Sontag v Chomsky

[Justin Schwartz]

She made a splash in the late 60s with a now-forgotten--I don't say justly 
or otherwise, because I've forgotten it too--essay called "Against 
Interpretation," which had some vogue in literary studies. She wrote a book 
I liked called Illness as Metaphor, Marta might have something to say about 
that. She wrotea  number of opaque novels reviewed in The New York Review of 
Each Other's Books. I tried to read Death Kit once and got bored, but I 
don't like experimental novels ghenerally, even MAsterpieces like Finnegan's 
Wake. Sontag is certainly the archetype of that kind of figure that Johanna 
mentions, but that's not necessarily a criticism. Said is as well. What's 
wrong with being angst-filled, doubt-torn, and anguished? I like, for 
example, Cockburn, but his robust, doubt-free dogmatism makes one appreciate 
the hair tearing on the Sontag/Said type. The quote about "but not for us" 
is from Kafka; I used in in a paper on justice and progress, and the 
reference of the "us" was the subordinate groups struggling against 
domination. jks


>
>
>From Salon:
>
>Q : How do you differ from Chomsky?
>
>Sontag : First of all, I'll take the American empire any day over the 
>empire
>of what my pal Chris Hitchens calls "Islamic fascism."
>
>
>
>Unlike Chomsky, whose made it known he thinks the Taliban is tops!  Ok,
>Susan.  I have to say I have no idea why this woman is famous or regarded 
>as
>an intellectual.
>
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