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Essays of the 1960s & 70s: Against Interpretation / Styles of Radical Will / On Photography / Illness as Metaphor / Uncollected Essays
Susan Sontag was an incandescent presence in American culture, whether as essayist, fiction writer, filmmaker, or political activist. As a critic, she became the most provocative and influential voice of her time. More than a commentator on her era, she helped shape it. This volume brings together four essential works of the 1960s and 70s, books whose intelligence and brilliant style confirm her credo that “the highest duty of a writer is to write well—to leave the language in better rather than worse shape after one’s passage…Language is the body, and also the soul, of consciousness.”
With the publication of her first collection of critical essays, Against Interpretation (1966), Sontag took her place at the forefront of a period of cultural and political transformation. “What is important now,” she wrote, “is to recover our senses…In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.” Against Interpretation’s treatment of an astonishing range of subjects—camp sensibility, the films of Robert Bresson and Alain Resnais, the aesthetics of science-fiction and “happenings,” the work of such modern thinkers as Simone Weil and Antonin Artaud, Michel Leiris and Claude Lévi-Strauss—reveals Sontag as a catalyzing figure who opened provocative perspectives on every subject she addressed.
In Styles of Radical Will (1969), Sontag collected two of her longest and most ambitious essays, “The Aesthetics of Silence” and “The Pornographic Imagination,” along with penetrating studies of Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, and the Romanian philosopher E. M. Cioran (one of many important modern writers Sontag introduced to American readers), and “Trip to Hanoi,” the record of a journey made at the height of the Vietnam War, reflecting both her deepening political involvement and the relentless analysis of her own motives that accompanied it.
On Photography (1977) began as a review of an exhibit of Diane Arbus photographs and quickly evolved into an extended meditation on the premises and implications of photography as an art. Dazzlingly suggestive on every page, restlessly refusing to fall back on easy resolutions, it shows Sontag at the peak of her ability to connect disparate fields of thought and action, bringing aesthetics, history, politics, and philosophy into a common vision.
Sontag’s own medical crisis led her to write Illness as Metaphor (1978), undoubtedly the most influential of her writings. Her precise delineation of the stereotypes and fantasies attached to illnesses—here, tuberculosis and cancer—played a major part in realizing her stated goal: “an elucidation of those metaphors, and a liberation from them.” The courage and clarity of her writing, her impatience with lazy assumptions and inherited biases, are evident on every page.
This volume also includes six previously uncollected essays—studies of William S. Burroughs and the painter Francis Bacon, and a series of reflections on beauty, aging, and the emerging feminist movement—along with a chronology of Sontag’s life and explanatory notes.
With the publication of her first collection of critical essays, Against Interpretation (1966), Sontag took her place at the forefront of a period of cultural and political transformation. “What is important now,” she wrote, “is to recover our senses…In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.” Against Interpretation’s treatment of an astonishing range of subjects—camp sensibility, the films of Robert Bresson and Alain Resnais, the aesthetics of science-fiction and “happenings,” the work of such modern thinkers as Simone Weil and Antonin Artaud, Michel Leiris and Claude Lévi-Strauss—reveals Sontag as a catalyzing figure who opened provocative perspectives on every subject she addressed.
In Styles of Radical Will (1969), Sontag collected two of her longest and most ambitious essays, “The Aesthetics of Silence” and “The Pornographic Imagination,” along with penetrating studies of Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, and the Romanian philosopher E. M. Cioran (one of many important modern writers Sontag introduced to American readers), and “Trip to Hanoi,” the record of a journey made at the height of the Vietnam War, reflecting both her deepening political involvement and the relentless analysis of her own motives that accompanied it.
On Photography (1977) began as a review of an exhibit of Diane Arbus photographs and quickly evolved into an extended meditation on the premises and implications of photography as an art. Dazzlingly suggestive on every page, restlessly refusing to fall back on easy resolutions, it shows Sontag at the peak of her ability to connect disparate fields of thought and action, bringing aesthetics, history, politics, and philosophy into a common vision.
Sontag’s own medical crisis led her to write Illness as Metaphor (1978), undoubtedly the most influential of her writings. Her precise delineation of the stereotypes and fantasies attached to illnesses—here, tuberculosis and cancer—played a major part in realizing her stated goal: “an elucidation of those metaphors, and a liberation from them.” The courage and clarity of her writing, her impatience with lazy assumptions and inherited biases, are evident on every page.
This volume also includes six previously uncollected essays—studies of William S. Burroughs and the painter Francis Bacon, and a series of reflections on beauty, aging, and the emerging feminist movement—along with a chronology of Sontag’s life and explanatory notes.
875 pages, Hardcover
First published September 26, 2013
52 people are currently reading
1528 people want to read
About the author
Susan Sontag
236 books5,553 followersSusan Sontag was born in New York City on January 16, 1933, grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and attended high school in Los Angeles. She received her B.A. from the College of the University of Chicago and did graduate work in philosophy, literature, and theology at Harvard University and Saint Anne’s College, Oxford.
Her books include four novels, The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover, and In America; a collection of short stories, I, etcetera; several plays, including Alice in Bed and Lady from the Sea; and nine works of nonfiction, starting with Against Interpretation and including On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, Where the Stress Falls, Regarding the Pain of Others, and At the Same Time. In 1982, Farrar, Straus & Giroux published A Susan Sontag Reader.
Ms. Sontag wrote and directed four feature-length films: Duet for Cannibals (1969) and Brother Carl (1971), both in Sweden; Promised Lands (1974), made in Israel during the war of October 1973; and Unguided Tour (1983), from her short story of the same name, made in Italy. Her play Alice in Bed has had productions in the United States, Mexico, Germany, and Holland. Another play, Lady from the Sea, has been produced in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Korea.
Ms. Sontag also directed plays in the United States and Europe, including a staging of Beckett's Waiting for Godot in the summer of 1993 in besieged Sarajevo, where she spent much of the time between early 1993 and 1996 and was made an honorary citizen of the city.
A human rights activist for more than two decades, Ms. Sontag served from 1987 to 1989 as president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization dedicated to freedom of expression and the advancement of literature, from which platform she led a number of campaigns on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers.
Her stories and essays appeared in newspapers, magazines, and literary publications all over the world, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Art in America, Antaeus, Parnassus, The Threepenny Review, The Nation, and Granta. Her books have been translated into thirty-two languages.
Among Ms. Sontag's many honors are the 2003 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the 2003 Prince of Asturias Prize, the 2001 Jerusalem Prize, the National Book Award for In America (2000), and the National Book Critics Circle Award for On Photography (1978). In 1992 she received the Malaparte Prize in Italy, and in 1999 she was named a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government (she had been named an Officier in the same order in 1984). Between 1990 and 1995 she was a MacArthur Fellow.
Ms. Sontag died in New York City on December 28, 2004.
Her books include four novels, The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover, and In America; a collection of short stories, I, etcetera; several plays, including Alice in Bed and Lady from the Sea; and nine works of nonfiction, starting with Against Interpretation and including On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, Where the Stress Falls, Regarding the Pain of Others, and At the Same Time. In 1982, Farrar, Straus & Giroux published A Susan Sontag Reader.
Ms. Sontag wrote and directed four feature-length films: Duet for Cannibals (1969) and Brother Carl (1971), both in Sweden; Promised Lands (1974), made in Israel during the war of October 1973; and Unguided Tour (1983), from her short story of the same name, made in Italy. Her play Alice in Bed has had productions in the United States, Mexico, Germany, and Holland. Another play, Lady from the Sea, has been produced in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Korea.
Ms. Sontag also directed plays in the United States and Europe, including a staging of Beckett's Waiting for Godot in the summer of 1993 in besieged Sarajevo, where she spent much of the time between early 1993 and 1996 and was made an honorary citizen of the city.
A human rights activist for more than two decades, Ms. Sontag served from 1987 to 1989 as president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization dedicated to freedom of expression and the advancement of literature, from which platform she led a number of campaigns on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers.
Her stories and essays appeared in newspapers, magazines, and literary publications all over the world, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Art in America, Antaeus, Parnassus, The Threepenny Review, The Nation, and Granta. Her books have been translated into thirty-two languages.
Among Ms. Sontag's many honors are the 2003 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the 2003 Prince of Asturias Prize, the 2001 Jerusalem Prize, the National Book Award for In America (2000), and the National Book Critics Circle Award for On Photography (1978). In 1992 she received the Malaparte Prize in Italy, and in 1999 she was named a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government (she had been named an Officier in the same order in 1984). Between 1990 and 1995 she was a MacArthur Fellow.
Ms. Sontag died in New York City on December 28, 2004.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 20, 2015
Currently reading Against Interpretation
I've read only Against Interpretation and Other Essays for now, Sontag's first book. I really think some of her material dated. An essay on happenings, for instance, doesn't carry much interest today, nor does the famous one on the meaning of camp. There's an essay on religious fervor called "Pity Without Content" which addresses the issue lacking our more passionate perspective 50 years on. Another problem for me is that much of her work in Against Interpretation concerns European film, art, and writing. Add to that the age of her material and it's not surprising that her subjects are somewhat obscure, a litany of familiar names with which I have no real experience except that I've heard of them. Still, reading Sontag feels like reading truth whether or not it really is convincingly true because she writes so well and so engagingly about her subjects. Intelligent writing, full of ideas.
I've read only Against Interpretation and Other Essays for now, Sontag's first book. I really think some of her material dated. An essay on happenings, for instance, doesn't carry much interest today, nor does the famous one on the meaning of camp. There's an essay on religious fervor called "Pity Without Content" which addresses the issue lacking our more passionate perspective 50 years on. Another problem for me is that much of her work in Against Interpretation concerns European film, art, and writing. Add to that the age of her material and it's not surprising that her subjects are somewhat obscure, a litany of familiar names with which I have no real experience except that I've heard of them. Still, reading Sontag feels like reading truth whether or not it really is convincingly true because she writes so well and so engagingly about her subjects. Intelligent writing, full of ideas.
March 19, 2014
Susan Sontag, I discovered her tardily thanks to his articles on photography. She was the better photograph's critic. I read then other books. I seldom noted such an accuity and smoothness in analyzes. Elegant and refined she makes me think of Jacqueline Bouvier. She met all the important artists and thinkers. Nostalgia on a glamour time.
January 20, 2023
I liked this book but I have to confess I still liked the Styles of Radical Will section best. However, I did like the In Plato's Cave essay in the On Photography section and the William Burroughs and the Novel essay in the Uncollected Essays section. I did feel after first reading Styles Of Radical Will that Susan Sontag tends to overstay her welcome and often puts in more material than necessary in her essays. It's the same with this book but at least I somewhat expected it, so not that much of a drawback.
Overall, I liked it, took a while to read through but I'm not afraid of tackling tomes with a high page count. My favorite bits are the aforementioned Radical Will section and a section in the In Plato's Cave essay I found particularly profound and very applicable to today's world of smartphone optics. It's on pages 534 and 535 and the central point I grasped onto was:
A photograph is not just the result of an encounter between an event and a photographer; picture-taking is an event in itself, and one with ever more peremptory rights - to interfere with, to invade, or to ignore whatever is going on.
All said, I would recommend this one to someone who wants a reader of Susan Sontag essays otherwise, not so much.
October 22, 2021
Sontag's genius grows with every reread.
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April 7, 2021Susan Sontag's masterful use of words makes thinking such a easy task. My favourite selections:
I want to describe, not what it is really like to emigrate to the kingdom of the ill and live there, but the punitive or sentimental fantasies concocted about that situation: not real geography, but stereotypes of national character. My subject is not physical illness itself but the uses of illness as a figure or metaphor. My point is that illness is not a metaphor, and that the most truthful way of regarding illness—and the healthiest way of being ill—is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking. Yet it is hardly possible to take up one's residence in the kingdom of the ill unprejudiced by the lurid metaphors with which it has been landscaped. It is toward and elucidation of those metaphors, and a liberation from them, that I dedicate this inquiry.
(Illness as Metaphor)
Illness expands by means of two hypotheses. The first is that every form of social deviation can be considered an illness. Thus, if criminal behavior can be considered an illness, then criminals are not to be condemned or punished but to be understood (as a doctor understands), treated, cured. The second is that every illness can be considered psychologically. Illness is interpreted as, basically, a psychological event, and people are encouraged to believe that they get sick because they (unconsciously) want to, and that they can cure themselves by the mobilization of will; that they can choose not to die of the disease. These two hypotheses are complementary. As the first seems to relieve guilt, the second reinstates it. Psychological theories of illness are a powerful means of placing the blame on the ill. Patients who are instructed that they have, unwittingly, caused their disease are also being made to feel that they have deserved it.
(Illness as Metaphor)
It is no accident that the feminist critique surfaced in a really effective and vivid way in the 1960s, a decade in which the richest and most central notion was "style." (By the triumph of "style" in the '60s I mean, of course, the validation of a plurality of styles.)
(Beauty: How will it change next?)
I want to describe, not what it is really like to emigrate to the kingdom of the ill and live there, but the punitive or sentimental fantasies concocted about that situation: not real geography, but stereotypes of national character. My subject is not physical illness itself but the uses of illness as a figure or metaphor. My point is that illness is not a metaphor, and that the most truthful way of regarding illness—and the healthiest way of being ill—is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking. Yet it is hardly possible to take up one's residence in the kingdom of the ill unprejudiced by the lurid metaphors with which it has been landscaped. It is toward and elucidation of those metaphors, and a liberation from them, that I dedicate this inquiry.
(Illness as Metaphor)
Illness expands by means of two hypotheses. The first is that every form of social deviation can be considered an illness. Thus, if criminal behavior can be considered an illness, then criminals are not to be condemned or punished but to be understood (as a doctor understands), treated, cured. The second is that every illness can be considered psychologically. Illness is interpreted as, basically, a psychological event, and people are encouraged to believe that they get sick because they (unconsciously) want to, and that they can cure themselves by the mobilization of will; that they can choose not to die of the disease. These two hypotheses are complementary. As the first seems to relieve guilt, the second reinstates it. Psychological theories of illness are a powerful means of placing the blame on the ill. Patients who are instructed that they have, unwittingly, caused their disease are also being made to feel that they have deserved it.
(Illness as Metaphor)
It is no accident that the feminist critique surfaced in a really effective and vivid way in the 1960s, a decade in which the richest and most central notion was "style." (By the triumph of "style" in the '60s I mean, of course, the validation of a plurality of styles.)
(Beauty: How will it change next?)
April 9, 2022
I first heard about this book while ready Meghan's book. "The Invisible Kingdom." Susan 's writing is arresting and stopping in nature. Arresting because you find yourself holding up by the moments she presents. Stopping because she forces you to examine what she has jus written, Whether its about illness or visiting Hanoi. This is a dynamic book. Read it.
March 8, 2025
Susan Sontag's excellent call for an "erotics of interpretation" still holds true. Against Interpretation is an excellent for anyone interested in the arts, literature, or even politics. I believe now, more than ever, we understand the raw, reactionary message of Sontag.
However, as Sontag aged, her essays began to yield to the academic self importance that she initially railed against...
However, as Sontag aged, her essays began to yield to the academic self importance that she initially railed against...
February 3, 2023
An absolute delight to be able to dip into the clear, cool stream of Sontag's prose. This is a collection to be revisited often, as an antidote to all forms of muddy thinking. It is an almost perfect collection, and if only it had 'On Camp' included, it would be, for me, sublime.
September 15, 2024
Extremely lucid essays offering a window into a decade that continues to influence our consciousness. You have to go through them slowly with a comb, but that kind of reading has its own satisfaction. If I could recommend just one to a friend, my choice would be “On Camp.”
January 17, 2018
Excelentes ensayos que marcan los años 60 y 70. Imperdible "Against Interpretation"que promueve una nuova visión del arte.
January 10, 2019
havent gotten to read all the essays in this book but honestly i love ms. sontag so much and her cultural insight is so fascinating
August 5, 2022
Aesthetics of silence? Forget about it
July 17, 2025
Pinched nerve alert aka how many books can i finish before i regain the capacity to walk
November 12, 2013
I generally like reading books by Library of America because they expose me to authors of importance. They generally only dedicate books to writings that have made a difference or are important in the world and I really like that about them. So I knew, before even picking up this book, that the writing was going to be decent and that this was one of those important writers that I should know and understand.
I truly enjoyed the writing of Susan Sontag. She's very philosophical and incredibly challenging to read, which I truly enjoyed. Having never read a work by her before, nor heard of her, I felt that by the end of this collection I had a true grasp of the type of woman she was and what she believed in. I found her essays to be rather interesting and I found myself very curious as to what she would have to say about the different subjects.
This collection was put together in a logical manner. I felt that the essays flowed smoothly from each to the next and that there weren't too many awkward breaks in between them, at least nothing that was terribly noticeable or detracted from the overall flow of the book.
I already knew going into this book that it was probably going to be good, as it was published by Library of America, but it was great to discover a new writer and read some of the important pieces that she had written.
I received this book via NetGalley for review purposes.
I truly enjoyed the writing of Susan Sontag. She's very philosophical and incredibly challenging to read, which I truly enjoyed. Having never read a work by her before, nor heard of her, I felt that by the end of this collection I had a true grasp of the type of woman she was and what she believed in. I found her essays to be rather interesting and I found myself very curious as to what she would have to say about the different subjects.
This collection was put together in a logical manner. I felt that the essays flowed smoothly from each to the next and that there weren't too many awkward breaks in between them, at least nothing that was terribly noticeable or detracted from the overall flow of the book.
I already knew going into this book that it was probably going to be good, as it was published by Library of America, but it was great to discover a new writer and read some of the important pieces that she had written.
I received this book via NetGalley for review purposes.
June 21, 2013
While this book encompasses only a small part of the essays and works written by Susan Sonntag, the part about the purpose of art and the new sensibility seemed to me really contemporary. Unfortunately my vast ignorance in the field of cinema and photography has prevented me from enjoying the essays related to these topics, but even so were very interesting.
As part of his biography then, the use of illness as a metaphor seemed to me the final icing on the cake.
Per quanto questo libro racchiuda solo una piccola parte dei saggi di S.S., la parte sullo scopo dell'arte e sulla nuova sensibilitá, mi é sembrata molto attuale. Purtroppo la mia vasta ignoranza nel campo del cinema e della fotografia mi ha impedito di godere appieno dei saggi che riguardavano questi argomenti, ma anche cosí sono stati lo stesso molto interessanti.
Nell'ottica poi della sua biografia, l'utilizzo della malattia come metafora mi é sembrato un finale da ciliegina sulla torta.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA FOR THE PREVIEW!
As part of his biography then, the use of illness as a metaphor seemed to me the final icing on the cake.
Per quanto questo libro racchiuda solo una piccola parte dei saggi di S.S., la parte sullo scopo dell'arte e sulla nuova sensibilitá, mi é sembrata molto attuale. Purtroppo la mia vasta ignoranza nel campo del cinema e della fotografia mi ha impedito di godere appieno dei saggi che riguardavano questi argomenti, ma anche cosí sono stati lo stesso molto interessanti.
Nell'ottica poi della sua biografia, l'utilizzo della malattia come metafora mi é sembrato un finale da ciliegina sulla torta.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA FOR THE PREVIEW!
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December 6, 2013814.54 S699e 2013
February 20, 2014
Her writing is so real, raw, and in your face. Admire her power.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews