Where the Stress Falls

Rating:
Summary: Vintage Sontag
Review: Bravo Susan Sontag- great book, greater writer - her stature is directly proportional to the lengths her critics have gone to character-assassinate her. I now will buy the book! No, I'll buy two.

Rating:
Summary: I'm shocked and astonished.....
Review: I'm shocked and astonished at the level of vitriol doled out to Susan Sontag by the other reviewers on this page - not because of the contents of her book, but because she voiced a certain dissent to the war-mongering and empty-headed patriotism currently sweeping the United States. Now, I'm not a great Sontag fan, and this book is a fairly insubstantial gathering of reviews and prefaces in no way comparable to her previous essays, which are certainly worth reading. But she spoke bravely against the prevailing mood, and if that isn't tolerated and respected.... well, Bin Laden's won.

Rating:
Summary: 'Nothing new except language, the ever found...'
Review: My favorite piece in this book is 'Answers to a Questionnaire'-- vintage Sontag-- thinking, witnessing, and finally enlightening everything she must. Despite the self-loathing revealed by a number of American reviewers below who show themselves apparently ready to detest integrity itself, the naked truth comes clear and comes clear! Clear thinking may yet be the last frontier! A worthy argument for such is surely made in the pages of this book. It is even for those who are spiteful without cause to discover themselves lurking in the heart of this book, grevious as ignorance is, & wretched as spite becomes in the end. Listen-- vitriolic political sideswiping is as American as dumplings. Sontag, characteristically and sympathetically, not only notes its irrevelance, but conjures an antidote called moral patience, so no wonder all the shouts and curses against her! Making certain their own avenues of self-discovery venture nothing wiser than a hepped up, but sunless, hyper-nationalism wretchedly disguised as patriotism, it's unfortunately not surprising the chorus of disappoval this woman engenders. Thank goodness Sontag remains preoccupied with her Art!-- a living, teaching, redemptive art burnished, by now, to an holistic glow, as every page of this book bears witness. What in the world are you talking about??! -- SUSAN SONTAG IS AMERICAN TO THE CORE! I reckon that aspect of her identity contributes as much as any other of her native gifts to the beauty and usefulness of her art. Wake up, people!