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Quote by Susan Sontag

“The ratio of authentic literature to trash in pornography may be somewhat lower than the ratio of novels of genuine literary meritto the entire volume of sub-literary fiction produced for mass taste. But it is probably not lower than, for instance, that of another somewhat shady sub-genre with a few first-rate books to its credit, science fiction.”

Quote by Susan Sontag

Author

Susan Sontag was an American writer, critic, and photographer. Known for her unique literary style and profound thinking, her work spans various fields including literature, art, and politics. Born on January 16, 1933, she passed away on December 28, 2004. more

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“... liberal intellectualstend to have a classical theory of politics, in which the state has a monopoly of power; hoping thatthose in positions of authority may prove to be enlightened men, wielding power justly, they are natural, if cautious, allies of the "establishment.”

Ifs Men May States Politics Natural Position Theory Prove Authority Liberalism Enlightened Allies Establishment Monopoly Cautious Wielding Power

Author:Susan Sontag

“If an irreducible distinction between theatre and cinema does exist, it may be this: Theatre is confined to a logical or continuous use of space. Cinemahas access to an alogical or discontinuous use of space.”

Ifs May Doe Use Space Theater Theatre Access Cinema Distinction Logical Confined

Author:Susan Sontag

“... the place we assign to pornography depends on the goals we set for our own consciousness, our own experience.”

Goal Consciousness Depends Pornography

Author:Susan Sontag

“The freakish is no longer a private zone, difficult of access. People who are bizarre, in sexual disgrace, emotionally violent areseen daily on the newsstands, on TV, in the subways. Hobbesian man roams the streets, quite visible, with glitter in his hair.”

People Men Difficult Streets Tvs Hair Access Violent Visible Zone Bizarre Disgrace Glitter Subway

Author:Susan Sontag

“... one of art photography's most vigorous enterprises--[is] concentrating on victims, on the unfortunate--but without the compassionate purpose that such a project is expected to serve.”

Art Purpose Projects Photography Victim Expected Enterprise Compassionate Unfortunate Vigorous Concentrating Victimization Art Photography

Book:On photography

Source: On photography

“Pornography is a theatre of types, never of individuals.”

Individual Type Theatre Pornography

Author:Susan Sontag

“The fantasies inspired by TB in the last century, by cancer now, are responses to a disease thought to be intractable and capricious--that is, a disease not understood--in an era in which medicine's central premise is that all diseases can be cured.”

Lasts Fantasy Century Disease Understood Medicine Response Inspired Cancer Eras Premises Capricious Tuberculosis

Book:Illness as metaphor

Source: Illness as metaphor

“Detachment is the prerogative of an elite; and as the dandy is the nineteenth century's surrogate for the aristocrat in matters ofculture, so Camp is the modern dandyism. Camp is the answer to the problem: how to be a dandy in the age of mass culture.”

Matter Problem Age Culture Answers Modern Century Mass Camps Elites Detachment Nineteenth Century Prerogative Surrogates Dandy Mass Culture Dandyism

Book:A Susan Sontag reader

Source: A Susan Sontag reader

“Left-wing movements have tended to be unisex, and asexual in their imagery. Right-wing movements, however puritanical and repressive the realities they usher in, have an erotic surface. Certainly Nazism is "sexier" than communism.”

Reality Left Movement Wings Surface Communism Erotic Imagery Right Wing Nazism Left Wing Unisex

Author:Susan Sontag

“Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject.... [The anthropologist] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner alienation as an urban intellectual.”

Subjects Intellectual Intense Fascinated Submit Urban Alienation Anthropology Exotic Anthropologists Repulsion

Author:Susan Sontag