RIP Susan Sontag

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:42 am

An important writer and thinker, dead at 71.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:33 am

She was a real force of 20th Century thought. If she'd written nothing other than ON PHOTOGRAPHY or ILLNESS AS METAPHOR her effect on American thought would still be huge. I highly recommend the latter to anyone who's facing cancer, AIDS or any other deadly disease in their lives.

alexv · Post by **alexv** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:32 am

The New York Times obituary included the following paragraph:

Trough four decades, public response to Ms. Sontag remained irreconcilably divided. She was described, variously, as explosive, anticlimactic, original, derivative, naïve, sophisticated, approachable, aloof, condescending, populist, puritanical, sybaritic, sincere, posturing, ascetic, voluptuary, right-wing, left-wing, profound, superficial, ardent, bloodless, dogmatic, ambivalent, lucid, inscrutable, visceral, reasoned, chilly, effusive, relevant, passé, ambivalent, tenacious, ecstatic, melancholic, humorous, humorless, deadpan, rhapsodic, cantankerous and clever.

Say what?