Todd Shy at Commonweal:
After eleven years of sobriety are followed by a year of secret drinking, Meghan O’Gieblyn copies a line from Simone Weil on an index card and tapes it above her desk: “We have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will.” This mantra launches an extraordinary memoir that is as much philosophical and theological exploration as it is a narrative of personal struggle. Maybe the most remarkable thing about Will and Attention, in fact, is that psychological and emotional resolution do not seem possible at all for O’Gieblyn without some kind of accompanying philosophical breakthrough. To borrow an image of her own, this book is a winding sermon, not a triumphant TED Talk.
It’s an urgent sermon as well. Through her uneven journey, O’Gieblyn manages to cast a different light on an issue that continues to dominate our time: the matter of attention. Her memoir does not pose a technical question about how attention spans are being hijacked and hobbled by algorithms and screens. Nor is it a cultural assessment of the broader attention economy. O’Gieblyn’s question is moral and existential: “What must I pay attention to?”
more here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.