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Loading... Regarding the Pain of Others (2003)by Susan Sontag
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. She covers the ground elegantly, in no particular order. Her style is crisp, firm, and writerly, though not without a self-conscious overlay. She has a bit of a diva's pulsating grandeur, but actually she's more like an athletic dancer, picking her spots and impeccably closing in with pleasing quick-step combinations and leaps. She's probably too irregular to be a scholar's expository ideal, but damn she puts on a fine show. Her mind cracks it along like a circus tamer's whip. You don't have to like her, but it's hard not to salute her. no reviews | add a review
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Watching the evening news offers constant evidence of atrocity--a daily commonplace in our "society of spectacle." But are viewers inured--or incited--to violence by the daily depiction of cruelty and horror? Is the viewer's perception of reality eroded by the universal availability of imagery intended to shock? In this investigation of the role of imagery in our culture, Susan Sontag cuts through circular arguments about how pictures can inspire dissent or foster violence as she takes a fresh look at the representation of atrocity--from Goya's The Disasters of War to photographs of the American Civil War, lynchings of blacks in the South, and Dachau and Auschwitz to contemporary horrific images of Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and New York City on September 11, 2001. Sontag's new book, a startling reappraisal of the intersection of "information", "news," "art," and politics in the contemporary depiction of war and disaster, will forever alter our thinking about the uses and meanings of images in our world. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)303.6Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Social Processes Conflict and conflict resolution ; ViolenceLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Penguin AustraliaAn edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia. |
What does a photo communicate? Especially a photo of human suffering, of pain, or destruction? What are journalists and propagandists "saying" when they publish the graphic loss of life, limb, or dignity? ( )