Susan Sontag RIP

[Diggedy Derek]

Susan Sontag dies. Only 71, that's quite young for a lot of those philosophy types, who seem to write up until they're 95 generally.

Just started reading my Roland Barthes reader, edited by Sontag with a fantastic introduction that summarises his thought wonderfully.

RIP.

 

[fldsfslmn]

71 is not too shabby, I think. The very act of writing a novel (of which Sontag wrote a handful) seems to decrease the average life expectancy to about 50 - 65 years (and add a propensity for dying in the south of France). So yeah, she's ahead of the novelist curve, but behind the philosopher curve. (Well, Nietzsche lived a good long time, but the last decade or so of his life was hardly productive, was it?)

In any case, the Globe & Mail devoted a big piece to Ms. Sontag's death, which I thought nice. I bought a collection of hers -- Styles of Radical Will -- a couple of months ago, mainly for a piece on Godard. I do like the writing, for the most part, and some of the pieces, like "What's Happening in America (1966)," are definitely worth reading. ("What's Happening in America (1966)" is particularly relevant to today's American political climate.)