[(Glossator: Practice and Theory of the Commentary: Occitan Poetry)] [Author: Anna Klosowska] published on

by Nicola Masciandaro

It is always surprising to discover that the great mystics produced so much, that they left so many treatises. Undoubtedly their intention was to celebrate God and nothing else. This is true in part, but only in part. We do not create a body of work without attaching ourselves to it, without subjugating ourselves to it. Writing is the least ascetic of all actions . . . The mystics and their ‘’collected works.” When one addresses oneself to God, and to God alone, as they claim to do, one should be careful not to write. God doesn’t read . . . — E. M. Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born

Paperback

First published March 7, 2013

Reviews

[Gnome Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

You don't need to buy this book, because the whole volume is online for free at the journal website: http://glossator.org. Interesting if you are curious about mysticism or the question of mystical writing, though much of the volume is routinely complexifying the way a lot of academic/specialist writing is. Maybe it would have been better if Thacker and/or Masciandaro had actually written something for it instead of just editing, and if the idea of 'mystical text' was addressed more thoroughly. A highlight is DC Barber's "Commentarial Nothingness," which deals with the Meister Eckhart and also exposes a more general secret about what writing is in the first place.