Isn't This Fun?: Investigating the Serious Business of Enjoying Ourselves

by Michael Foley (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2016

  $3.25

  Michael Foley wants to understand why he doesn't appear to be experiencing as much 'fun' as everyone else. So, with characteristic wit and humour, he sets out to understand what fun really means, examining its heritage, its cultural significance and the various activities we associate with fun. He investigates pursuits such as dancing, sex, holidays, sport, gaming and comedy, and concludes that fun is not easy, simple and fixed, as many seem to believe, but elusive, complex and constantly changing. In fact, fun is a profoundly serious business - a range of new group rituals evolving in response to cultural developments, often motivated as much by spirituality as hedonism. Also, while fun is a modern phenomenon it turns out to have recreated many of the elements of early ritual. His findings will invigorate you with insights, make you laugh at life, and quite possibly help you to understand why the post-post-modern is actually the pre-pre-modern.
  
  Praise for ISN'T THIS FUN?:
  
  `This book is such a wondrous kaleidoscope of rage, based on such a deep reading of all the sources, that I shall be searching out his other works to read forthwith. The man is a marvel.' Daily Mail
  
  Praise for THE AGE OF ABSURDITY:
  
  'Reading Michael Foley's THE AGE OF ABSURDITY. I must be the last person in the world to read this but I'm glad I finally have, as it is fascinating. It looks at the quest for happiness and how we are getting it all wrong' Jeremy Vine, Sunday Telegraph
  
  'Genuinely funny, sharp, truthful and intelligent . . . striking a blow for the value of ordinariness' Times Literary Supplement
  
  'Irresistible narrative with the sort of irreverent exuberance that carries all before it' Guardian
  
  'Pungent, witty, perceptive . . . like Larkin, only sharper, funnier and more cynical' Irish Times
  
  'Not the usual cleverclogs claptrap. Foley delivers well-judged wisdom'
  Oliver James
  
  'Achingly funny and wise . . . vastly entertaining' Daily Mail
  
  'Michael Foley's entertaining, intelligent book may just help you get over yourself . . . Absurdly readable' Observer
  
  'Insightful and entertaining . . . wickedly sceptical' --Irish Examiner
  
  Praise for THE AGE OF ABSURDITY:
  
  'Reading Michael Foley's THE AGE OF ABSURDITY. I must be the last person in the world to read this but I'm glad I finally have, as it is fascinating. It looks at the quest for happiness and how we are getting it all wrong' Jeremy Vine, Sunday Telegraph
  
  'Genuinely funny, sharp, truthful and intelligent . . . striking a blow for the value of ordinariness' Times Literary Supplement
  
  'Irresistible narrative with the sort of irreverent exuberance that carries all before it' Guardian
  
  'Pungent, witty, perceptive . . . like Larkin, only sharper, funnier and more cynical' Irish Times
  
  'Not the usual cleverclogs claptrap. Foley delivers well-judged wisdom'
  Oliver James
  
  'Achingly funny and wise . . . vastly entertaining' Daily Mail
  
  'Michael Foley's entertaining, intelligent book may just help you get over yourself . . . Absurdly readable' Observer
  
  'Insightful and entertaining . . . wickedly sceptical' --Irish Examiner
  
  'A wise, funny, erudite book about enjoying everyday life. The fiction of Joyce and Proust, along with other writers and artists who delight in the daily routine, anchors Foley's celebration of the here and now' --Independent
  
  'Thirty years ago, Michael Foley had an epiphany. As he emerged from jury service, the street outside the court became ''illuminated, transfigured, a portal to infinite being''. Everything became sublime, especially the menu at the caff advertising ''egg's, sausage's and tomato's''. ''Those misplaced apostrophes tore at my heart like orphan children, blessed like the first timid snowdrops of February, sparkled like a dusting of precious stones. I wanted to rush in and embrace the illiterate proprietor. To die of a heart attack from one of his fry-ups would surely be the ideal way to go to Heaven.'' Thankfully he didn't, otherwise we wouldn't have this lovely book' --Guardian
  
  Here s a nice idea: why not learn to love the ordinary things in life? Michael Foley tells us about some people who have done just that... It s very heartening, --i (Independent)
  
  'Wise, erudite, funny ... I will relish this book not just for its deftly opportunistic mining of novels and tracts and movies to shore up its premises, but for lyrical flights into the poetry of dailyness ... If they ever hand out golds for infectious delight in quotidian events, Foley should mount the podium.' --Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor, Independent
  
  A wise, funny, erudite book about enjoying everyday life. The fiction of Joyce and Proust, along with other writers and artists who delight in the daily routine, anchors Foley s celebration of the here and now --i (Independent)

• New

  Paperback
  2016

  $9.60

  Michael Foley wants to understand why he doesn't appear to be experiencing as much 'fun' as everyone else. So, with characteristic wit and humour, he sets out to understand what fun really means, examining its heritage, its cultural significance and the various activities we associate with fun. He investigates pursuits such as dancing, sex, holidays, sport, gaming and comedy, and concludes that fun is not easy, simple and fixed, as many seem to believe, but elusive, complex and constantly changing. In fact, fun is a profoundly serious business - a range of new group rituals evolving in response to cultural developments, often motivated as much by spirituality as hedonism. Also, while fun is a modern phenomenon it turns out to have recreated many of the elements of early ritual. His findings will invigorate you with insights, make you laugh at life, and quite possibly help you to understand why the post-post-modern is actually the pre-pre-modern.
  
  Praise for ISN'T THIS FUN?:
  
  `This book is such a wondrous kaleidoscope of rage, based on such a deep reading of all the sources, that I shall be searching out his other works to read forthwith. The man is a marvel.' Daily Mail
  
  Praise for THE AGE OF ABSURDITY:
  
  'Reading Michael Foley's THE AGE OF ABSURDITY. I must be the last person in the world to read this but I'm glad I finally have, as it is fascinating. It looks at the quest for happiness and how we are getting it all wrong' Jeremy Vine, Sunday Telegraph
  
  'Genuinely funny, sharp, truthful and intelligent . . . striking a blow for the value of ordinariness' Times Literary Supplement
  
  'Irresistible narrative with the sort of irreverent exuberance that carries all before it' Guardian
  
  'Pungent, witty, perceptive . . . like Larkin, only sharper, funnier and more cynical' Irish Times
  
  'Not the usual cleverclogs claptrap. Foley delivers well-judged wisdom'
  Oliver James
  
  'Achingly funny and wise . . . vastly entertaining' Daily Mail
  
  'Michael Foley's entertaining, intelligent book may just help you get over yourself . . . Absurdly readable' Observer
  
  'Insightful and entertaining . . . wickedly sceptical' --Irish Examiner
  
  Praise for THE AGE OF ABSURDITY:
  
  'Reading Michael Foley's THE AGE OF ABSURDITY. I must be the last person in the world to read this but I'm glad I finally have, as it is fascinating. It looks at the quest for happiness and how we are getting it all wrong' Jeremy Vine, Sunday Telegraph
  
  'Genuinely funny, sharp, truthful and intelligent . . . striking a blow for the value of ordinariness' Times Literary Supplement
  
  'Irresistible narrative with the sort of irreverent exuberance that carries all before it' Guardian
  
  'Pungent, witty, perceptive . . . like Larkin, only sharper, funnier and more cynical' Irish Times
  
  'Not the usual cleverclogs claptrap. Foley delivers well-judged wisdom'
  Oliver James
  
  'Achingly funny and wise . . . vastly entertaining' Daily Mail
  
  'Michael Foley's entertaining, intelligent book may just help you get over yourself . . . Absurdly readable' Observer
  
  'Insightful and entertaining . . . wickedly sceptical' --Irish Examiner
  
  'A wise, funny, erudite book about enjoying everyday life. The fiction of Joyce and Proust, along with other writers and artists who delight in the daily routine, anchors Foley's celebration of the here and now' --Independent
  
  'Thirty years ago, Michael Foley had an epiphany. As he emerged from jury service, the street outside the court became ''illuminated, transfigured, a portal to infinite being''. Everything became sublime, especially the menu at the caff advertising ''egg's, sausage's and tomato's''. ''Those misplaced apostrophes tore at my heart like orphan children, blessed like the first timid snowdrops of February, sparkled like a dusting of precious stones. I wanted to rush in and embrace the illiterate proprietor. To die of a heart attack from one of his fry-ups would surely be the ideal way to go to Heaven.'' Thankfully he didn't, otherwise we wouldn't have this lovely book' --Guardian
  
  Here s a nice idea: why not learn to love the ordinary things in life? Michael Foley tells us about some people who have done just that... It s very heartening, --i (Independent)
  
  'Wise, erudite, funny ... I will relish this book not just for its deftly opportunistic mining of novels and tracts and movies to shore up its premises, but for lyrical flights into the poetry of dailyness ... If they ever hand out golds for infectious delight in quotidian events, Foley should mount the podium.' --Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor, Independent
  
  A wise, funny, erudite book about enjoying everyday life. The fiction of Joyce and Proust, along with other writers and artists who delight in the daily routine, anchors Foley s celebration of the here and now --i (Independent)