SILLINESS

Silliness is to be savoured. It exposes the cracks in our reasoning, raising a gleeful two-finger salute to convention and common sense. In a world awash with stupidity and cruel politics, silliness is childish, anarchic, mischievous, rude and sometimes shocking.

This delightful yet informative book reveals the surprisingly rich history of silliness, going all the way back to the madcap plays of Aristophanes in the fourth century BC. Medieval fools and jesters, strange 'epidemics of silliness' in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, and the charming nonsense of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, lead us to the often dark and nihilistic silliness of modern times, including Buster Keaton, Monty Python and 'Cats that Look Like Hitler'.

Between 1971 and 1988 Peter Timms held curatorial positions in a number of public art galleries and museums, including Shepparton Art Gallery, Manly Art Gallery and Museum, and the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1984 for study in Europe, and an Australia Council Senior Writers' Fellowship in 1994. Since 1988 he has worked as a freelance journalist and author, contributing to publications both within Australia and overseas. He was editor of Art Monthly Australia for five years and has served as art critic for the Age and Tasmanian art critic for the Australian.