Susan Sontag
Born 16 Jan 1933 · Died 28 Dec 2004
Susan Sontag (January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, filmmaker, philosopher, teacher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; 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.
Sontag was active in writing and speaking about, or travelling to, areas of conflict, including during the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. She wrote extensively about photography, culture and media, AIDS and illness, human rights, and communism and leftist ideology. Although her essays and speeches sometimes drew controversy, she has been described as "one of the most influential critics of her generation."
Source: Susan Sontag on Wikipedia.
Quotes
“The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known. If there were no speaking or writing, there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is.”
Chapter 1 “Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, comformable.”
Against Interpretation and Other Essays, p. 8 “What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more.”
Against Interpretation and Other Essays “War is a man’s game—the killing machine has a gender, and it is male.”
Regarding the Pain of Others, Chapter 1 “And it is not necessarily better to be moved. Sentimentality, notoriously, is entirely compatible with a taste for brutality and worse.”
Regarding the Pain of Others, Chapter 6
Quotes from Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0), chosen with AI.
Books by Susan Sontag in order
Books by Susan Sontag in the order they were published, from The Benefactor (1963) to Notes on Camp (2018).
- 1The Benefactor
The Benefactor1963 - 2Against Interpretation and Other Essays
Against Interpretation and Other Essays1966 - 3Death Kit
Death Kit1967 - 4Styles of Radical Will
Styles of Radical Will1969 - 5On Photography
On Photography1977 - 6I, Etcetera
I, Etcetera1978 - 7Illness as Metaphor
Illness as Metaphor1978 - 8AIDS and Its Metaphors
AIDS and Its Metaphors1979 - 9Under the Sign of Saturn
Under the Sign of Saturn1980 - 10A Susan Sontag Reader
A Susan Sontag Reader1982 - 11The Way We Live Now
The Way We Live Now1991 - 12The Best American Essays
The Best American Essays1992 - 13The Volcano Lover
The Volcano Lover1992 - 14Alice in Bed
Alice in Bed1993 - 15Conversations with Susan Sontag
Conversations with Susan Sontag1995 - 16In America
In America2000 - 17Where the Stress Falls
Where the Stress Falls2001 - 18Regarding the Pain of Others
Regarding the Pain of Others2002 - 19At the Same Time
At the Same Time2007 - 20As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh
As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh2012 - 21Essays of the 1960s & 70s
Essays of the 1960s & 70s2013 - 22Susan SontagSusan Sontag2013
- 23Notes on Camp
Notes on Camp2018