evenings (De Avonden in the original Dutch): http://www.nlpvf.nl/book/book2.php?Book=404
i second the goncharov. that opening cracks me up.
I haven’t heard of Liverpool. Netflixing now. Thanks for the recommendation.
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I just read Camera yesterday. I really liked it.
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