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Since this article didn’t do it (or if it did, I missed it), can someone explain why Susan Sontag is considered an important American intellectual figure? I’ve

by majos 7y ago

Since this article didn’t do it (or if it did, I missed it), can someone explain why Susan Sontag is considered an important American intellectual figure? I’ve read a few articles about her over the years, and the general picture is of a charismatic, intelligent, intimidating person whose contribution seems to be just...being that kind of person, the famous Susan Sontag. Unfortunately, the accounts from people around her have a weird cult of personality vibe that make her seem like an academic con artist. Of course, that’s pretty uncharitable. So can anyone explain some of what Sontag contributed, or how her work has helped you in some way, a specific work of hers to read, etc?

throw1749264 7y ago
Do you have any sources?
- majos 7y ago
  For my uncharitable half-formed view? Sure, though I can only actually remember one [1]. [1] https://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n06/terry-castle/desperately-seeking-susan https://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n06/terry-castle/desperately-seeki...
- PhasmaFelis 7y ago
  Sources for...the questions they're asking?
iron0013 7y ago
Read Notes on Camp. I’m certainly no expert on Theory, but a lot of stuff in there rang true to me. Also, be sure to read the linked Slate article if you haven’t. The title makes it sound like it’s going to be an anti-Sontag polemic, but it’s really not at all. If there’s one feminist author who really doesn’t deserve the usual “feminists bad!” treatment that some corners of the internet default to, it’s Sontag.
- mmcwilliams 7y ago
  Also read On Photography, which is one of the seminal works of American art criticism and philosophy. I, too, before reading her encountered her as a reference more than a primary source and had a vague idea that she was some untouchable academic, but On Photography is one of the great works of art theory in the vein of Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction".
- majos 7y ago
  Thanks, I’ll read Notes on Camp. I did read the Slate article, and I didn’t get much out of it beyond a claim that Sontag, via her writings or just her status as a public figure, represented and argued for a serious approach to thinking about culture. But this conclusion seemed oddly tacked on to the end of the article.
  - ritchiea 7y ago
    Also for many major figures like Sontag their impact is hard to measure just by reading their work. Their impact is measured more by influence on their peers and intellectual ancestors. So if you're not familiar with an entire canon of literature you might find her interesting but not necessarily special.
currymj 7y ago
she was a very good writer. "Against Interpretation" is a reasonable collection of essays to look at and they are mostly pretty accessible.
dawg- 7y ago
She wrote a lot of valuable stuff about American visual culture at a time when television was dominant and just before the rise of the internet. Someone else cited On Photography, and Regarding the Pain of Others is another good one.
thanatropism 7y ago
You will get many glowing recommendations; here's a negative one. Skip "Disease as metaphor" and the follow-up "AIDS as metaphor". Maybe she has good works, those aren't.
wellpast 7y ago
> explain why Susan Sontag is considered an important American intellectual figure ... whose contribution seems to be just...being that kind of person This to me is akin to asking that common pedestrian plaint about art, "Why is a Mark Rothko painting important? Look at it! I could make that!" Outstanding cultural figures are not such because of some specific tangible yield of the _contributory artifacts_ that they leave behind. But rather because of the dynamic/conversational/interactive _relationship_ that they had with the culture _at the time_. Intellectualism seemed much more part of popular culture in her time (60s-70s) than it is today and Sontag was squarely part of that era and the cultural dialogue. It is more interesting to ask the forensic question as to why her essays and speech were as impactful as they were; not "please justify why she deserves to be recognized as influential" ... she just _was_.

by majos 7y ago

throw1749264 7y ago

Do you have any sources?

majos 7y ago
For my uncharitable half-formed view? Sure, though I can only actually remember one [1]. [1] https://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n06/terry-castle/desperately-seeking-susan https://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n06/terry-castle/desperately-seeki...
PhasmaFelis 7y ago
Sources for...the questions they're asking?

iron0013 7y ago

Read Notes on Camp. I’m certainly no expert on Theory, but a lot of stuff in there rang true to me. Also, be sure to read the linked Slate article if you haven’t. The title makes it sound like it’s going to be an anti-Sontag polemic, but it’s really not at all. If there’s one feminist author who really doesn’t deserve the usual “feminists bad!” treatment that some corners of the internet default to, it’s Sontag.

mmcwilliams 7y ago
Also read On Photography, which is one of the seminal works of American art criticism and philosophy. I, too, before reading her encountered her as a reference more than a primary source and had a vague idea that she was some untouchable academic, but On Photography is one of the great works of art theory in the vein of Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction".
majos 7y ago
Thanks, I’ll read Notes on Camp. I did read the Slate article, and I didn’t get much out of it beyond a claim that Sontag, via her writings or just her status as a public figure, represented and argued for a serious approach to thinking about culture. But this conclusion seemed oddly tacked on to the end of the article.
- ritchiea 7y ago
  Also for many major figures like Sontag their impact is hard to measure just by reading their work. Their impact is measured more by influence on their peers and intellectual ancestors. So if you're not familiar with an entire canon of literature you might find her interesting but not necessarily special.

currymj 7y ago

she was a very good writer. "Against Interpretation" is a reasonable collection of essays to look at and they are mostly pretty accessible.

dawg- 7y ago

She wrote a lot of valuable stuff about American visual culture at a time when television was dominant and just before the rise of the internet. Someone else cited On Photography, and Regarding the Pain of Others is another good one.

thanatropism 7y ago

You will get many glowing recommendations; here's a negative one. Skip "Disease as metaphor" and the follow-up "AIDS as metaphor". Maybe she has good works, those aren't.

wellpast 7y ago

> explain why Susan Sontag is considered an important American intellectual figure ... whose contribution seems to be just...being that kind of person This to me is akin to asking that common pedestrian plaint about art, "Why is a Mark Rothko painting important? Look at it! I could make that!" Outstanding cultural figures are not such because of some specific tangible yield of the _contributory artifacts_ that they leave behind. But rather because of the dynamic/conversational/interactive _relationship_ that they had with the culture _at the time_. Intellectualism seemed much more part of popular culture in her time (60s-70s) than it is today and Sontag was squarely part of that era and the cultural dialogue. It is more interesting to ask the forensic question as to why her essays and speech were as impactful as they were; not "please justify why she deserves to be recognized as influential" ... she just _was_.