Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
141st out of 157 books
—
36 voters
Illness as Metaphor
by
Susan Sontag
In 1978 Susan Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor, a classic work described by Newsweek as "one of the most liberating books of its time." A cancer patient herself when she was writing the book, Sontag shows how the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatmen
...morePaperback, 96 pages
Published
August 1st 1988
by Farrar Straus Giroux
(first published 1978)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
870)
In 1978, when Susan Sontag wrote
Illness as Metaphor
, a classic work, she wasa cancer patient herself. Butin spiteof that,it is not a book about being ill or about the travesties of being a cancer patient. In Sontag's words, it is 'not what it is really like to emigrate to the kingdom of the ill and live there, but the punitive or sentimental fantasies concocted about that situation'.
Her subject is not physical illness itself but the uses of the various diseases as a figure or metaphor for comp...more
Her subject is not physical illness itself but the uses of the various diseases as a figure or metaphor for comp...more
Sontag argues that a certain ideological cruelty resides in the metaphors commonly used to describe cancer and other illnesses. And when we let go of the metaphors, we can free ourselves (and those who are ill) from the tyranny of superstition, an over-excited imagination and blame.
On a personal level, I get this. She's suffered; we've all suffered or known others who've suffered. And on page 101, she says that her aim is to "alleviate unnecessary suffering." On the same page, she also says tha...more
On a personal level, I get this. She's suffered; we've all suffered or known others who've suffered. And on page 101, she says that her aim is to "alleviate unnecessary suffering." On the same page, she also says tha...more
I've been meaning to read this for about a hundred years, so perhaps the anticipation--I expected it to rock my world as a reader and as a scholar--killed it for me a little. Or perhaps that was because it's getting pretty outdated (cancer narratives of the 1970s being similar and recognizable but nonetheless rather different from the cancer narratives of today). Or perhaps it's because I didn't realize it was going to be mostly about how tuberculosis and cancer are represented in literature? Th...more
I only finished this in the wee hours of this morning--I need to reflect but I want to capture my first impressions & understandings. Sontag traces the language we use to discuss tuberculosis and cancer, with the former often referred to in romantic/aesthetized terms. In the case of both cancer and TB, Sontag argues, society has a notion that a type of personality is particularly prone to the illness, that the illness reveals something about the self and thus it can be cured if only the pati...more
There are some lovely one-liners (or one-paragraphers) and she makes such an important point: that illness is best understood not metaphorically, but as a perception of moment-to-moment experience. Metaphors are always (Adrienne, I know you're reading this, remember Sallie McFague) approximate -- pointing us in the right direction in some ways and in the wrong direction in others. Metaphors for illness can be devastating in the ways they point in the wrong direction. She uses cancer and TB as he...more
Mukherjee quoted from this book so many times in The Emperor of All Maladies that I decided to read it. Sontag is an overanalyzing intellectual – that I knew and was prepared for it, but I still didn’t really get this book. She cites tuberculosis an example of an old disease that was laden with myth and metaphor. It was considered the illness of the artist, brought upon by too much passion and sensuality. It was almost cool to catch it. That may have been so. But then Sontag moves to the present...more
1 like · like · see review
This book is an excellent historical analysis of the development of tuberculosis and cancer metaphors. The TB metaphors have largely died down (although understanding them is important to understanding literature at the times when they were in vogue) since treatments for TB were discovered. The cancer metaphors are much more current, despite this work being 30 years old. It provides a foundation for how we interpret illness, the sick, and society using the metaphor for cancer. Because we do desc...more
Absolutely thought provoking but the (short) book should have been edited down to a concise essay. I'm torn about being negative on this one since it is worth a very quick read and it does point out the "language" we apply not just to illness but to the patients as well. Ms. Sontag describes how some diseases, such as TB, are glamorized, or perhaps even made noble, by our descriptions of them; other diseases, such as cancer, victimize their patients. Worth the read if you are willing to look at...more
romantic notions of tb, and how they fare up against cancer's imprint on modernity. oh, susan
Published in 1978, “Illness As Metaphor” testifies to attitude towards cancer patients bringing out a specific history of aversion through examples from literature and philosophy. Even though the progression from pure psychological prejudgment to accurate scientific improvement in cancer treatment has certainly been made since 1978, this book retains its topicality.
The study exposes insightful analogy between two diseases, exploring the boundaries of their broader cultural and historical frame....more
The study exposes insightful analogy between two diseases, exploring the boundaries of their broader cultural and historical frame....more
Hm. I was a little surprised at the argument presented by Sontag in this essay: that cancer, similar to TB in the 19th and early 20th centuries, is mythologized, often to the detriment of those who have the disease. She explains the argument for TB very well - the romantic idea of TB as the overexpression of passion and energy, the likes of which we see in common depictions of consumptive individuals. In fact, I was fascinated to see just how much of our current fashions come from mythologizing...more
I finished this last night despite loudmouth and screaming alley lady. This was real interesting. The author takes TB and cancer and examines these illnesses as metaphors in literature. The root of the metaphor is mysterious causes. The book was written in the 80's so TB had passed through its unknown cause phase and had become less dramatized, though it still held to certain characteristics.
The thing that struck me the most was when Sontag claimed that TB metaphors had brought about a consciou...more
The thing that struck me the most was when Sontag claimed that TB metaphors had brought about a consciou...more
Ok, positives first: it's a smart, smart book. It's neat, tightly packaged, and makes some stunningly good observations. Susan Sontag doesn't let me down in the epiphanies department.
With that being said, Sontag's kind of a lazy writer. Like I get the sense that TB is this and cancer is that, but she doesn't do enough research to back up her claims. It's just like, claim, pseudo example, move down, second claim, etc. And that's something coming from me because I'm the laziest writer there is and...more
With that being said, Sontag's kind of a lazy writer. Like I get the sense that TB is this and cancer is that, but she doesn't do enough research to back up her claims. It's just like, claim, pseudo example, move down, second claim, etc. And that's something coming from me because I'm the laziest writer there is and...more
Sontag, a cancer survivor at the time, wrote Illness as a Metaphor to explore and elucidate the metaphors used to describe serious illnesses like cancer and tuberculosis. Sontag argues that the metaphors and mythology created around these diseases make them seem evil and mysterious and very much like invincible predators, and hence sometimes prevent people from believing in conventional treatment to cure them. In addition, since cancer is seen as obscene, repugnant to the senses, and ill-omened,...more
sontag makes such fascinating perceptual leaps between illness/militarism/
the real culpability of metaphors in the way we survive:
'TB is often imagined as a disease of poverty and deprivation... in contrast, cancer is a disease of middle-class life, a disease associated with affluence, with excess' (15).
'Like all really successful metaphors, the metaphor of TB was rich enough to provide for two contradictory applications...It was both a way of describing sensuality and promoting the claims of pa...more
the real culpability of metaphors in the way we survive:
'TB is often imagined as a disease of poverty and deprivation... in contrast, cancer is a disease of middle-class life, a disease associated with affluence, with excess' (15).
'Like all really successful metaphors, the metaphor of TB was rich enough to provide for two contradictory applications...It was both a way of describing sensuality and promoting the claims of pa...more
1 like · like · see review
I am torn between 3 and 4 because it took a lot of work to read this. I guess a lot of...brain power is more descriptive. I sometimes found myself reading the same sentence over and over to get it to make sense but it did ultimately make sense it just took a while. In fact, I reread a whole chapter accidentally because it sounded unfamiliar.
I really enjoyed the history of it. Really, that's all it is.
I really enjoyed the history of it. Really, that's all it is.
Jan 14, 2009
Sara
added it
great book and examination of how culture views and mythologizes (and sometimes romanticizes) illness. Also makes very astute cultural observations as they relate to the dominant illness of the time. Fast, enlightening read. Good for a reread too.
Though some of what Sontag writes about is now dated, she does a wonderful job of elucidating the language we use to describe cancer and how it compares to how tuberculosis was described in the 19th century.
Mar 31, 2007
Stef
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
health workers, students, literarry types
the copy that i rread was orriginally published in 1978, which makes it's description of the perception of cancer out of date. nonetheless it's a good insight into the potential stages of illness perception and a good insight to the potential spaces around disease and illness when working with people/patients wo might have grrown up during/before the writing of this text as it illuminates a the social norms that potentially had an impact on them.
in another note, keep an eye out for the annie lei...more
in another note, keep an eye out for the annie lei...more
The version I read of this classic didn't yet address AIDS, so I was pleased to see that an updated version does, as Sontag's main point is that the metaphor in question was one of shame; i.e., a person who has cancer somehow 'deserves' it by having a 'cancer personality' or having done something to cause the illness. The other illness she analyzes is TB. She confronts the assumption that illnesses are caused by mental states.
While some of the information in the book is now fairly out-of-date,...more
While some of the information in the book is now fairly out-of-date,...more
This is an 85-page book that really comes together in the last three pages. An interesting, straightforward work of literary criticism.
If I believed, more concretely, in marriage -- and books were eligible -- I would marry this book. Some people recover from illness by reading Louise Hay and quoting positive psych affirmations at themselves... I recover by hugging Sontag as closely to my chest as is humanly possible.
CANCER. just sayin.
This is one of those books that I'm going to have to go back to - read in small pieces, here and there, to further think in the context of other things.
I read this when it was first published and I was in my mid-twenties. A lot of what she said about cancer & illness & health really resonated with me; my mother died of cancer when I was 11 and I’d known other people who had also died of cancer. But, society has changed quite a bit since then, in a positive way, so I’m not sure how much the material in here is still applicable. But, at the time, it seemed powerful and insightful.
I don't know what it was, but I just could not get into this book. I read it for class, thought I would like it based on the pre-talk...I found it dry. Granted it was a while ago I read it (2006).
All I took away from this book until now was a sense of whining. I might go back and read it again if I have nothing else to do, but I just thought the writing was dry and that alone turns me off from attempting to re-read it.
All I took away from this book until now was a sense of whining. I might go back and read it again if I have nothing else to do, but I just thought the writing was dry and that alone turns me off from attempting to re-read it.
(re-reading)
"Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place."
"Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place."
"Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance. [...] The disease itself becomes a metaphor." - pg. 58
That about sums it up.
In this book, Sontag compares attitudes about tuberculosis in the 19th century to attitudes about cancer in the 20th century. Fascinating stuff.
That about sums it up.
In this book, Sontag compares attitudes about tuberculosis in the 19th century to attitudes about cancer in the 20th century. Fascinating stuff.
It had some good points about the terminology used in describing diseases. I did enjoy the metaphors. But even though it is an insanely short book. It is 4 times the size it needs to be. I was so sick of the repetition of the concepts and ideas at the end I gave me only one star.
Reminded me of why I got tired of being an English major. Sontag's ideas are good, but she uses cherry-picked and sometimes self-contradictory evidence to support them. She builds key aspects of her argument on the flimsiest of quotes.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Jewish American literary theorist, novelist, filmmaker, and feminist activist.
More about Susan Sontag...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Depression is melancholy minus its charms.”
—
109 people liked it
More quotes…
one important...more
Mar 05, 2012 12:00am
updated Mar 05, 2012 12:06am