Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Susan Sontag

Quote by Susan Sontag

“The fear of AIDS imposes on an act whose ideal is an experience of pure presentness (and a creation of the future) a relation to the past to be ignored at one's peril. Sex no longer withdraws its partners, if only for a moment, from the social. It cannot be considered just a coupling; it is a chain, a chain of transmission, from the past.”

Quote by Susan Sontag

Create image

Author

Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag

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

You May Also Like

“Fear of sexuality is the new, disease-sponsored register of the universe of fear in which everyone now lives. Cancerphobia taught us the fear of a polluting environment; now we have the fear of polluting people that AIDS anxiety inevitably communicates. Fear of the Communion cup, fear of surgery: fear of contaminated blood, whether Christ's blood or your neighbor's.”

PeopleUniverseChristEnvironmentBloodTaughtDiseaseAnxietyCommunicateSexualityAidsNeighborCupsCommunionSurgeryRegisterTaught Us
Author:Susan Sontag
Create image

“The white race is the cancer of human history; it is the white race and it alone — its ideologies and inventions — which eradicates autonomous civilizations wherever it spreads, which has upset the ecological balance of the planet, which now threatens the very existence of life itself.”

HumansWhiteRaceExistencePlanetsBalanceCivilizationCancerSpreadIdeologyUpsetHuman HistoryEcologicalAutonomousWhite RaceExistence Of LifeEcological Balance
Author:Susan Sontag
Create image

“The need for truth is not constant; no more than is the need for repose. An idea which is a distortion may have a greater intellectual thrust than the truth; it may better serve the needs of the spirit, which vary. The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.”

NeedsMayIdeasSpiritLyingGreaterBalanceTruth IsIntellectualOppositesConstantVaryThrustReposeDistortion
Book:A Susan Sontag reader
Create image

“In contrast to the asexual chasteness of official communist art , Nazi art is both prurient and idealizing. A utopian aesthetics (physical perfection; identity as a biological given) implies an ideal eroticism: sexuality converted into the magnetism of leaders and the joy of followers. The fascist ideal is to transform sexual energy into a "spiritual" force, for the benefit of the community.”

ArtSpiritualJoyEnergyGivenForceCommunityLeaderIdentityBenefitsArt IsIdealsPerfectionSexualityOfficialsCommunistFollowersContrastNaziAestheticsFascistsUtopianMagnetism
Book:A Susan Sontag reader
Create image

“War is a culture, bellicosity is addictive, defeat for a community that imagines itself to be history's eternal victim can be as intoxicating as victory. How long will it take for the Serbs to realize that the Milosevic years have been an unmitigated disaster for Serbia, the net result of Milosevic's policies being the economic and cultural ruin of the entire region, including Serbia, for several generations? Alas, one thing we can be sure of, that will not happen soon.”

YearsLongHas BeensWarHappensCultureRealizingCommunityResultsImagineGenerationsOne ThingEconomicPolicyVictoryEternalVictimIncludingDefeatDisasterRuinsRegionsAlasSerbia
Author:Susan Sontag
Create image