“Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings.” – Soren Kierkegaard

Boredom gets a bad rap. It’s the thing that children are never permitted to be, and adults never admit to being. Kierkegaard even thought it was the root of all evil, but outside of the annals of philosophy, it’s rarely confronted. Yet most of our technological advances in the last two decades have been dedicated to avoiding it. We have still not managed to cure the big diseases, stop war or get much beyond the moon, but we have invented a thousand and one new gizmos to distract us from these realities. Some alien race regarding us from the outside say that boredom – and its alleged opposite, entertainment — is our central concern in America today, yet it’s almost never discussed.

Perhaps that’s because it is so intrinsically a part of our lives, an understood side effect from the repetition of daily existence. It was also Kierkegaard, after all, who argued that human beings were created only because the gods were bored. So boredom is our stain, our guilt. If we concede that we are bored, are we admitting that our lives are boring? Or, instead of always trying to be happy, instead of wasting time convincing ourselves that we love our jobs, instead of faking smiles, faking orgasms, faking lust, faking interest, maybe if we finally embrace boredom we can find a shred of truth to our lives. We were created from boredom, and the feeling is real.

Robert Jensen looks into the world of pornography, where every possible sex scene has already been shot, and all that’s left is the exploration of degradation.

Last Exit co-editor Keach Hagey interviews Joe Milutis about his short film, The Idea of the South, which focuses on a dead strip mall in South Carolina. An excerpt of his film is included.

Teresa Herrmann attempts to kill the boredom of her job by looking for lunch dates on Craigslist. What transpires is a curious literary phenomenon – and possibly even good company.

After 9-11, New York City cops were basking in newfound popular adulation, but Walmsley Apricot learned that one thing left unchanged was the struggle to make a boring shift pass. Illustrated by Matt Richtards.

Dr. Salem Humaid takes a philosophical look into the middle ground of existence.

—The Editors