Description
By (author) Marar Ziyad
Short /annotation:
In an age where our attention is pulled in so many different directions and it feels almost impossible to properly engage with anything, how do we truly notice what we need to?
:
What does it mean to ‘notice’ something? To really see it. In his exhilarating quest to help us notice better, Ziyad Marar poses a deceptively simple question: ‘what are you good at noticing?’ In the process of ‘noticing what we notice’ we re-attune to questions of perception, orientation, and above all, attention: How do we walk the wrong way down the street without being aware of it? What is happening in us when our eyes pass unseeing over a familiar face in a crowded restaurant? Are we looking up into the sky, or down at the ground? And when we notice what we notice, and what we overlook, what do we learn about ourselves?
In a triple corkscrew of philosophy, psychology and art, particularly literature, Marar unwinds the impenetrable tangles of noticing in a world replete with distractions, interruptions and, at times, horror. Invisible gorillas, con artists and magicians are among the unlikely assistants enlisted in the task of trying to work out not just what noticing is, but what it could be; a practice of deeply minded attention, of thoughtful witnessing. In the end, our noticing is tied up with the very core of our humanity – the capacity to connect, to care, to attend to others and the world.
Table of contents:
Preamble
Chapter 1 – What is noticing?
Chapter 2 – What are you good at noticing?
Chapter 3 – On mixed motives and self-deception
Chapter 4 – The attention merchants
Chapter 5 – The morality and politics of noticing
Chapter 6 – Learning from Literature – Nabokov vs Eliot
Chapter 7 – Opening your mind
Review quote:
It”s too easy to coast through life without noticing what you”re noticing. This book will open your eyes – and your mind – to this fundamental part of what it is to be human.
Review quote:
Ziyad Marar’s Noticing is a thoughtful, powerful and bracing corrective, revealing how selective interest can save us from the chaos of the present. Traversing psychology, literature, and lived experience—from the ‘invisible gorilla’ to Nabokov’s ‘cold-eyed’ observations—this is noticing not just as perception, but as something much richer: a morally complex act deeply entwined with our deepest sense of self.
Review quote:
Wise, deft and ceaselessly enlightening, this is a book that lives its own beliefs, finding insight and astonishment in every facet of human life. Incrementally, patiently, it teaches us how little we know of ourselves and our world – yet how boundless our capacity for noticing remains.
Review quote:
Full of insight, wisdom and fascinating examples, drawn from real life as well as from literature, Noticing, addresses something we all do, and sometime fail to do. Who and what do we notice, and why does this matter? After reading this book you”ll start noticing your own noticing. Be warned, this might be a little disconcerting.
Biographical note:
Ziyad Marar is a publisher and author of The Happiness Paradox (2012), Deception (2014), Intimacy (2015) and Judged: The Value of Being Misunderstood (2018).
Promotional headline:
In an age where our attention is pulled in so many different directions and it feels almost impossible to properly engage with anything, how do we truly notice what we need to?
Feature:
Tries to find the balance between noticing others and the world meaningfully and not getting overwhelmed by the world
Feature:
Written in a lyrical, personal and accessible style which enables non-specialists to engage with contemporary ideas and research on noticing
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