updated 4d ago
Against Interpretation: And Other Essays
A work of art encountered as a work of art is an experience, not a statement or an answer to a question. Art is not only about something; it is something. A work of art is a thing in the world, not just a text or commentary on the world.
from Against Interpretation: And Other Essays by Susan Sontag
Tara McMullin added 8d ago
Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction; the result is a steady loss of sharpness in our sensory experience.
from Against Interpretation: And Other Essays by Susan Sontag
Tara McMullin added 8d ago
Style is the principle of decision in a work of art, the signature of the artist’s will.
from Against Interpretation: And Other Essays by Susan Sontag
Tara McMullin added 8d ago
Interpretation, based on the highly dubious theory that a work of art is composed of items of content, violates art. It makes art into an article for use, for arrangement into a mental scheme of categories.
from Against Interpretation: And Other Essays by Susan Sontag
Tara McMullin added 8d ago
Interpretation thus presupposes a discrepancy between the clear meaning of the text and the demands of (later) readers. It seeks to resolve that discrepancy.
from Against Interpretation: And Other Essays by Susan Sontag
Tara McMullin added 8d ago
I have several times applied to the work of art the metaphor of a mode of nourishment. To become involved with a work of art entails, to be sure, the experience of detaching oneself from the world. But the work of art itself is also a vibrant, magical, and exemplary object which returns us to the world in some way more open and enriched.
from Against Interpretation: And Other Essays by Susan Sontag
Tara McMullin added 8d ago
Art is the objectifying of the will in a thing or performance, and the provoking or arousing of the will. From the point of view of the artist, it is the objectifying of a volition; from the point of view of the spectator, it is the creation of an imaginary décor for the will.
from Against Interpretation: And Other Essays by Susan Sontag
Tara McMullin added 8d ago
In a culture whose already classical dilemma is the hypertrophy of the intellect at the expense of energy and sensual capability, interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.
from Against Interpretation: And Other Essays by Susan Sontag
Tara McMullin added 8d ago
In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.
from Against Interpretation: And Other Essays by Susan Sontag
Tara McMullin added 8d ago