The Idler (1993)
Encyclopedia
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.
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.
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.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
devoted to its ethos of 'idling'. Founded in 1993 by Tom Hodgkinson
Tom Hodgkinson
Tom Hodgkinson is a British writer and the editor of The Idler, which he established in 1993 with his friend Gavin Pretor-Pinney. His philosophy, in his published books and articles, is of a relaxed approach to life, enjoying it as it comes rather than toiling for an imagined better future...
and Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Gavin Edmund Pretor-Pinney is a British designer and author of the best-selling The Cloudspotter's Guide .Pretor-Pinney attended Westminster School, the University of Oxford, and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design...
, the publication's intention is to return dignity to the art of loafing, to make idling into something to aspire towards rather than reject.
The magazine combines the aesthetics of 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
slacker culture
Slacker
The term "slacker" is used to refer to a person who habitually avoids work. Slackers may be regarded as belonging to an antimaterialistic counterculture, though in some cases their behavior may be due to other causes ....
and pre-industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
idealism. The title comes from a series of essays
The Idler (1758-1760)
The Idler was a series of 103 essays, all but twelve of them by Samuel Johnson, published in the London weekly the Universal Chronicle between 1758 and 1760. It is likely that the Chronicle was published for the sole purpose of including The Idler, since it had produced only one issue before the...
by Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
, published in 1758-9.
Idling
On the practice of idling, Tom Hodgkinson writes:The Crap series of humour books is a spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
from an Idler column:
- Crap TownsCrap TownsCrap Towns: The 50 Worst Places To Live In The UK and Crap Towns II: The Nation Decides are a series of humorous books edited by Sam Jordison and Dan Kieran and published in association with UK Quarterly The Idler. Towns in the UK were nominated by visitors to The Idler Website for their...
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.
The Idler website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
includes archived magazine content and regular updates from the editor including his long-lived Country Diary column.
Contributors
Contributors and interviewees featured in The Idler include:- Dan KieranDan KieranDan Kieran is Deputy Editor of The Idler, a bi-yearly British magazine. He is a writer, editor, and CEO and co-founder of the crowd-funding publishing platform ....
, Deputy Editor - author - Jonathan RossJonathan Ross (television presenter)Jonathan Stephen Ross, OBE is an English television and radio presenter, best known for presenting the BBC One chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross from 2001 until he left the BBC in 2010. Ross began hosting a new chat show on ITV1 starting 3 September 2011...
- TV presenterPresenterA presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show... - Louis TherouxLouis TherouxLouis Sebastian Theroux is an English broadcaster best known for his Gonzo style journalism on the television series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends and When Louis Met.... His career started off in journalism and bears influences of notable writers in his family such as his father, Paul Theroux and...
- TV presenter - Damien HirstDamien HirstDamien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
- artist - Fiona Russell Powell - writer and former ABCABC (band)ABC are an English band, that charted ten UK and five US Top 40 singles between 1981 and 1990. The band continues to tour and released a new album, Traffic, in 2008.-Formation:...
band member - Tony BarrellTony Barrell (journalist)Tony Barrell is a British journalist, known for his humour and his exploration of the unusual and the unexplained. He has written many major features for the Sunday Times, and has also contributed to The Times, The Idler, and Cornucopia magazine, among others. He frequently writes about people with...
- Journalist who also writes for The Sunday Times (UK)The Sunday Times (UK)The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded... - Joanna BlythmanJoanna BlythmanJoanna Blythman is a British investigative food journalist and writer and a commentator on the British food chain, covering subjects as diverse as salmon farming, supermarkets, intensive pineapple production, bird flu and the causes of obesity....
- food activist - Raoul VaneigemRaoul VaneigemRaoul Vaneigem is a Belgian writer and philosopher. He was born in Lessines . After studying romance philology at the Free University of Brussels from 1952 to 1956, he participated in the Situationist International from 1961 to 1970...
- Situationist theorist - Chris DonaldChris DonaldChris Donald is the founder of, and one of the principal contributors to, the British comic magazine Viz...
- Viz comic founder - Jay GriffithsJay GriffithsJay Griffiths is an award-winning British writer and author of Wild: An Elemental Journey, Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time, Anarchipelago and A Love Letter from a Stray Moon.Biography=...
- author - Penny RimbaudPenny RimbaudJeremy John Ratter , better known under his pseudonym of Penny Rimbaud, is a drummer, writer, poet, former member of performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and co-founder of the anarchist punk band Crass with Steve Ignorant in 1977.-Biography:Rimbaud Jeremy John Ratter (born 8 June 1943,...
- former CrassCrassCrass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
drummer and spokesperson - Chris YatesChris YatesChris Yates was an Australian rugby league player for the Western Suburbs Magpies in the National Rugby League.-References:...
- anglerAnglingAngling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...
and teaTeaTea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
enthusiast
- Pete DohertyPete DohertyPeter Doherty is an English musician, writer, actor, poet and artist. He is best known musically for being co-frontman of The Libertines, which he reformed with Carl Barât in 2010. His other musical project is indie band Babyshambles...
- former member of The LibertinesThe LibertinesThe Libertines were an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barât and Pete Doherty . The band, centred on the song-writing partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall and Gary Powell for most of its recording career...
; currently fronts BabyshamblesBabyshamblesBabyshambles are an English indie rock band established in London. The band was formed by Pete Doherty during a hiatus from his former band The Libertines, but Babyshambles has since become his main project . Babyshambles has released two albums, three EPs and a number of singles... - Bill OddieBill OddieWilliam "Bill" Edgar Oddie OBE is an English author, actor, comedian, artist, naturalist and musician, who became famous as one of The Goodies....
- comedian and wildlife expert - Nicholas BlincoeNicholas BlincoeNicholas Blincoe is an English author, critic and screenwriter. He is the author of six novels, Acid Casuals , Jello Salad , Manchester Slingback , The Dope Priest , White Mice , Burning Paris...
- British novelist - Alex JamesAlex James (musician)Professionally known as Alex James is an English musician, songwriter, journalist and cheesemaker. He is best known as the bass player and occasional vocalist of band Blur...
- of BlurBlur (band)Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing... - Patrick MoorePatrick MooreSir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS is a British amateur astronomer who has attained prominent status in astronomy as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter of the subject, and who is credited as having done more than any other person to raise the profile of...
- astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using... - Mark Manning - formerly of Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction
- Bill DrummondBill DrummondWilliam Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer and record producer. He was the co-founder of late 1980s avant-garde pop group The KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he burned a million pounds in 1994...
- of The KLFThe KLFThe KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s.... - Ben Moor - writer and actor
- Tony WhiteTony White (writer)Tony White is an English novelist and journalist.White first published pulp novels, such as Road Rage! , Satan! Satan! Satan! , and Charlie Uncle Norfolk Tango . He also acted as editor of the Britpulp! anthology...
- writer and Idler literary editor - Alain de BottonAlain de BottonAlain de Botton is a Swiss writer, television presenter, and entrepreneur, resident in the UK.His books and television programs discuss various contemporary subjects and themes in a philosophical style, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. In August 2008, he was a founding member...
- philosophy writer - Adam and JoeAdam and JoeAdam Buxton and Joe Cornish are British comedy performers known together as Adam and Joe. They are best known for presenting Adam and Joe on BBC 6 Music, and The Adam and Joe Show on Channel 4 from 1996 to 2001.-History:...
- comedy performers - Matt BullenMatt BullenMatt Bullen is an English writer and polyamory advocate. He lives in Seattle. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford and the University of Birmingham. He co-wrote some Family: the web series episodes with Terisa Greenan. He has also written about polyamory for publications...
- writer and polyamoryPolyamoryPolyamory is the practice, desire, or acceptance of having more than one intimate relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved....
advocate
External links
- Official site
- Editor's interview with 3:AM Magazine
- Idle Foundation, an unofficial forum and resource site about idling