The Power of Distraction: Diversion and Reverie from Montaigne to Proust

From Pascal to contemporary anxieties about attention, we have constantly been urged to avoid distraction if we want to live and work better. But Alessandra Aloisi argues that we are missing the point.Drawing on a broad range ofEuropean philosophy and literature, this book considers distraction not as an expression of human imperfection, but as a creative, subversive, and aesthetic capability.
In contrast to the traditional accounts, from Saint Augustine to Robert Burton, which either assoc...