Reviews

Attention Seeking by Adam Phillips

nichecase's review against another edition

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3.0

HmmЃEЂ¦ sometimes revelatory, sometimes good to think with (against), sometimes quite obvious. Still a decent read if youЃEЂЃEre interested in attention, boredom or shame.

thomebb71's review against another edition

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The subject matter is interesting, but I found the style made it hard to get into a reading flow. I was fighting with 5 pages at a time. 

lucys_library's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

4.5

ombudsman's review against another edition

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3.0

Hmm… sometimes revelatory, sometimes good to think with (against), sometimes quite obvious. Still a decent read if you’re interested in attention, boredom or shame.

nathansnook's review against another edition

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3.0

A reframing of what it means to pay actual attention to something, covering need, shame, and basic interest. A lot here can be said about the ways we love, but we ciricle and circle on and on about how to divert attention, direct it in our unattention, and clear up those blind spots.

Today I decided to walk to the bus stop without any music. Just the morning bustle. The carts of carboard old men and women gather with their rusted hands. Cars, the amount of weight in every swish they made to scatter the brittle yellow leaves that pitter-pattered under every tired footstep beneath me. A Honda does in fact sound different from a Kia. Yet through all of this, my thoughts and prayers kept under my tongue were louder, incomprehensible to what happened over the weekend in Itaewon (October 29th, 2022). A crush, 150 youths gone, with all intents and purposes of having a good time. The Twitter footage of girls screaming and people laughing, a combutalted circus of joy and terror twitched my heart some notches faster, I could hear it in the heat of my ears, the cries of mothers, of futures, gone from cardiac arrest.

I think of fake solemnity. The Yoon administration has voiced a cold week of mourning with history yet again repeating itself. Think of the same youths crying and screaming for help from a sinking ferry in 2014. Nothing has changed. How many lives must be lost to create simple procedures and protocols.

My ears prick up in anger yet my heart sinks so low in sadness. My attention is everything, hyperactive, listening to all the voices, all the dead dreams with still a bit a song left in them.

Itaewon, I'm paying more attention than ever. I'm truly seeing how broken the system is. The cracks are there and everywhere. There's a shattering, a big bang that will echo and echo sorrows without end. I'm looking at you, Seoul, wtih all my heart.

emmaroseup's review against another edition

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challenging informative slow-paced

1.25

i can finally say i’ve read a non-fiction. even if it was boring

safairamariah's review

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informative medium-paced

2.75

hanswan's review

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3.0

I found this a bit rambling
however

the ideas around distraction/ inattentive minds were so helpful for me.

minalouise's review

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Honestly a great isolation read.
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