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A review by oboreads
Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser
4.0
A detailed account of a cultural critic who lived with many emotional nuances and personal entanglements. The memoir depicted a women who strove for intellectualism, but failed to grasp the emotional depths of a world. Although I admire all the work Sontag has created and the legacies she set forth, the memoir puts into question the life of a public intellectual. Does being a public intellectual bring any benefits to one?
[How should one live?] "Sontag had always turned to literature, to art, to help her answer this question. Art offered a model of solidarity. But to aestheticize is to distort, she argued throughout her life. And her own life illustrates this thesis as eloquently as anything in her writing. Does metaphor deepen one's relation to reality - or, to the contrary, pervert and pollute it? Put another way: Can Dostoevsky help you get along with your son?"
"Metaphor meant so many things; and among its sinister powers was its ability to disguise evil by dressing it in other names. Thousands of years ago, Confucius wrote that the abuse of metaphor led to the destruction of society, because tyranny began with language. The warning could never be repeated enough. In every generation, it needed to be relearned, often at hideous costs." (685)
"Sontag wrote that photographs allowed reality, including the reality of other people's suffering, to be packaged as a consumer item."
[How should one live?] "Sontag had always turned to literature, to art, to help her answer this question. Art offered a model of solidarity. But to aestheticize is to distort, she argued throughout her life. And her own life illustrates this thesis as eloquently as anything in her writing. Does metaphor deepen one's relation to reality - or, to the contrary, pervert and pollute it? Put another way: Can Dostoevsky help you get along with your son?"
"Metaphor meant so many things; and among its sinister powers was its ability to disguise evil by dressing it in other names. Thousands of years ago, Confucius wrote that the abuse of metaphor led to the destruction of society, because tyranny began with language. The warning could never be repeated enough. In every generation, it needed to be relearned, often at hideous costs." (685)
"Sontag wrote that photographs allowed reality, including the reality of other people's suffering, to be packaged as a consumer item."