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cally_mac's review against another edition
3.0
"Saint Genet is a cancer of a book, grotesquely verbose, its cargo of brilliant ideas borne aloft by a tone of viscous solemnity and by ghastly repetitiveness." - a great sentence, or The Greatest sentence.
jaredjoseph's review against another edition
4.0
What "morality" means is a habitual or chronic type of behavior (including feelings and acts). Morality is a code of acts, and of judgments and sentiments by which we reinforce our habits of acting in a certain way, which prescribe a standard for behaving or trying to behave toward other human beings generally (that is, to all who are acknowledged to be human) as if we were inspired by love.
j_ata's review against another edition
5.0
Here is where I discovered my model, my ideal: I too aspire to be able to discuss and analyze so deftly literature, cinema, music, theater, philosophy, theory and society, and their countless and inevitable intersections. The celebrated "Notes on Camp" and the title essay are the standouts, but everything--even the comparatively weak theater reviews--are worth reading.
"My idea of a writer: someone who is interested in 'everything.'"
-from "Afterward: 30 Years Later"
"My idea of a writer: someone who is interested in 'everything.'"
-from "Afterward: 30 Years Later"
eekardia's review against another edition
3.0
I don't agree with some of the big points in the main essay "Against Interpretation" but I also kept on reading so it must've been pretty good. Proof that you can say anything and as long as its eloquently written, you've got some good shit.
frazzle's review against another edition
4.0
A lot of this was unfortunately dated and I'm either not old enough or not well informed enough to know the films and art works she refers to.
But the essays I could engage with were pretty spot on. Intelligent, concise, self-reflective.
But the essays I could engage with were pretty spot on. Intelligent, concise, self-reflective.
alexanderjamie's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.75
Sontag’s Against Interpretation is split into two books — there some essays with almost a universal appeal and those which do not stand the test of time. Sontag writes for the 1960s and in this regard she is a writer of the time. Not in the sense that her work has lost relevance but that works she critiques have been forgotten in the public consciousness. In this regard, many of her works appear unintelligible to anyone who does not know 1960s film and theatre.
I think the essays near the start and end of the book retain a more universal quality (On Interpretation, On Style, Notes on “Camp”) which make them worth reading and are what pull up the rating for this review and without, this book would have been unreadable. I will also admit to skipping a good three to four essays in the middle due to the aforementioned opacity in understanding.
I think the essays near the start and end of the book retain a more universal quality (On Interpretation, On Style, Notes on “Camp”) which make them worth reading and are what pull up the rating for this review and without, this book would have been unreadable. I will also admit to skipping a good three to four essays in the middle due to the aforementioned opacity in understanding.