The encyclopedia of stupidity
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The encyclopedia of stupidity
Reaktion, c2003
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
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  United States of America
Note
"Revised and enlarged edition of De Encyclopedie van de Domheid" -- T. p. verso
Includes bibliographical references
Translated from the Dutch
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Matthijs van Boxsel believes that no one is intelligent enough to understand their own stupidity. In "The Encyclopaedia of Stupidity" he shows how stupidity manifests itself in all areas, in everyone, at all times: stupidity is the foundation of our civilization. In short sections with such titles as "The Blunderers' Club", "Fools in Hell", "Genealogy of Idiots", and "The Aesthetics of the Empty Gesture", stupidity is analyzed on the basis of fairy tales, cartoons, triumphal arches, garden architecture, Baroque ceilings, jokes, flimsy excuses and science fiction. But Van Boxsel wants to do more than just assemble a "shadow cabinet" of wisdom; he tries to fathom the logic of this opposite world. Where do understanding and intelligence begin and end? He examines mythic fools such as Cyclops and King Midas, cities such as Gotham, archetypes including the dumb blonde, and traditionally stupid animals such as the goose, the donkey and the headless chicken. van Boxsel posits that stupidity is a condition for intelligence, that blunders stimulate progress, that failure is the basis for success.
In this witty book he maintains that our culture is the product of a series of failed attempts to comprehend stupidity.
by "Nielsen BookData"