Critics on Criticism: Susan Sontag
From title essay of Against Interpretation:
What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more.
Our task is not to find the maximum amount of content in a work of art, much less to squeeze more content out of the work than is already there. Our task is to cut back content so that we can see the thing at all.
The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art–and, by analogy–our own experience–more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.
In place of hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.
Tags: susan sontag
Yes.
Yes.
I don’t get it.
I don’t get it.
heck yeah.
heck yeah.
This is hot.
A friend of mine is certain Susan Sontag is waiting to determine his fate in the afterlife.
This is hot.
A friend of mine is certain Susan Sontag is waiting to determine his fate in the afterlife.
nb emphasis Sontag’s
nb emphasis Sontag’s
we’d do well if sontag determined our fate in _this_ life
I like this idea of erotics ~ in, as, of ~ art.
Want, need, like hermeneutics? Fine. Don’t? That’s fine too.
Set your own boundaries and limits.
Interesting post.
we’d do well if sontag determined our fate in _this_ life
I like this idea of erotics ~ in, as, of ~ art.
Want, need, like hermeneutics? Fine. Don’t? That’s fine too.
Set your own boundaries and limits.
Interesting post.
Try looking up “hermeneutics.”
Try looking up “hermeneutics.”
Beautiful.
Even though it reads more like an erotic pedagogy of art or a pandering of art than an erotics proper.
Beautiful.
Even though it reads more like an erotic pedagogy of art or a pandering of art than an erotics proper.
“The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art–and, by analogy–our own experience–more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.”
I often read that quote to my workshop students in the first class as an attempt to head off the kind of deep, speculative and interpretive comments that have nothing to do with craft.
“The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art–and, by analogy–our own experience–more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.”
I often read that quote to my workshop students in the first class as an attempt to head off the kind of deep, speculative and interpretive comments that have nothing to do with craft.
Hell yeah!
Sontag’s Against Interpretation & other essays should be required reading for all thinking humans. I try to find a way to squeeze that particular essay into every class I ever teach no matter what the class.
If anyone is interested and doesn’t have the book, you can read it online here: http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/sontag-againstinterpretation.html
(I keep meaning to comment on your posts, Amy. You’re doing cool stuff here. I need to get better at commenting.)
Hell yeah!
Sontag’s Against Interpretation & other essays should be required reading for all thinking humans. I try to find a way to squeeze that particular essay into every class I ever teach no matter what the class.
If anyone is interested and doesn’t have the book, you can read it online here: http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/sontag-againstinterpretation.html
(I keep meaning to comment on your posts, Amy. You’re doing cool stuff here. I need to get better at commenting.)
Yes.
Yes.
Totally.
Totally.
Thanks for the link. As a floundering undergrad, resources like this are always exciting.
Thanks for the link. As a floundering undergrad, resources like this are always exciting.