My attraction to Simone Weil’s work is deepening the more I read. I couldn’t resist the notebooks. Her reading of Plato is sending me back to his work, which I haven’t revisited much since my twenties. I’ve written a rather dodgy post on Weil and Plato. I may or may not post it here, but am fascinated by her argument that Plato was deeply influential on the medieval Christian mystics.
I am not especially religious (though not an atheist), but alongside Weil I am enjoying an exploration of much earlier Christian mystics (is Weil a mystic?) like St John of the Cross. So much we simply cannot know; as Heidegger said somewhere, it is quite possible that human thought is at only a rudimentary level.
The other two are continuations of my tumbling headlong down a rabbit-hole propelled by Maria Gabriela Llansol’s Book of Communities. Emily Dickinson’s influence on Llansol is clear.
For whatnit is worth, I would call Weil a mystic.
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Yes me too, perhaps the only one of the century. Or perhaps Thomas Merton and Weil.
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I too would consider Simone Weil one of the few mystics of the modern world. And, like you, I am fascinated by her writing although I would describe myself as an agnostic
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Her writing and life, both so intertwined.
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I just love falling down literary rabbit holes. And I notice that Wikipedia refers to Weil as a mystic, so it must be true… 🙂
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We spent a whole class on Weil in my Spirituality course at seminary, so you’re certainly not alone in thinking her a mystic. I think there are mystics out there than one would guess, and we must be far more surprised when they write than when they don’t.
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Intriguing comment. Thank you.
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