Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontagwas an American writer, filmmaker, teacher and political activist. She published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her best-known works include On Photography, Against Interpretation, Styles of Radical Will, The Way We Live Now, Illness as Metaphor, Regarding the Pain of Others, The Volcano Lover and In America...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth16 January 1933
CountryUnited States of America
religious speaks-french views
My own view is that one cannot be religious in general any more than one can speak language in general; at any given moment one speaks French or English or Swahili or Japanese, but not 'language.
self building process
the process of building a self and its works is always too slow. One is always in arrears to oneself.
emotional giving understanding
Despite the illusion of giving understanding, what seeing through photographs really invites is an acquisitive relation to the world that nourishes aesthetic awareness and promotes emotional detachment.
political definitions arbitrary
In every society, the definitions of sanity and madness are arbitrary - are, in the largest sense, political.
stupid wheels breaking-down
Intelligence is not necessarily a good thing, something to value or cultivate. It's more like a fifth wheel - necessary or desirable when things break down. When things go well, it's better to be stupid ... Stupidity is as much a value as intelligence.
spiritual journey voyages
The traditional metaphor for a spiritual investigation is that of the voyage or the journey. From this image I must dissociate myself. I do not consider myself a voyager, I have preferred to stand still.
worship values
False values begin with the worship of things.
wind soul want
I want to save my soul, that timid wind.
tragedy comedy detachment
If tragedy is an experience of hyperinvolvement, comedy is an experience of underinvolvement, of detachment.
understanding possibility ability
All possibility of understanding is rooted in the ability to say no.
ugly calling taboo
There are more and more taboos about calling something, anything, ugly.
views mourning celebrate
What I expect from writers-and from myself as a writer-is to articulate a complex view of things. To incite us to be more compassionate. To orchestrate our mourning. And to celebrate ecstasy.
dream art creating
The "happening" operates by creating an asymmetrical network of surprises, without climax or consummation, this is the alogism of dreams rather than the logic of most art.
memories museums western
The Western memory museum is now mostly a visual one.