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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
I picked up this short, small book after reading the last essay in It Came from the Closet, which used this book’s titular essay as its basis. While short, this is a dense read, with passages requiring focus to parse and fully appreciate the ideas presented therein; I’d like to go through it again with a pencil and annotate lines I find particularly striking. The book also features a second essay dissecting the divide between the literary-artistic and the scientific, which was an interesting read following the first essay. This book was also a good example of why I find a page goal much more representative of my reading habits than a book goal; this counted as a whole book read, despite only being 64 smaller-than-average pages.
"The discovery of the good taste of bad taste can be very liberating. The man who insists on high and serious pleasures is depriving himself of pleasure; he continually restricts what he can enjoy; in the constant exercise of his good taste he will eventually price himself out of the market, so to speak. Here Camp taste supervenes upon good taste as a daring and witty hedonism. It makes the man of good taste cheerful, where before he ran the risk of being chronically frustrated. It is good for the digestion."
Resonated deeply!
Resonated deeply!
challenging
informative
fast-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Leave it to Sontag to destroy every scrap of fun and joy present in camp. In her hands camp is a withering husk lit by Tiffany lamps and patrolled by Staffordshire dogs. I know she is counted a genius, but as far as I can tell she is shallow pedantic and humorless and her observations range from tortured, to silly, to things that may be true but which I would rather not see and do not benefit from thankyouverymuch.
Sontag says “gay rights!” I like this and how it delegitimizes(quietly, perhaps indirectly) the place of the straight man and his novel in the canon of interesting and notable art. Wonderful stuff! She’s so clever and funny and gravely serious as well. RIP.
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
got great movie recommendations out of this one