December 28, 2004

Death of Susan Sontag

Posted by Henry

Susan Sontag is dead from leukaemia; the New York Times has an obituary here.

Posted on December 28, 2004 08:19 PM UTC
Comments

The Times obit says:

“Other critics were less enthralled. Some branded Ms. Sontag an unoriginal thinker, a popularizer with a gift for aphorism who could boil down difficult writers for mass consumption.”

What’s wrong with that? You have to be obscure and opaque in order to be a serious intellectual? I’d say this is the Times at its best — snooty and unenlightening.

Posted by Teekay · December 28, 2004 08:42 PM

Regarding Torture:Abu Ghraib

I will link to what I thought was good and important recent work, in case anybody missed it. Sontag and Mailer and Vidal (I am probably missing someone) were the intellectual left of my high-middlebrow youth. I remember some line during the sixties about how people on the coasts who thought America opposed the Vietnam war understood neither America or the war. That gained a certain respect from this flyover inhabitant.

Posted by bob mcmanus · December 28, 2004 09:13 PM

Gd rddnc.

Posted by New Yorker · December 28, 2004 10:20 PM

New Yorker - do you really think (presumably) disagreeing with Sontag’s views justifies making such an obnoxious and unpleasant comment? Think before you type.

Posted by Maria · December 28, 2004 10:31 PM

I found plenty to disagree with in Susan Sontag’s views. “AIDS and Its Metaphors”, however, remains one of the most important books I read in the 80s. And I think people will be reading “On Photography” a hundred years from now.

Posted by Nicholas Packwood · December 28, 2004 10:58 PM

Damn.

Posted by Ophelia Benson · December 28, 2004 11:03 PM

She was hated in her heyday by the same kind of people who now hate Mrs Clinton and for much the same reason. You do not have to “agree” with a brilliant critic to see that she is brilliant.

Posted by fyreflye · December 28, 2004 11:13 PM

The LA Times does a better job than the NY Times on Sontag’s obit - which, I guess, says a lot - about much.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-122804sontag_lat,0,2512373.story?coll=la-home-obituaries

Posted by Bosko · December 28, 2004 11:29 PM

Susan Sontag emanated from the “upper and lower crust” of american intellectualism and social thought. This beacon of light and wit will be sorely missed, especially in light of the “dumming down” that we are witnessing in this society.

Posted by Arthur Durant · December 29, 2004 12:09 AM

The NY Times wasn’t that bad. They phoned Arthur Danto…

(Oh well I shouldn’t say that though, because I haven’t read the whole thing. Never mind. Just a bit of credit for phoning Danto.)

Posted by Ophelia Benson · December 29, 2004 12:21 AM

“some line during the sixties about how people on the coasts who thought America opposed the Vietnam war understood neither America or the war.”

That’s a great line. Does anyone know the exact source?

Posted by Peter · December 29, 2004 01:39 AM

“That’s a great line. Does anyone know the exact source?”

Well it has been more than thirty years, and I was paraphrasing , so forgive inaccuracy.

But I am pretty sure you will find the idea in Styles of Radical Will, the essay “Whats Happening in America(1966)”. I am fairly certain of the book, but there is another essay called “Trip to Hanoi”.

Posted by bob mcmanus · December 29, 2004 02:12 AM

And here is the obituary in the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/obituary/0,12723,1380529,00.html

Posted by i.iordanov · December 29, 2004 10:36 AM

Bob: Thank you for the sources.

Posted by Peter · December 29, 2004 03:08 PM

Another excellent obit in the San Francisco Chronicle: http://tinyurl.com/6qemt
Who would have thought of Sontag as a California Girl?

Posted by fyreflye · December 29, 2004 04:22 PM

I took a course on Ingmar Bergman a couple of years ago, and I remember quite vividly how immensely superior Sontag’s insights into the film ‘Persona’ were to those of any other piece of criticism I read in the course.

Posted by pedro · December 29, 2004 04:27 PM

Sntg wh nfmsl clld th Wht Rc “Th Cncr f Hstr” hs nw flln frm cncr. Th sm Sntg wh wnt t Nrth Vtnm nd chrd n th sldrs kllng S trps, yrs bfr Jn Fnd. M sh nt rst n pc, nd Gd nt hv mrc n hr msrbl sl.

Posted by John Williams · December 30, 2004 02:23 AM

So now Republicans are against vowels? Why? Because there aren’t any in the original Old Testament? Sheesh.

I think Sontag was over the top on some of her Vietnam-era criticisms, but (1) that wasn’t unique and (2) it was a stupid, ill-fought, ill-conceived war. Let’s excoriate the people Halberstam depicted in The Best and the Brightest, not the Sontags of the world.

Posted by Anderson · December 30, 2004 04:25 PM

Brilliant she might have been…but why this obscure hate against white people. The famous line from “What’s happening in America” that the white race is the worst cancer ever upon the face og the earth. How come she got away with this? Consider these words being said about her people, the Jews. That would have been quite a different thing..

I wont miss someone comparing my race with cancer.

/Kristofer

Posted by Whte man · January 2, 2005 03:39 PM

“How come she got away with this?”

Well, this week alone she’s been repeatedly hammered for it.

Posted by sm · January 5, 2005 03:30 AM
Followups

→ Susan Sontag R.I.P..
Excerpt: Ed Champion posts some good links. Maud quotes from Scott McLemee. Some discussion at Crooked Timber. And Kip's post is...Read more at scribblingwoman
→ Susan Sontag R.I.P..
Excerpt: Ed Champion posts some good links. Maud quotes from Scott McLemee. Some discussion at Crooked Timber. And Kip's post is...Read more at scribblingwoman

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.