Out of the Ordinary is Jon Ronson at his inimitable best: hilarious, thought-provoking and with an unerring eye for human frailty - not least his own.
Jon Ronson's subjects have included people who believe that goats can be killed by the power of a really hard stare, and people who believe that the world is ruled by twelve-foot lizard-men. In Out of the Ordinary, a collection of his journalism from the Guardian, he turns his attention to irrational beliefs much closer to home, investigating the ways in which we sometimes manage to convince ourselves that all manner of lunacy makes perfect sense - mainstream, domestic, ordinary insanity.
Whether he finds himself promising his son that he will be at his side for ever, dressed in a Santa costume, or trying to understand why hundreds of apparently normal people would suddenly start speaking in tongues in a Scout hut in Kidderminster, he demonstrates repeatedly how we all succumb to deeply irrational beliefs that grow to inform our everyday existence.
ISBN: | 9780330448321 |
Publication date: | 6th November 2006 |
Author: | Jon Ronson |
Publisher: | Picador an imprint of Pan Macmillan |
Format: | Paperback |
Pagination: | 305 pages |
Genres: |
Reportage, journalism or collected columns News media and journalism Popular beliefs and controversial knowledge Social, group or collective psychology Humour |