First and last notebooks

by Simone Weil

First edition hardcover in very good condition, with unclipped dust jacket in good condition for its age. Jacket is scored, scuffed and discoloured, especially at the corners and spine ends. The spine is faded, and the page block is lightly discoloured. The boards, pages and text are otherwise clean and unmarked throughout. LW

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Religion

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Simone Weil was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist. Weil was born in Paris to Alsatian agnostic Jewish parents who fled the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. Her brilliance, ascetic lifestyle, introversion, and eccentricity limited her ability to mix with others, but not to teach and participate in political movements of her time. She wrote extensively with both insight and breadth about political movements of which she was a part and later about spiritual mysticism. Weil biographer Gabriella Fiori writes that Weil was "a moral genius in the orbit of ethics, a genius of immense revolutionary range".

Reviews

[prashant · Rating 4 out of 5]

she drives me insane actually

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"An official does not neglect God because he is absorbed in schemes for advancing his career, but he absorbs himself in the schemes in order to avoid thinking about God."

[Cameron]

If one thinks of the objective conditions, the transition from our present system to a decentralized system is very difficult – impossible, because it would require a conscious collaboration between power and the oppressed. The powers will take no steps towards diminishing themselves: even if they wished to, they could not, because of their rivalries.
The machine will go on functioning by its own laws until it wrecks itself.
Refuse to be an accomplice. Don't lie.–don't keep your eyes shut. Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast, faster than you could believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink! Good luck.

[Chris]

Im putting this book down for now. I can see reading parts of it now and then, but I can’t see reading it through. It’s not a page turner. I’ve been thinking today: Everyone quotes Simone Weil, but no one ever reads her. Weil wrote a lot in her short life and was broad-minded and erudite. Much of what she writes is based on her studies of philosophies, ancient Greek—scanning ahead I saw she had many entries on the Norse Gods and on astrology.
Much of what she said in the pages I read is complex, or obtuse. I don’t have the head for it. Not now, anyway.
In the first couple pages I did read some enlightening passages (which I will now quote):
“…the transition from our present system to a decentralized system is very difficult— impossible, because it would require a conscious collaboration between power and the oppressed. The powers will take no steps toward diminishing themselves: even if they wished to, they could not, because of their rivalries. …
The machine will go on functioning by its own laws until it wrecks itself.
Refuse to be an accomplice. Don’t lie— don’t keep your eyes shut.”

The first part of this quote is a realistic, despairing, assessment of politics. She concludes, however, that we (I think she was admonishing herself, actually) have no alternative as human beings to witness the oppression, acknowledge it and refuse to be part of it.

The other quote:
“What shows that work— if it is not an inhuman kind—is meant for us is its joy, a joy which even our exhaustion does not lessen…
The workers are reluctant to confess to this joy— because they have the impression that it might lead to a reduction in wages,”

[julieta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading this book on and off for a few months now. And all I can say is that I don't feel up to the task. I am one of those obsessive readers who will try anything, but these are notebooks, and I think they are for someone more knowledgeable of all thoughts Weil. I would prefer to read her as she was published, not as her thoughts came and went. She is an incredible thinker, and I think she mentions God in every paragraph, or at least in every page. She connects everything through god and she was austere and just incredible. I will keep reading her, as difficult as this book was for me. Because I think she is just so unique, this mystic incredible woman and philosopher, whose life was just as intense as her writing is. And maybe when I have read more, I will come back to these notebooks, and try again.

[raysilverwoman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite and revelatory for anyone who has loved any other works by Simone. Technically I am only about halfway through this but I've set it aside for awhile to savor it. A real comfort in times like these.

[Maria Hiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah