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The Essentials of Style: A Handbook for Seeing and Being Seen
Benjamin Sells encourages a radical departure from the usual introspection and self-centeredness of psychology in our time. By placing style first, Sells argues that we must turn our eyes and minds outward to the greater world. Emphasizing beauty over emotion, and appreciation over feeling, he attempts to break the stranglehold of the self so as to reconstitute our proper place among the many things of the world. From the book: "An old proverb grasps style as it is intended in this book: stylus virum arguit-style proclaims the person. According to this view, it is not we who choose among various styles according to whim or personal preference, but style that constitutes us and makes possible our choosing. We already are before we decide to be, and this immediate presence, borne by the other things of the world, is the work of style.Style proclaims a thing's unique presence, and through its many proclamations style creates a welcoming world in which each thing h!
165 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 2005
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June 29, 2007
Everyone and everything has style by virtue of being in the world. There is no need to go looking for it or to copy someone else. Everything is imbued with style, and, therefore, imbued with soul which is always in style and always beautiful.
The trouble is that one is often too busy trying to figure out what the other person or other thing is all about that we forget to appreciate what is already present. We try to scratch the surface, dig more deeply, and interpret in order to understand, comprehend. Damn psychologists! :-) Bloody understanding gets us into a lot of trouble because what we "understand" or "comprehend" about at thing speaks inevitably more about us that it does about that which we would like to understand, which is always a mystery forever fully present and eternally unfolding.
A delightful little book to savor paragraph by paragraph. A little repetitious at times (must be the former lawyer in him), but some real gems here.
The trouble is that one is often too busy trying to figure out what the other person or other thing is all about that we forget to appreciate what is already present. We try to scratch the surface, dig more deeply, and interpret in order to understand, comprehend. Damn psychologists! :-) Bloody understanding gets us into a lot of trouble because what we "understand" or "comprehend" about at thing speaks inevitably more about us that it does about that which we would like to understand, which is always a mystery forever fully present and eternally unfolding.
A delightful little book to savor paragraph by paragraph. A little repetitious at times (must be the former lawyer in him), but some real gems here.
Displaying 1 of 1 review