Idleness Has Style

Here’s some more from the diary of New Escapologist contributor Dickon Edwards, this time an historical note from 25th August 2004:

I had some actual work due in today. An introduction to a new edition of Jerome K Jerome’s Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow. It’s been out of print for 20 years. The book is effectively An Audience With Mr Jerome and often reads like the transcription of an 1886 stand-up observational comedy routine. One section is titled “On Cats And Dogs”. Jerome K Jerome – the Victorian Eddie Izzard.

The book was written three years before Three Men In A Boat, which instantly made Jerome rich and famous. Idle Thoughts, however, is very much written from the point of view of someone holding down an office day job after surviving bouts of genuine poverty. In the book, this tempers his haughty epigrams comparable with the best of Wilde, with humanity worthy of Dickens.

The publishers of this new edition are suddenly keen to get the book out as soon as possible, given the new trend of Idleness that’s starting to appear in the news. The French bestseller lists are dominated by an anti-work charter, Bonjour Paresse. Italy has held its first National Convention of the Idle, declaring Idleness to be a sign of intelligence rather than a vice. In Britain, Mr Hodgkinson, editor of the Idler, has published a heavily-researched, semi-historical manual, How To Be Idle.

It’s all done with a certain amount of humour, naturally, but there’s some serious points made about idleness as an existential, even political act. In these desperate times of feeling At The Mercy Of Others, whether it’s uncaring employers, politicians or TV producers, a little deliberate idleness can be no bad thing. If there’s nothing one can do about things, sometimes the only option is to indeed do nothing – but on purpose. Idleness should never be confused with default laziness or characterless apathy – Idleness has style.

This marks a special moment for me, actually. It was when I started reading the Idler, catching up — and trying to join in — with that scene. But the reappearance of the Idle Thoughts book probably also nudged me into thinking about a stand-up comedy of the page, leading eventually to A Loose Egg and Stern Plastic Owl (and, one hopes, a third similar volume someday). This post of Dickon’s is a bit smoking-gunnish really.

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Dickons’ Diary at the Centre of the Earth Vol. 1 is available to order here.