The Idler (1993)

The Idler
The Idler #42: Smash the System
Editor Tom Hodgkinson
Categories Arts/Culture
Frequency Bi-monthly (previously quarterly, bi-annual and annual)
Year founded 1993
Company Idler
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Website Official website
ISSN 1351-5098

The Idler is a bi-monthly British magazine devoted to its ethos of 'idling'. Founded in 1993 by Tom Hodgkinson and Gavin Pretor-Pinney, the publication's intention is to return dignity to the art of loafing, to make idling into something to aspire towards rather than reject.[1]

The magazine combines the aesthetics of 1990s slacker culture and pre-industrial revolution idealism. The title comes from a series of essays by Samuel Johnson, published in 1758–59.

Ethos

On the practice of idling, Tom Hodgkinson writes:

A characteristic of the idler's work is that it looks suspiciously like play. This, again, makes the non-idler feel uncomfortable. Victims of the Protestant work ethic would like all work to be unpleasant. They feel that work is a curse, that we must suffer on this earth to earn our place in the next. The idler, on the other hand, sees no reason not to use his brain to organise a life for himself where his play is his work, and so attempt to create his own little paradise in the here and now.[2]

History

The Idler was launched in 1993 when its editor, Tom Hodgkinson, was 25. The title came from a series of essays by Samuel Johnson. In it, Johnson wrote on such subjects as sleep and sloth and said: "Every man is, or hopes to be, an idler." The new Idler took this 18th-century sensibility and combined it with the radical philosophies of the 1990s. Issue One featured a profile of Dr Johnson and an interview with psychonaut Terence McKenna.[3]

The Idler began as a quarterly magazine. It later become a biannual publication under Ebury Press and eventually a small press annual collection of essays from 2009.[4]

2010 saw the opening of the Idler Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment: a school, coffee house and bookshop. In 2016 the Academy closed (but continues to offer courses at various venues and online) and The Idler returned to its quarterly release schedule.[5]

Spin-offs and other media

Tom Hodgkinson has written four books which develop this attitude to life. The first, How to Be Idle, has been published in 20 countries and has so far become a best-seller in the UK, Italy and Germany.[6] His second book How to Be Free takes an anarchic approach to the everyday barriers that come between us and our dreams. The third is an alternative parenting manual, The Idle Parent, which argues that children should be left largely to their own devices.[7] The fourth, Brave Old World considers the virtues of the self-sufficient, rural lifestyle.

TitleYearPagesAuthor
How to be Idle2007286Tom Hodgkinson
How to be Free2008352Tom Hodgkinson
The Book of Idle Pleasures2008224Tom Hodgkinson and Dan Kieran
The Idle Parent2009260Tom Hodgkinson
Brave Old World2011275Tom Hodgkinson

The Crap series of humour books is a direct spin-off from an Idler column and edited by Dan Kieran:

  • Crap Jobs is a series of books chronicling the worst of Idler-readers' forays into employment.
  • Crap Towns exposes some of the worst places to live in Great Britain. Crap Towns caught the public imagination but drew fire from both local councils and local media in those areas concerned.[8]
  • Crap Holidays is an exploration of Samuel Johnson's maxim that the idler allows events and goods to come to him rather than expend energy and money travelling to disenchanting locations.

The Idler website includes archived magazine content and regular updates from the editor.[9]

Academy

In 2010, Tom Hodgkinson and Victoria Hull started The Idler Academy in London: a school and bookshop with the aim of providing lifelong education in useful, enjoyable but neglected subjects. It was founded on the idea that leisure be refined through cultivation and upon William Cobbett's stance that "Competence is the foundation of happiness." It closed in 2016.

Bad Grammar Award

From 2013 the Academy awarded a Bad Grammar Award.[10][11][12] Entries were nominated by Idler readers and Academy students and judged by a panel of experts.

Notable past contributors

Contributors and interviewees who have been featured in the Idler include:

Current columnists and regulars

See also

References

  1. ↑ "About The Idler". The Idler. 17 June 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  2. ↑ Phil Hammond (15 September 2010). Sex, Sleep or Scrabble: Seriously Funny Answers to Life's Quirkiest Queries. Black & White Publishing. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-1-84502-526-7.
  3. ↑ "Busy doing nothing: Ten years of The Idler's interviews with outstanding bohemians - Features - Books". The Independent. 8 September 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  4. ↑ "Issue 42: Smash the System". Idler.co.uk. 17 June 2009. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  5. ↑ "About". Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  6. ↑ "The New York Times". nytimes.com. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  7. ↑ Ian Sansom. "Review: Secret World of the Working Mother by Fiona Millar, The See-Saw by Julia Hobsbawm and The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson | Books". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  8. ↑ Terry Kirby (25 March 2004). "Revealed: the top 100 'crap' towns in Britain - This Britain - UK". The Independent. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  9. ↑ "The Idler". idler.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  10. ↑ "Just how bad is bad grammar? - BBC News". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  11. ↑ "Bad Grammar Award 2014 shortlist - Telegraph". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  12. ↑ "The Idler | Bad Grammar Awards 2015: Amazon win (or is that wins?)". idler.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
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