Against Interpretation
"'Against Interpretation' was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and is a modern classic. Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. It includes some of Sontag's best-known works, among them "On Style", "Notes on 'Camp", and the titular essay "Against Interpretation", where Sontag argues that modern cultural conditions have given way to a new critical approach to aesthetics."
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1recommend
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3people
2013–2026years
33% recommend67% neutral
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What Hacker News says
- If you enjoyed this you will probably enjoy Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag[0]. Great piece that discusses why and how art moves us and pushes back a bit against the idea that is presented in this post that real art is art you can ask questions about and get answers from. I think most people including the author can recognize impactful art is more than just being able to get your 'why' questions answered (some might claim modern art is about challenging these assumptions), but it is even more difficult to talk about that concept without sounding extremely snobby, and Sontag has the credentials / writing skills to discuss it well.
- There's a fantastic series of podcasts on great essays by David Runciman from the London Review of Books, which aren't always the ones you'd expect given the authors:
Michel de Montaigne, "Essays": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
David Hume, "Of Public Credit:": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One’s Own": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
George Orwell, "The Lion and the Unicorn": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
Simone Weil, "Human Personality": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
Susan Sontag, "Against Interpretation": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
Joan Didion, "The White Album": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
David Foster Wallace, "Up, Simba!": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
Umberto Eco, "Thoughts on Wikileaks": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
Ta-Nehisi Coates, "The Case for Reparations": https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/history-o...
- Susan Sontag wrote a famous essay in 1966 about this: "Against Interpretation" [1], arguing exactly the same thing as OP's link does:
>Sontag is strongly averse to what she considers to be contemporary interpretation, that is, an overabundance of importance placed upon the content or meaning of an artwork rather than being keenly alert to the sensuous aspects of a given work and developing a descriptive vocabulary for how it appears and how it does whatever it does.
and
>Sontag asserts that the modern style is quite harmful; to art and to audiences alike, enforcing hermeneutics- fallacious, complicated “readings” that seem to engulf an artwork, to the extent that analysis of content begins to degrade, to destroy. Reverting back to a more primitive and sensual, almost magical experience of art is what Sontag desires
Edit: You can read the whole thing here: http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/sontag-againstinterpretatio...
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