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Quote by Susan Sontag

“Images have been reproached for being a way of watching suffering at a distance, as if there were some other way of watching.”

Quote by Susan Sontag

Book:Regarding the Pain of Others

Work

Regarding the Pain of Others

In this thought-provoking work, the author delves into the portrayal of human suffering in photographs, examining the impact and significance of such imagery in the context of war and conflict. more

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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“And what do I mean by the word 'perfection'? That I shall not try to explain but only say, 'Perfection makes me laugh.' Not cynically, I hasten to add, 'With joy.”

Trying Mean Joy Laughing Perfection Add Make Me Laugh

Book:At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches

Source: At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches

“Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.”

Gun Murder Cameras Photograph Appropriate Frightened Subliminal

Author:Susan Sontag

“One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious.”

Play Serious Frivolous

Book:A Susan Sontag reader

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“Camp taste turns its back on the good-bad axis of ordinary aesthetic judgment. Camp doesn't reverse things. It doesn't argue that the good is bad, or the bad is good. What it does is to offer for art, and life, a different - a supplementary - set of standards.”

Doe Art Different Turns Taste Offers Judgment Standards Ordinary Arguing Camps Aesthetic Reverse Axes Art And Life

Book:A Susan Sontag reader

Source: A Susan Sontag reader

“To emphasize style is to slight content, or to introduce an attitude which is neutral with respect to content.”

Attitude Style Introducing

Book:A Susan Sontag reader

Source: A Susan Sontag reader

“Surrealism in painting amounted to little more than the contents of a meagerly stocked dream world: a few witty fantasies, mostly wet dreams and agoraphobic nightmares.”

World Littles Dream Fantasy Painting Witty Nightmare Wet Surrealism Dream World Wet Dreams

Book:On photography

Source: On photography

“Surrealism can only deliver a reactionary judgment; can make out of history only an accumulation of oddities, a joke, a death trip.”

Judgment Jokes Accumulation Surrealism Reactionaries Make Out Oddities

Book:On photography

Source: On photography

“To patronize the faculty of taste is to patronize oneself. For taste governs every free - as opposed to rote - human response.”

Humans Taste Response Oneself Faculty

Book:A Susan Sontag reader

Source: A Susan Sontag reader

“Taste tends to develop very unevenly. It's rare that the same person has good visual taste and good taste in people and taste in ideas.”

People Persons Ideas Taste Visuals Good Taste

Book:A Susan Sontag reader

Source: A Susan Sontag reader

“The writer's first job is not to have opinions but to tell the truth... and refuse to be an accomplice of lies and misinformation. Literature is the house of nuance and contrariness against the voices of simplification.”

Firsts Jobs Lying Literature House Voice Opinion Refuse Telling The Truth Nuance Misinformation Simplification Accomplices

Book:At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches

Source: At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches