The Idler #42: Smash the System |
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| Editor | Tom Hodgkinson |
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| Categories | Arts/Culture |
| Frequency | Annual (previously quarterly and bi-annual) |
| First issue | 1993 |
| Company | Idler |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | British English |
| Website | idler.co.uk |
| ISSN | 1351-5098 |
The Idler is a yearly 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 1758-9.
Contents |
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] | ” |
The Crap series of humour books is a spin-off from an Idler column:
The Idler website includes archived magazine content and regular updates from the editor including his long-lived Country Diary column[4].
Contributors and interviewees featured in The Idler include:
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