The ship of fools, depicted in a 1549 German woodcut

The ship of fools is an old allegory that has long been used in Western culture in literature and paintings. With a sense of self-criticism, it describes the world and its human inhabitants as a vessel whose deranged passengers neither know nor care where they are going. The cultural motiff of the ship of fools- so richly elaborated in the literary and artistic compositions of the 15th and 16th centuries- is (in the ironies plyd at the hands of Erasmus and Brandt, for exemplary instance) a parody of the 'ark of salvation' (such as the 'protectorate' of the church was styled): in effect, it represents the 'false church' as the ark of damnation. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 488 pixelsFull resolution (1569 × 957 pixel, file size: 564 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Teil von Titelblatt aus Sebastian Brants Der Narrenspiegel, das gros Narrenschiff. Das Werk erschien 1549 bei Wendelin Rihel in Straßburg und ist eine Satire auf... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 488 pixelsFull resolution (1569 × 957 pixel, file size: 564 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Teil von Titelblatt aus Sebastian Brants Der Narrenspiegel, das gros Narrenschiff. Das Werk erschien 1549 bei Wendelin Rihel in Straßburg und ist eine Satire auf... Allegory of Music by Filippino Lippi. ... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... For building painting, see painter and decorator. ...

The allegorical mind of the Michel Foucault who wrote Madness and Civilization was to see in the theme of the ship of fools a symbol of the consciousness of sin and evil alive in the medieval mindset and imaginative landascapes of the Renaissance (in the sense outlined above and epidomized by Erasmus's Praise of Folly and Brandt's Narrenschiff, both of which can be seen as much men of the benighted age those guiding lights dawned upon as of the enlightenment). It is instructive to point out here how Luther styled himself after the manner of Noah, building an ark (such as the reformed medieval church was characterized) to save a world submerged in madness. The Historical use to which Foucualts text puts the theme has occasioned much academic debate (in this connection, the reader should refer to 'Re-writting the history of madness: studies in Foucault's Historie de la folie' edited by Arthur Still and Irving Velody), specifically, concerning the literary truth of the myth of the insane cargo-ships of which it speaks; concerning, that is to say, the distinction between imagination and reality with respects to the status of this cultural motiff.

As recently as the 1980s in Austin Texas, as documented by J.S. Bankston, due to overcrowding, the Austin Mental Hospital put people on Greyhound buses and shipped them to other cities (including San Antonio), leaving them in the streets to fend for themselves (i.e. on another town's budget).

Ship of Fools may also refer to:

In art:

• The Ship of Fools, a painting by Hieronymus Bosch
• Ship of Fools (Narrenschiff), a 1494 satire by Sebastian Brant

• Ship of Fools, a 1962 novel by Katherine Anne Porter
• Ship of Fools, a 1965 motion picture, based on the novel
• La nave de los locos, a 1984 novel, by Cristina Peri Rossi, Uruguayan writer
• Ship of Fools, Michael Bedard 1992
• Ship of Fools, a 1997 Doctor Who spin-off novel by Dave Stone
• Ship of Fools, a 1999 short story by Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber
• Ship of Fools, a 2001 award-winning science fiction novel by Richard Paul Russo
• The Ship of Fools, a 2001 novel by Gregory Norminton
• The Ship of Fools, a print by Theresa Pateman, British artist
• Ship of Fools, prints and posters by István Orosz Hungarian artist
• "Ship of Fools", a media art group based in Bristol[1]

In music: Ship of fools is frequently used in popular music. Acts who have recorded songs titled "Ship of Fools" include: Ship of Fools (painted c. ... Ship of Fools is a satire published 1494 in Basel, Switzerland, by Sebastian Brant, a conservative German theologian. ... Ship of Fools is a novel by Katherine Anne Porter. ... Katherine Anne Porter (15 May 1890 – 18 September 1980) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. ... Ship of Fools is a 1965 film which tells the overlapping stories of several passengers aboard an ocean liner during the 1930s. ... Ship of Fools is an original novel by Dave Stone featuring the fictional archaeologist Bernice Summerfield. ... Doctor Who is a long-running award-winning British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The series depicts the adventures of a mysterious time-traveller known as the Doctor who travels in his TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space) time ship, which appears from the exterior... Dave Stone is a British writer. ... The ship of fools, depicted in a 1549 German woodcut Ship of Fools is a short story written by Ted Kaczynski in which various people, representing oppressed groups in American society, squabble aboard a ship headed for destruction in the North Pole. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... Ship of Fools is a science fiction novel by Richard Paul Russo. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Richard Paul Russo is an American science fiction writer born in 1954. ... Gregory Norminton is a novelist, dramatist, actor, and political and environmental activist born at Ascot, Berkshire, in 1976. ... István Orosz (b. ...

• Alphaville
• John Cale
• The Doors
• Dr. Strangely Strange
• The Grateful Dead
• Erasure
• Yngwie Malmsteen
• Robert Plant
• Scorpions
• Secret Chiefs 3
• Bob Seger
• Ron Sexsmith
• Soul Asylum
• Tuxedomoon
• Van der Graaf Generator
• World Party
• Yuki Kajiura (for the Tsubasa Chronicle Soundtrack)

It is also the title of an album by John Renbourn. A now-defunct Yorkshire band were actually named Ship of Fools. Alphaville is a German synthpop/-rock music group which gained popularity in the 1980s. ... John Davies Cale (born March 9, 1942) is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. ... This page is about the rock band. ... Dr. Strangely Strange were an experimental Irish folk group formed by Tim Booth (vocals and guitar) and Ivan Pawle (bass and keyboards). ... Jerry Garcia later in life The Grateful Dead was an American rock band, which was formed in 1965 in San Francisco from the remnants of another band, Mother McCrees Uptown Jug Champions. ... Ship of Fools was released in 1988 by Mute Records as the first single from Erasures third album The Innocents. ... Yngwie J. Malmsteen (born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck, June 30, 1963) is a guitarist from Sweden who achieved widespread acclaim in the 1980s due to his technical proficiency and fusion of classical music elements with heavy rock guitar. ... Robert Anthony Plant (born August 20, 1948, West Bromwich, West Midlands, England) is an English rock singer and songwriter, most famous for his membership in the rock band Led Zeppelin, but also for his successful solo career. ... Scorpions are a hard rock/heavy metal band from Hannover, Germany, best known for their 80s rock anthem Rock You Like a Hurricane and their singles Wind of Change, No One Like You, and Still Loving You. The band has sold over 70 million records worldwide. ... Secret Chiefs 3, also known as SC3, is a group of musicians led by composer and producer Trey Spruance, former guitarist of Mr. ... Robert Clark Seger (born May 6, 1945) is a rock and roll musician from Michigan. ... Ron Sexsmith live in Bochum, July 10th, 2004 Ron Sexsmith (born 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. ... Soul Asylum is an alternative rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1983. ... Tuxedomoon is an experimental avant-garde post-punk New Wave group formed in San Francisco, California in 1977 by Blaine L. Reininger and Steven Brown, two students of electronic music at San Francisco City College. ... This article is about the band. ... World Party is a successful British pop/rock band, which is essentially the solo project of its multi-talented only member, Karl Wallinger. ... Yuki Kajiura ), born August 6, 1965 in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese composer and music producer. ... Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (ツバサ－RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE－) is a manga made by CLAMP which is running in Shonen Magazine in Japan. ... John Renbourn (born August 8, 1944, Marylebone, North London, England) is a British guitarist and songwriter. ...

In other contexts:

• Ship of Fools, a popular UK-based Christian website
• Ship of Fools, an apocryphal medieval European method of dealing with mental illness
• The Ship of Fools, an improv comedy troupe made up of students from Purdue University
• The Golgafrinchan B Ark in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.