Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

In the Interest of Boredom

Boredom, wrote Fernando Pessoa, is 'like having a cold in the soul'. Why does it afflict us? And are we right to fear it? John McCarthy gets into the mood.

The Desert Fathers complained of the 'noonday demon' that tempted them away from God. Pliny wrote of people ending their lives because of taedium. But it was Charles Dickens who gave it the name we use today: boredom. He called it the 'chronic malady' of modern life.

John McCarthy explores this most frustrating of moods, that strips the world of meaning and forces us to face ourselves. With readings from David Foster Wallace, Fernando Pessoa and Evagrius Ponticus, and music by Alain Chamfort, Shostakovich and Erik Satie.

Producer: Jo Fidgen
A Whistledown production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.

28 minutes

Last on

Sun 14 Feb 2021 23:30
大象传媒 Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

Touch

Next

Keeping up Appearances

See all episodes from Something Understood

Music Played

  • Boredom: a lively history. Author: Peter Toohey

    Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven and London

  • The Book of Disquiet. Author: Fernando Pessoa, Translator: Margaret Jull Costa.

    Editor: Maria Jose de Lancastre. Publisher: Serpent'聮s Tail

  • Catch 22. Author: Joseph Heller

    Publisher: Corgi.

  • 'In Praise of Boredom'聳 essay. Author: Joseph Brodsky

    Collection: On Grief and Reason, Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (Penguin)

  • The Pale King. Author: David Foster Wallace

    Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, Penguin

  • To the Reader, Translator: Roy Campbell. Collection: Baudelaire in English

    Ed: Carol Clark and Robert Sykes Publisher: Penguin Classics

  • The Sin of Sloth: Acedia in medieval thought and literature. Author: Siegfried Wenzel

    Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill

  • In Praise of Boredom 聳 essay. Author: Joseph Brodsky

    Collection: On Grief and Reason Publisher: Hamish

  • Dmitry Shostakovich

    String Quartet No. 15, Op. 144 in E flat minor (Elegy)

    Performer: Sorrel Quartet (Gina McCormack, Catherine Yates, Sarah-Jane Bradley, Helen Thatcher).
    • Complete String Quartets, Volume 5.
    • Chandos.

  • Iggy Pop

    I'聮m Bored

    • A Million In Prizes: The Anthology CD 2.
    • BMG Entertainment.

  • Lena Horne

    I Ain'聮t Got Nothin'聮 But The Blues

    • The Greatest Fifties Collection CD1.
    • ZYX.

  • Giuseppe Verdi

    Brindisi (The Drinking Song)

    Performer: Focus Music.
    • Italian Flavours.
    • Focus Music.

  • Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jourdan, and the MGM Studio Orchestra

    It聮's A Bore

    • Gigi.
    • Sound and Vision.

  • Michael Nesmith & The First National Band

    Grand Ennui

    • Nevada Fighter.
    • Camden.

  • Erik Satie

    [Pri猫re] Fragment -聳 Vexations - Harmonies

    • Chill With Satie.
    • Naxos.

  • Mariza

    Cavaleiro Monge

    • Fado Curvo.
    • EMI Catalogue.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 5 Jan 2014 06:05
    大象传媒 Radio 4 FM
  • Sun 5 Jan 2014 23:30
    大象传媒 Radio 4
  • Sun 14 Feb 2021 06:05
    大象传媒 Radio 4
  • Sun 14 Feb 2021 23:30
    大象传媒 Radio 4