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15

On style

3
terms
3
notes

Sontag, S. (2009). On style. In Sontag, S. Against Interpretation and Other Essays. Penguin Classics, pp. 15-38

(of a seal or closure) complete and airtight

16

Contemporary writers and other artists with a style that is intricate, hermetic, demanding--not to speak to "beautiful"--get their ration of unstinting praise.

—p.16 by Susan Sontag
notable
6 years, 6 months ago

Contemporary writers and other artists with a style that is intricate, hermetic, demanding--not to speak to "beautiful"--get their ration of unstinting praise.

—p.16 by Susan Sontag
notable
6 years, 6 months ago

(noun) the scum that forms on the surface of molten metal / (noun) waste or foreign matter; impurity / (noun) something that is base, trivial, or inferior

25

any particular morality has its dross, those elements which are no more than a defense of limited social interests and class values

—p.25 by Susan Sontag
unknown
6 years, 6 months ago

any particular morality has its dross, those elements which are no more than a defense of limited social interests and class values

—p.25 by Susan Sontag
unknown
6 years, 6 months ago
29

For morality, unlike art, is ultimately justified by its utility: that it makes, or is supposed to make, life more humane and livable for us all. But consciousness--what used to be called, rather tendentiously, the faculty of contemplation--can be, and is, wider and more various than action. It has its nourishment, art and speculative thought, activities which can be described either as self-justifying or in no need of justification. What a work of art does is to make us see or comprehend something singular, not judge or generalize. This act of comprehension accompanied by voluptuousness is the only valid end, and sole sufficient justification, of a work of art.

—p.29 by Susan Sontag 6 years, 6 months ago

For morality, unlike art, is ultimately justified by its utility: that it makes, or is supposed to make, life more humane and livable for us all. But consciousness--what used to be called, rather tendentiously, the faculty of contemplation--can be, and is, wider and more various than action. It has its nourishment, art and speculative thought, activities which can be described either as self-justifying or in no need of justification. What a work of art does is to make us see or comprehend something singular, not judge or generalize. This act of comprehension accompanied by voluptuousness is the only valid end, and sole sufficient justification, of a work of art.

—p.29 by Susan Sontag 6 years, 6 months ago

(adjective) marked by a tendency in favor of a particular point of view; biased

29

consciousness--what used to be called, rather tendentiously, the faculty of contemplation

—p.29 by Susan Sontag
notable
6 years, 6 months ago

consciousness--what used to be called, rather tendentiously, the faculty of contemplation

—p.29 by Susan Sontag
notable
6 years, 6 months ago
30

All of which harkens back to Nietzsche's famous statement in The Birth of Tragedy: "Art is not an imitation of nature but its metaphysical supplement, raised up beside it in order to overcome it."

—p.30 by Susan Sontag 6 years, 6 months ago

All of which harkens back to Nietzsche's famous statement in The Birth of Tragedy: "Art is not an imitation of nature but its metaphysical supplement, raised up beside it in order to overcome it."

—p.30 by Susan Sontag 6 years, 6 months ago
33

[...] Usually critics who want to praise a work of art feel compelled to demonstrate that each part is justified, that it could not be other than it is. And every artist, when it comes to his own work, remembering the role of chance, fatigue, external distractions, knows what the critic says to be a lie, knows that it could well have been otherwise. The sense of inevitability that a great work of art projects is not made up of the inevitability or necessity of its parts, but of the whole.

—p.33 by Susan Sontag 6 years, 6 months ago

[...] Usually critics who want to praise a work of art feel compelled to demonstrate that each part is justified, that it could not be other than it is. And every artist, when it comes to his own work, remembering the role of chance, fatigue, external distractions, knows what the critic says to be a lie, knows that it could well have been otherwise. The sense of inevitability that a great work of art projects is not made up of the inevitability or necessity of its parts, but of the whole.

—p.33 by Susan Sontag 6 years, 6 months ago