One can't write directly about the soul

I’m listening to Maria Popova of Brain Pickings in conversation with Krista Tippett on the On Being podcast. Popova shares that, according to Virginia Woolf’s diary, one cannot observe the soul directly—because when you try to, it disappears.

Here it is from Popova's site:

As for the soul... the truth is, one can't write directly about the soul. Looked at, it vanishes; but look at the ceiling, at Grizzle [the dog], at the cheaper beasts in the Zoo which are exposed to walkers in Regent's Park, and the soul slips in. It slipped in this afternoon.

I'm recording this because it reminds me of Robert Pirsig's ide of preintellectual reality.

09 December 2025

Theme

Writing

Mentioned in

Writing as image making
While browsing Meg Miller's Are.na page, I was immediately drawn in by the title of her top channel: Shimmer Around the Edges: Writing as Image-making From the channel introduction, it seems Miller also noticed …
The shimmering
Several months ago, while reading Joan Didion’s essay Why I Write, I was surprised to read how certain images “shimmer around the edges” for her. She writes that she has these images in her mind—where the figure …

References

On Being - Maria Popova

Krista Tippett

Three random notes

Building knowledge around central themes
I am reading Julie Bogart’s book, The Brave Learner. The central theme of the book is to make learning a magical, enchanted experience. To find the joy in learning. She suggests to start with putting the interest …
Conversation as a way to explore connections
I like thinking of conversations from the perspective of connections. When I’m talking, I’m pulling together the ideas that have been on my mind, ordering them in a way that might make sense to you, and sharing …
Heidegger was an early product thinker
I am watching Hubert Dreyfus’s lecture on Heidegger and Being and Time, where he describes two modes of being for objects. 1. Readiness-to-hand (Zuhandenheit): When tools are ready-to-hand, they smoothly integrate …

← Back to all notes