Simone Weil’s Radical Conception of Attention
One thing I have learned about attention is that certain forms of it are contagious. When you spend enough time with someone who pays close attention to something (if you were hanging out with me, it would be birds), you inevitably start to pay attention to some of the same things. I’ve also learned that patterns of attention—what we choose to noti
... See moreJenny Odell • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
The practice of free attention allows us to take in this new information. It does not eliminate ego, but rather suspends the judgments that prevent us from seeing and intuiting more deeply.
Timothy Butler • Getting Unstuck: A Guide to Discovering Your Next Career Path
Normally, when we pay attention to someone or something, we undertake what Weil calls a “muscular effort”: our eyes lock on another’s eyes, our expressions reflect the proper response, and our bodies shift in relation to the object to which we are paying attention. This kind of attention flourishes in therapists’ offices, business schools, and fune
... See moreRobert Zaretsky • The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas
Consider what is involved when we give our attention to some object. There is the act of noticing, which forms the initial bond between the object and the mind of the observer, and this initial act of noticing can unfold in countless ways. But giving our attention to something also suggests some measure of duration. I may notice something without g... See more
theconvivialsociety.substack.com • The Face Stares Back
attention can also be understood simply as the name for the contact the mind makes with the world, and, if it is sufficiently attenuated, our capacity and inclination to care, desire, love, and act also suffer.
L. M. Sacasas • If Your World Is Not Enchanted, You're Not Paying Attention
