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moonandmadness's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
An interesting reflection of the use of illness within texts, illustrated with multiple examples across time. Focusing mainly on tuberculosis, cancer, and occasionally mental illness, Sontag helps weave a convincing picture of how and why certain illnesses have gained their implicit meanings through metaphors, and how this reflects back onto our perception of the illness. A dense essay, with a lot to digest.
alexanderp's review
challenging
informative
fast-paced
3.5
This was my first "dip" into Sontag and it was good, but I felt that there just wasn't enough "there" towards the end when it was becoming pretty good, but then kind of died down to end the book/essay.
I do want to read more of her.
I do want to read more of her.
shrutibhati's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
An acerbic critical treatise about the metaphors and misconceptions that surround illnesses such as TB and Cancer, the book was written by Sontag during her first battle with Cancer. Extremely well researched, you can feel Sontag’s determined anger as she analyses various pieces of literature, right from ancient texts to the more contemporary, to show the reader how language has slowly changed to convolute the understanding of horrible diseases much to the distress of the patient.
“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.”
.
.
The metaphors often trivialize their trauma, sometimes haunts their struggle and often places the blame back on the patient themself. As finished reading the book, my mind immediately jumped to draw a parallel to the treatment of mental illnesses today, specifically depression, in our conversations and speeches. Think how often derisive words such as “crazy”, “mad” or “nuts” come up either to insult someone or denote something negative. Their prevalence in our culture can no wonder prove all too consuming for anyone actually suffering from mental illness.
“Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance. First, the subjects of deepest dread (corruption, decay, pollution, anomie, weakness) are identified with the disease. The disease itself becomes a metaphor. Then, in the name of the disease (that is, using it as a metaphor), that horror is imposed on other things. The disease becomes adjectival. Something is said to be disease-like, meaning that it is disgusting or ugly.”
.
.
The work is incredibly important because it offered an analytical angle to examine our beliefs, attempt to remove the dogma surrounding them and urge you to treat an illness from a scientific perspective.
“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.”
.
.
The metaphors often trivialize their trauma, sometimes haunts their struggle and often places the blame back on the patient themself. As finished reading the book, my mind immediately jumped to draw a parallel to the treatment of mental illnesses today, specifically depression, in our conversations and speeches. Think how often derisive words such as “crazy”, “mad” or “nuts” come up either to insult someone or denote something negative. Their prevalence in our culture can no wonder prove all too consuming for anyone actually suffering from mental illness.
“Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance. First, the subjects of deepest dread (corruption, decay, pollution, anomie, weakness) are identified with the disease. The disease itself becomes a metaphor. Then, in the name of the disease (that is, using it as a metaphor), that horror is imposed on other things. The disease becomes adjectival. Something is said to be disease-like, meaning that it is disgusting or ugly.”
.
.
The work is incredibly important because it offered an analytical angle to examine our beliefs, attempt to remove the dogma surrounding them and urge you to treat an illness from a scientific perspective.
juiesmei's review
3.0
A poignant, defiant perspective of cancer (and TB) and its patients by the two-time survivor herself—equal parts sympathetic and ruthlessly lucid—to which I owe a good amount of clarity towards the reframing and the partial demystification of my own illness much later after the fact, though I find, now, it is never too late after all.
readbyabbi's review
3.0
read this for uni, hard to rate but i actually quite liked this even though it was essay-based! really really interesting and quite accessible despite it being written so long ago. think it will be very useful for the course and i enjoyed reading it!