[lit-ideas] Re: Simone Weil
- From: Paul Stone <pas@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2004 14:23:32 -0400
>Mightn't one assert, however, that a reader who construes Weil's=20
>"gravity" and "grace" by turning to Newton for the proper sense to=20
>apply to "gravity" is guilty of a willful misreading?
Wilful? NAH!!!. I is what I is.
>Turning to the Oxford English Dictionary, one finds that the English=20
>"gravity" was derived from the Latin (gravis, gravitatem, gravitas) via=20=
Yes, I mentioned this later in my LONG post. You probably didn't read that
far because your eyes were rolling back into your head with boredom.
>Which comment is immediately followed by,
>
>"I. The quality of being Grave.
> 1. Weight, influence, authority...."
Yes, and I mentioned "graveness" as an alternative. I also said I was
"faking gravitas" so I was obviously aware of the possibility.
>Thus it is that we speak of a man or words of gravity, implying no=20
>physical movement toward the center of the Earth or attraction between=20=
By reading her, I think it's clear that she DOES mean "seriousness" but she
is ALSO punning on the word (referring to the fact that the Earth really
sucks) and my ONLY point was that she is unsuccessful because it's just not
metaphorically sound in most of what she says.
>physical masses but rather authority or, minimally, someone or=20
>something that has to be taken seriously, some thing that weighs on the=20=
>
>mind if you will.
>
>Assuming that this first meaning of "gravity" is the one that Weil had=20=
>
>in mind, her contrast of Gravity and Grace simply adds a dash of=20
>alliteration to a felt difference between heavy and uplifting emotions.=20=
I have no quarrel with this.
>So what's the big mystery?
No big mystery. My thesis lies on her ridiculous misuse of the "wings to
the second power" as I explained earlier. It is for HER "wilful misreading'
that my last email implicated that she also misused "Gravity" in at least
SOME of her 'thoughts on paper'. Sure, she's all mystical and intuitive and
all that, but I just think she's full of shit too.
>Feeling pugnacious (in a light-hearted sort of way),
Always good to throw some with this list.
paul
##########
Paul Stone
pas@xxxxxxxx
Kingsville, ON, Canada
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