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Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag — How I Write

Mason Currey’s recently published Daily Rituals: How Artists Work mentioned the routines, quirks, and rituals of plenty of creative minds—novelists, painters, poets, philosophers, filmmakers, …

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Susan Sontag: Against Interpretation

Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag’s second book, was published in 1966, but some of the essays date back to 1961, when she was still writing for The Benefactor. Sontag had come to New York in …

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Susan Sontag on Style and Metaphors

Susan Sontag (1933-2004) spent a lifetime on writing, art, and the commodification of wisdom. Her moving work, Against Interpretation, is regarded as a quintessential text from the 60s. In it, she …

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Against Interpretation

In reading Susan Sontag’s Against Interpretation and Other Essays I came across this passage on interpretation. Interpretation is a radical strategy for conserving an old text, which is thought …

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Susan Sontag: The Function of Common Sense

I made it through Susan Sontag’s recently released notebooks: As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980. “As Consciousness” is the second of three …

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Susan Sontag: Aphorisms and the Commodification of Wisdom

A brilliant post from brain pickings drawing our attention to Susan Sontag and the commodification of wisdom. As the interconnectedness and velocity of information continue to grow, these passages …

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Susan Sontag: 3 Steps to Refuting Any Argument

Calling to mind Daniel Dennett’s advice on how to compose a successful critical commentary, Susan Sontag offers three steps to refuting any argument, from the newly released As Consciousness Is …

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