You don't really care what the preoccupations are, you just want to be with this voice.
It's a subjective undertaking, guided partly by whims, current preoccupations and you-have-to-include-this mandates from friends.
Out of all this multifariousness and Pop-Surrealist wackiness, however, there does emerge a certain thematic preoccupation, which you might describe as the gap between the mundane and the transcendental.
Let It Follow You" (Preoccupations, Sept. 30), Cal Newport observed that while we are constantly advised to follow our true calling in life, many of us find our sense of fulfillment only over time, as we grow in our work.
In fact, the audience is anything but this — it's actually made up of many different individuals, all of which have their own internal motives and preoccupations (just like you!) Some of the people in the audience may be thinking about their own problems or simply daydreaming while you give your speech.
Again, it's really important from a feminist point of view – you can see my preoccupation, can't you?
If you were trying to design a product that satisfied the social preoccupations of the moment, you couldn't have done better than to come up with a hen.
Kate Ellis, the acerbic-tongued writer from whom Daniel is estranged, sums up Daniel's preoccupation with Iris: "You always wanted to be black, and now you've figured out a way to be black by proxy".
In his office behind Fifteen in Islington, among a creative-looking jumble of current preoccupations, page proofs, thank-you letters, magazine covers and plans for his next book (of 15-minute suppers), he smiles at the idea that any of what he does is really planned.
It is more like reading a collection of poems or stories, the deep preoccupations becoming clear as you proceed.
