Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Introduction: "The Need for Repose"

Introduction: "The Need for Repose" This essay introduces the second installment of a symposium in Common Knowledge called "Apology for Quietism." This introductory piece concerns the sociology of quietism and why, given the supposed quietude of quietists, there is such a thing at all. Dealing first with the "activist" Susan Sontag's attraction to the "quietist" Simone Weil, it then concentrates on the "activist" William Empson's attraction to the Buddha and to Buddhist quietism, with special reference to Empson's lost manuscript Asymmetry in Buddha Faces (and to Sharon Cameron's work on the topic in her book Impersonality ). The author, who is also editor of the journal, argues against the effort of some contributors to substitute new terms for quietism and emphasizes instead what he calls (quoting Sontag) "the need for repose." http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Common Knowledge Duke University Press

Introduction: "The Need for Repose"

Download PDF
7 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/duke-university-press/introduction-the-need-for-repose-QG4kaOUfcU
Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Duke University Press
ISSN
0961-754X
eISSN
1538-4578
DOI
10.1215/0961754X-2008-055
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This essay introduces the second installment of a symposium in Common Knowledge called "Apology for Quietism." This introductory piece concerns the sociology of quietism and why, given the supposed quietude of quietists, there is such a thing at all. Dealing first with the "activist" Susan Sontag's attraction to the "quietist" Simone Weil, it then concentrates on the "activist" William Empson's attraction to the Buddha and to Buddhist quietism, with special reference to Empson's lost manuscript Asymmetry in Buddha Faces (and to Sharon Cameron's work on the topic in her book Impersonality ). The author, who is also editor of the journal, argues against the effort of some contributors to substitute new terms for quietism and emphasizes instead what he calls (quoting Sontag) "the need for repose."

Journal

Common Knowledge – Duke University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2009

There are no references for this article.