‘Forward: Towards the Vanishing Point Boredom’ an essay by Siegfried Kracauer, in his book The Mass Ornament, discusses whether anyone can be truly bored in the modern age and how some can choose to be bored. Kracauer discusses how everything around us contains something of interest be it history, music, a story or lacking any other source of entertainment one’s own imagination. He then goes on to criticise whether anyone can truly be bored as we have entertainment thrust upon us. Therefore is boredom a choice we all actively make. Ironically, he also points out that when we become truly engrossed within something we ourselves become an object of boredom to those around us.

The tone of the work is primarily reflective but also heavily romanticised as Kracauer’s text flows fluently when read and he explains the possibilities of the imagination in depth. The work was written during the 1920’s a period of social revolution driven by the rise of technology into the everyday life. Among the first to reflect on modernity his work continues to be important today as technology becomes increasingly integrated into our lives and media forces entertainment and happiness onto us daily.

The work is best summarised when Kracauer states, ‘And even if one perhaps isn’t interested in it, the world itself is much too interested for one to find the peace and quiet necessary to be as thoroughly bored with the world as it ultimately deserves.’ (Kracauer, 1995, p.332)

Bibliography

Kracauer, S. and Levin, T. (1995). The Mass Ornament. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, pp.329-334