1992 Susan Sontag interview

Chris Lydon interviews Susan Sontag after the release of her 1992 novel The Volcano Lovers

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• Sontag
• interviews

[edgegreed]

*it's the Volcano LOVER. Whoever uploaded this sounds about as well informed as the interviewer in this video.

[wgbhstocksales]

@edgegreed That's because I don't give a shit

[logotrix]

Sontag is one of the greatest bitches of all time. She sees exactly where its going here - I notice he is not capable of asking her about her work. But she is being very disingenuous to even agree to be interviewed.

[enhausmann]

xeroxes!

[rscmrsmd]

She's so full of shit. She loved being interviewed by this guy, she loved his questions and she loved her rudeness. She was famous among her friiends for pushing working people around. He should have told her he was a wealthy heir with some time on his hands and was looking for a little diversion from the boredom of his wrap around penthouse on 5th Ave overlooking Central Park. She would have sat upright and jumped to answer anything he wanted to know. 

[happylilsunbeam]

She's insufferable. 

[knightschwartz]

rude

[knightschwartz]

"the white race is the cancer of human history" -Susan Sontag

[ccipollini1984]

man, this must be old1 What is Entertainment weekly doing talking about a serious writer?!

[greatsea]

One thing that bothers me about Paglia (of whom I am a sometimes fan) is that she is always frenetically trying to fit everything into some semiotic structure, often of a literary metaphorical nature. What I can appreciate about Sontag is that she no longer feels comfortable with that brand of intellectualism, or so it appears in this particular interview. Very Derrida-esque of her.

[diffnature]

I also have many interests and most of them have to do with history, cultural history, social history, etc. I'm fascinated by the "internalisation process" in the study of history, how the mind develops a detailed picture of a historical situation. At first you look at the body of data in a rigidly objective way, but then the mind begins to take it in, to internalise it, and it all begins to live in the mind, until suddenly it is like a familiar room you have visited many times.

[ccipollini1984]

As someone who is a writer and journalist himself, i can sort of understand where Sontag is coming from in terms of irrelevant and pointless questions. that said, there are millions of creative people in this world who are grasping at straws to get their name in the publishing world and true talent and still make little headway. The point is, inane questions or not, someone is taking time to interview you and see your viewpoint, so loose the 'tude and be goddamn grateful.

[ccipollini1984]

@wgbhstocksales

clearly