I love reading things that introduce me to a new way of thinking. To hold a (good) book in your hand is, as Anne Michaels wrote in Fugitive Pieces, to be ”a pilgrim at the gates of a new city.” Susan Sontag’s Against Interpretation, particularly the opening essays, is exemplary of just such a book.

“Against Interpetation” is an essay presenting ideas which I was familiar (i.e. that certain types of interpretation of artistic work that are still current today are overly reductionist and simplifying, and make the art merely a stand-in for a message), though it sets the stage for the second, lengthier and, I think, more challenging essay, “On Style,” which in a fairly sophisticated way argues that the purported overcoming of the style/content distinction in artistic analysis has not in fact taken place, and that “style” itself, rather than being a merely superficial decoration on a substantive, important “content,” is actually an aspect of artistic works that is consistently undervalued and glossed over in appreciation and criticism of art.

For the rest of my review, see: http://www.lukerodgers.ca/2009/02/sus... ( )

This book makes me think that Susan Sontag was pretty cool in addition to being really smart. She seems to be really interested in certain aspects of culture and themes in art, and then just writes essays on the subject (a very European style of discourse). My favorites in this collection were "Camus' Notebooks" (especially the idea that writers should either be "husbands" or "lovers" to their readers...each category has it's own plusses), essays about the films of Bresson and Godard, "Notes on 'Camp'", and "One culture and the new sensibility."

All of these essays were written in the 1960s, but excluding some of the references, I believe many are still relevant today regarding art criticism. I skipped most of the section dealing with plays and theater, but with a section on the novel, a section on film, and another on broader trends, there's plenty to get caught up in. ( )

I remember when I first read this book it was an old library copy from way back in the mid-60s when this book first came out. On the back was a picture of the lovely author looking all fine and sultry. The essays contained within were erudite and intellectual and made my 15-year-old wannabe intellectual self feel smart and sophisticated. Major crush on author ensued. Only later discovered that the author had been OLD since the early 70s. Sadness. Still, a book for making you feel smart. Maybe I'd have something more substantial to say if I actually WAS smart. ( )

This may be Sontag's most rigorous and important collection of essays, complete with topics ranging from Levi-Strauss to Godard. In it is her famous essay "On Camp," which would later make her a superstar in the New York artistic community.

Sontag is worried about intellectual interpretation, the erudite and narrow approach to understanding a work of art. She calls on us to "show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means." Her approach is far reaching and yet acute and highly attuned to the intellectual aspects of the fine arts.

This collection includes fabulous essays on Sartre, Bresson, Beckett, Lukacs, Resnais, and many others. It is evidence of her astonishing ability to think seriously and with tremendous beauty about that which is most important.