The "Idler": Issue 41: QI Issue

by TomHodgkinson (Editor), Dan Kieran (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $3.35

  We are born free but are everywhere in chains. Our culture needs some fresh air. We are boring ourselves to death by re-packaging the same flavorless pap based on a patronizing and second-hand version of what we think other people want. Meanwhile, out there, the world is as complex, beautiful and mysterious and ever. Which is why QI and The Idler have joined forces to celebrate curiosity. As Dorothy Parker once sagely noted, curiosity is the cure for boredom, but there is no cure for curiosity. It is endless and free, unlike television, wine or the water in our taps. It is more pleasurable and reliable than sex. It's what makes us human. Your hosts are Mr John Lloyd, founder of QI and the producer of legendary television shows including Blackadder and Spitting Image , and Mr John Mitchinson, co-creator with Mr Lloyd of The Books of General Ignorance (General and Animal) .They have filled every spare inch with the absurd and curious learning that fans of QI will know and expect. In addition, there is the first ever published extract from Mr Lloyd's 'lost' novel, fifteen never-before-seen, spanking-brand-new General Ignorance questions, the QI prospectus for a New School, Mr Justin Pollard's list of history's wildest stories and William Morris is rescued from ye olde gift shoppes and restored as a revolutionary hero. So, read on, and help us overthrow the tyrant boredom. You have nothing to lose but your chains.

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.35

  The Idler team believe that idleness is unjustly criticised in modern society when it is, in fact, a vital component of a happy life. In this new edition of The Idler, the team examine the way money and greed have taken over our lives and look at ways of escaping its clutches. In Medieval times, prioritising money-making was seen as a sin. On their deathbed, usurers tried to pay back the money they had extorted so they would have a better chance of getting into heaven. Money was just a part of life, a means of exchange, rather than an end in itself. Then came the Protestant work ethic, which introduced the damaging notion that time is money . The Idler wants to reintroduce a fun-loving medieval attitude to life. The last issue looked at how to avoid work; now it looks at how to avoid consuming. You can also expect The Idler's characteristic blend of well-known writers, humour and art.