Research Catalog
Embracing the ordinary : lessons from the champions of everyday life
- Title
- Embracing the ordinary : lessons from the champions of everyday life / Michael Foley.
- Author
- Foley, Michael, 1947-
- Publication
- London : Simon & Schuster, 2012.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFD 12-5962 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Description
- 327 p.; 22 cm.
- Summary
- "Nothing is less known than what seems familiar. The ordinary is always the exceptional in disguise. Everything happens when nothing is happening. It has always been difficult to appreciate everyday life, often devalued as dreary, banal and burdensome, and never more so than in a culture besotted with fantasy, celebrity and glamour. Yet many writers and artists have celebrated the ordinary, and many philosophers have explained the rewards of paying attention to the here and now. With characteristic will and earthiness, Michael Foley -- author of bestseller 'The Age of Absurdity' -- draws on the work of 'champions of the ordinary', such as James Joyce and Marcel Proust, to encourage delight in the oddity of the everyday world. With astute observation and subversive glee, Foley relishes such things as the banality of everyday speech, the complexity of everyday psychology, the marvels of consciousness and memory, the ludicrousness of snobbery, love and sex, and the pleasures of the everyday environments of city, office and home. It is all more fascinating, comical and mysterious than you think"--Publisher's description, back cover.
- Alternative Title
- Lessons from the champions of everyday life
- Subjects
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- 1. The significance of the insignificant. All aboard the Orient Express! ; The high priests of low life -- 2. The Holy Trinity of re-enchantment. Losing the plot : the imaginative vision ; Getting the joke : the comic vision ; Consecrating the commonplace : the spiritual vision -- 3. What we say and what we do. The opera of everyday speech ; The masquerade of everyday behaviour -- 4. The everyday self. The miracle of consciousness and memory ; The madness of status and snobbery ; The weirdness of love and sex -- 5. The everyday environment. The city ; The office ; Home -- 6. The Centre for the Appreciation of Everyday life. The Centre for the Appreciation of Everyday Life.
- Call Number
- JFD 12-5962
- ISBN
- 9781849839129 (pbk.)
- 1849839123 (pbk.)
- OCLC
- 780335311
- Author
- Foley, Michael, 1947-
- Title
- Embracing the ordinary : lessons from the champions of everyday life / Michael Foley.
- Imprint
- London : Simon & Schuster, 2012.
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Research Call Number
- JFD 12-5962