Styles of Radical Will, Susan Sontag
Styles of Radical Will, Susan Sontag
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Styles of Radical Will

Author: Susan Sontag

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Unabridged: 10 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/15/2018

Categories: Nonfiction, Philosophy

Synopsis

Styles of Radical Will, Susan Sontag’s second collection of essays, extends the investigations she undertook in Against Interpretation with essays on film, literature, politics, and a groundbreaking study of pornography.In “The Aesthetics of Silence,” Sontag examines how silence mediates the role of art as a form of spirituality in an increasingly secular culture. “The Pornographic Imagination” attempts to define and understand the genre of pornography. “What’s Happening in America” muses on the state of the country in 1966 when the essay was written, discussing history, politics, and consumerism. Other essays in Syles of Radical Will are "‘Thinking against Oneself’: Reflections on Cioran,” “Theatre and Film,” “Bergman’s Persona,” “Godard,” and “Trip to Hanoi.”

About Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) was born in Manhattan and studied at the universities of Chicago, Harvard, and Oxford. She is the author of four novels, a collection of stories, several plays, and six books of essays, among them Against Interpretation and On Photography. Her books are translated into thirty-two languages. In 2001 she was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the body of her work, and in 2003 she received the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.

About Tavia Gilbert

Tavia Gilbert is an acclaimed producer, narrator, writer, and stage and film actor. An Audie and Earphones award winner, she has been nominated for nearly every possible award and has been named an Audiobook Narrator of the Year by Booklist Magazine. Part of the Grammy-nominated full-cast recording of Charlotte’s Web, she has narrated more than 700 solo, multi-cast, and full-cast titles.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jonfaith on January 26, 2022

To look at something which is “empty” is still to be looking, still to be seeing something—if only the ghosts of one’s own expectations. Read this into the night. After suffering through the first few essays, I finally found purchase in the piece on Godard. (the preceding sections on theater and film......more

Goodreads review by J on July 19, 2014

The opening piece, The Aesthetics of Silence, is one of the smartest things I've ever read about the development of a modern artistic sensibility. It's probably one of the smartest things I've ever read period. She just completely hits her stride and makes one brilliant observation after another aft......more

Goodreads review by Bagus on November 23, 2022

Styles of Radical Will is Sontag’s second collection of essays, first published in 1969, which mainly discusses art, film and pornography. Although, there is a lengthy essay which takes up one-fourth of the book that is radically different from other Sontag’s essays that I’ve read so far, namely Tri......more

Goodreads review by Tosh on October 27, 2007

I could never get into her fiction for some odd reason, but as an essayist, she stands alone. It is sort of like having coffee with someone who knows everything, and you are totally fascinated by this person. Most of the essays are from the late 60's or early 70's - and all of them are great. It is......more

Goodreads review by Benjamin on February 01, 2021

Susan Sontag is thinking about a lot of things... including pornography. I didn't think that the pornography essay dated so well. The rest of the book especially the North Vietnamese essay and the Godard Essay I particularly liked. Those are the last two and they're probably my favorites because it......more

Quotes

“Susan Sontag’s essays are great interpretations and even fulfillments of what is really going on.” Carlos Fuentes

“She has come to symbolize the writer and thinker in many variations: as analyst, rhapsodist, and roving eye, as public scold and portable conscience.” Time

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