false 6332024 1 <p><i>Notes on Sontag</i> is a frank, witty, and entertaining reflection on the work, influence, and personality of one of the "foremost interpreters of . . . our recent contemporary moment." Adopting Sontag's favorite form, a set of brief essays or notes that circle around a topic from different perspectives, renowned essayist Phillip Lopate considers the achievements and limitations of his tantalizing, daunting subject through what is fundamentally a conversation between two writers. Reactions to Sontag tend to be polarized, but Lopate's account of Sontag's significance to him and to the culture over which she loomed is neither hagiography nor hatchet job. Despite admiring and being inspired by her essays, he admits a persistent ambivalence about Sontag. Lopate also describes the figure she cut in person through a series of wry personal anecdotes of his encounters with her over the years.</p><p> Setting out from middle-class California to invent herself as a European-style intellectual, Sontag raised the bar of critical discourse and offered up a model of a freethinking, imaginative, and sensual woman. But while crediting her successes, Lopate also looks at how her taste for aphorism and the radical high ground led her into exaggerations that could do violence to her own common sense, and how her ambition to be seen primarily as a novelist made her undervalue her brilliant essays. Honest yet sympathetic, Lopate's engaging evaluation reveals a Sontag who was both an original and very much a person of her time.</p> 6517723 2 4 2009 Notes on Sontag (Writers on Writers) total:13|5:2|4:4|3:7|2:0|1:0| 13 47 24 2 3 0 false false Tue Mar 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 21:09:30 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 18:02:00 -0700 2009 felt reflection on her writing. Every one of her books gets at...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Oct 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 10:56:12 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 17:57:29 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Oct 11 08:34:56 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 11 08:34:56 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 14:46:59 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 14:47:21 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Sep 30 14:09:32 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 14:09:32 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Sep 14 18:34:02 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 18:34:02 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Aug 06 15:41:51 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 06 15:41:55 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Aug 01 12:39:51 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 12:39:51 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jul 27 21:10:21 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 21:10:21 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jul 17 17:26:42 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 17:26:42 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Jul 04 08:21:44 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 04 08:21:44 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Jun 24 13:47:41 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 13:11:14 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 13:47:41 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jun 22 06:06:38 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 06:06:38 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Jun 11 20:05:18 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 20:05:18 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Jun 08 20:50:12 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 20:50:12 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jun 08 02:10:55 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 02:11:26 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Jun 07 22:43:02 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 22:43:02 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 09:45:57 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 17:45:36 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue May 19 22:25:01 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 22:25:01 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri May 08 13:18:34 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 07:51:13 -0700 2009