Against the Pollution of the I (Paperback)

by Jacques Lusseyran (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Six little-known essays by the blind French author and Resistance leader Jacques Lusseyran, gathered together for the first time in English. Four of the six essays are based on Lusseyran’s experiences both during and after university life as a professor of literature and philosophy in Europe and in the United States.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Morning Light Press (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159675009X
• ISBN-13: 978-1596750098
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #509,476 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #95 in

  Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > New Age

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look at the benefits of blindness, July 18, 2008

By	Kentucky book lover - See all my reviews

Jacques Lusseyran, who was blinded at age 7, speaks in this fascinating book about how blind people can "see" by using their other senses and tuning into spiritual realities. He also talks about the gifts that accompany his blindness. This is an amazing exposition of phenomena not usually discussed (or perhaps even acknowledged) by blind people. It is certainly a message of optimism for them. But it is also inspiring for sighted people who realize how much they may be missing by relying so heavily on the sense of sight. Extremely interesting and insightful.
The book would be best read after And There was Light, Lusseyran's autobiography, which describes his adjustment to blindness, his involvement in the French resistance during World War II, and his survival in a German concentration camp.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Against the Pollution of the I, May 5, 2009

By	Ryan Shaw (monterey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A wonderful collection of six essays by Jacques Lusseyran, the brilliant, fluent, compelling author who was blinded from a childhood accident. After reading the essay entitled "Jeremy," I read it again and again. It's a masterpiece, giving lucid insights into the essence that unites us all. I am ever so grateful for becoming acquainted with this remarkable man through his writings.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read "Jeremy" and "Poetry in Buchenwald", May 21, 2009

By	Paula (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

Like Ryan, I too read "Jeremy" over and over again. It is perfect and the most amazing piece of writing I've read outside of the Gospel of John in the New Testament. That's high praise, but try it! I sent "Jeremy" to many people, along with "Poetry in Buchenwald," also in this book. You can read my "Light Dream" I had in April of 1980 by googling "Ruth Schumeister" or by reading it in the Amazon.com reviews of "Embraced by the Light." So when I read Lusseyran, I KNOW he knows what he's talking about. My life was incredibly enriched by both his books - I can't tell you how much!

He's uncovered a layer of life that must always have been there -- but that few find -- his whole life a "being in/going toward" that 7th Heaven St. Paul talks about seeing and being in when The Light knocked him off his horse and then gave him a little 'talky-poo'! No disrespect intended! :-)

I look forward to meeting Jacques Lusseyran some day, if life is as they say it is! Read his amazing stories!

The only author that comes near Lusseyran for me, outside the Bible, is Varlam Shalamov ("Graphite" and "Kolyma Tales") with his short stories of the Gulag. Shalamov is a poet, and his prose is amazing (translated by John Glad). I spoke to a Russian Jew in Framingham, MA at the pool, and we discovered a mutual love for Shalamov. He said he floated on air for three days when he discovered him, reading, reading, reading! He was able to rib me about the fact that he got to read him in the original Russian! How I envied him!

The ending (especially) of "Peace Like a River" by Leif Enger -- the Heaven sequence -- is wonderful writing too. May I also suggest (corny as the front cover is) "Embraced by the Light" by Betty Eadie (her two subsequent books are excellent, too) and Betty Malz's "My Glimpse of Eternity" (wonderful!) and even what's his name's "Saved by the Light"? All these last three "Light/Eternity" books contain life reviews that are great - not to mention what they "saw"!

Ah, but return to Lusseyran -- he towers, he towers! And he indeed "saw" -- and it was in THIS life!!!