Sontag and Kael: Opposites Attract Me

by Craig Seligman

This is a witty and stylish assessment of the work of two icons of cultural criticism: Susan Sontag and Pauline Kael Though outwardly they had some things in common - they were both Westerners who came east, both schooled in philosophy, both secular Jews and both single mothers - they were polar opposites in temperament and approach. Seligman approaches both women through their widely discussed work. Kael practiced a kind of verbal jazz - exuberant, excessive, intimate, emotional and funny. Sontag is formal and rather icy. From the beginning it's clear where Seligman's sympathies lie: Sontag is a critic he reveres; but Kael is a critic he loves. But for all his reservations about Sontag, he considers both writers magnificent and his exploration of their differences results in this luminously written landmark of criticism.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Biography, Politics, Criticism

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Yu · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, there are a lot of brilliant ideas about Susan Sontag and Kael, but the way this book was narrated is a little bit disturbing. The author is a New Yorker column reviewer, reviewing food and wine section and books and so on. But the way he wrote is a little bit far away from academic writing, it more sounds like a reviewer from New York who doesn't care about nothing writing his opinion on Sontag and Kael. It is a nice book, and I am surprised by some details and insights, but I'd rather challenge this book than quoting it.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why would I find myself fascinated by a critical assessment of the works of two critics I'd barely read? Because, dangit, I love great criticism. And I love great writing. Seligman loves his subjects, and that means digging deeply into aspects of their work that he admires and aspects that trouble him. Even better, he makes astute counter-arguments against those who disliked Susan Sontag or Pauline Kael, almost all of whom seemed to fight against the simplest and least accurate summations of their views. I have actually read some Sontag, and been left breathless by the power of her intellect. Kael remains a writer I know better by third party sources - someday, I'll read some of her actual writing. For now, though, I'm fired up, remembering the ways great criticism offers, as Kael put it, "perceptions, for what they tell us that we didn't fully grasp when we saw the work. The judgements we can usually make for ourselves."

[David Emery · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might read better for someone who's really, really into Kael and Sontag, but then again, it might not. While it captures interesting information about both women and their styles, beliefs, and accusations at different points in their careers, the comparisons are unfocused and mostly not that compelling. Seligman's affection for both writers and particularly his closeness with Kael prevent an objectivity necessary to glean real insight into both of his subjects' work and its effect on the culture they wrote about. Reading Kael and Sontag would be far more instructive and rewarding, especially for those new to their writing.

[Connor N]

Since I now have 2 followers, I’ll write a blurb …

Felt like Seligman used Kael (who he admits he loves on a personal level) as a device to frame his much more in-depth critiques of Sontag. Sontag is depicted as a conflicted, flawed (and thus interesting) character, while Kael is reflected upon with breezy sentimentality

I did find some of the Sontag commentary (mostly in the beginning) to be interesting and jotted quotes down in my notebook to mull over later

[Conor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice read and both really opened up the writing of Sontag for me (I'm a bit familiar with her) and introduced me to Kael. I assume it's the kind of book that will do more to place future reading and authors into context than anything. It's especially rewarding to read both sides of the debates around both authors. Seligman, for his part, also writes lightly and smartly, although the formating tends to get in the way. There's also no real distinctions between most chapters, except that they end about 25 minutes after I want to put down the book.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

It might not really deserve the 5 stars but I'm trying to be less stingy. This book was so much fun to read!

[Mr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Craig Seligman's highly enjoyable dialectic study of critics/intellectuals Susan Sontag and Pauline Kael who enjoyed considerable attention during the 60's and 70's. Seligman elegantly contrasts the two writers, Sontag the intellectual and Kael the fervent populist. He's pretty straightforward in his preference for Kael as a film critic, although he does acknowledge that Sontag was far from a purely devoted film critic, as she also wrote novels and essays on photography, literature, politics, and pretty much anything else you can think of, therefore the comparison isn't exactly fair.

Seligman argues that Sontag was ultimately the greater writer and intellectual, yet he feels that her writing was often too cool and detached, and of course humorless. Kael on the other hand, was a strident iconoclast, she insisted that movies were special in their fusion of pop culture with intelligent artistry, a principle that was made manifest by the likes of Altman, Godard, and DePalma. Yet Kael was no theorist, she spent a great deal of time and garnered much attention in her attack on the auteur theorists like Andrew Sarris and the New Wave critics, she insisted that film aesthetics could not be theorized (a sentiment I for one share), and that a film's quality was more often the product of many talents, not merely the director. Kael's biting criticism made her as many enemies as she had friends; she was attacked by Sarris, by Renata Adler, by Peter Bogdanovich, and later by Jonathan Rosenbaum for her views expressed in her book "Raising Kane." However, Kael was also loved and admired for her witty and personal essays which would leave an impact on David Denby and even influenced the filmmaking of Quentin Tarantino and a number of other prominent directors in recent years.

Sontag never reviewed films she didn't like; preferring to analyze entire bodies of work in extended essays, often besides major intellectual writings on literature. Perhaps Seligman's book falters a bit in his extended defense of Kael; he defends her review of Shoah, and her writings on Orson Welles, but also provides a slightly absurd defense of her alleged homophobia, which he refutes essentially by indicating that he himself is a homosexual and was friends on Kael. This work is a solid comparison and contrast of the two writers, yet I was left feeling that he went a little too hard on Sontag for her difficulty and a little too easy on Kael for her unshakable refusal to reevaluate her opinions (she notoriously never viewed a movie twice).

Seligman goes slightly overboard in his praise of Kael, writing that she "flourished with a consistency unmatched by any American writer since Henry James" (pg. 192). Please. I think Kael was a terrific writer and critic, but those who create works of art should never be equated with those who merely comment on them. Never the less, Seligman has rendered this critical study with very fine writing and an acute awareness of the two author's sensibilities; it makes you want to seek out their work immediately.

[Randy Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pauline Kael’s “I Lost I at the Movies’ was a welcome break for me in college from reading boring academic texts.  I first noticed Susan Sontag when she was a talking head in Woody Allen’s ‘Zelig.’ This was 30 plus years ago and since that time I’ve been more taken by Sontag and her ‘seriousness’ than Kael and her seemingly tossed off movie reviews.  Both these women rang bells for me that was more about their personalities than about their ideas or writing but that isn’t something I could have expressed until I read this book.

They were both critics, tastemakers who responded deeply and personally to art that moved them for better or ill.  As a young man looking to find my place in the canon of Western Civilization, both these women helped me connect in an intimate way with cultural artifacts, ideas and conflicts that were all new to me.

But as Seligman makes clear Sontag and Kael shared little in common as critics.  Sontag was the darling of the European avant-garde attempting to bring the intellectual ferment of the European trendsetters to a educated but not necessarily academic audience.  Kael was interested in reaching educated folks but mostly those who were passionate about talking about films.  And Kael didn’t ignore popular films.  She found much to admire in crowd-pleasers like the ‘Godfather’.  She saw greatness in Cary Grant known for starring in fluffy romances and suspenseful thrillers.  I can see Sontag shuddering at the thought of taking Grant’s role in ‘North by Northwest’ seriously.

Thought is another difference between the two critics.  For Sontag, writing was in the service of ideas.  Yes, ideas were capable of generating passion and even a sense of eroticism but the idea came first.  Kael felt movies first.  She didn’t put a film through an auteur filter thinking about where it fit in the director’s oeuvre.  She cared about how the film made her feel.  Ideas mattered but many other things matter just as much.

In terms of my sensibility, I’m more in the Kael camp.  I feel a work of art whether a painting, film or novel before I think about it’s merit and yet I have been more drawn to Sontag’s seriousness as I’ve aged.  I’ve become less enamored of film with time and as young man I read Kael for her verdict not the journey she took in getting there.  It’s time to revisit Kael and see if her criticism stands on its own.  That is clearly true with Sontag.  I can read her essay without having knowledge of the work of art she is discussing.

Seligman’s book is surprisingly good.  He writes in the style of Kael, his mentor, but treats both writers with a seriousness I think even Sontag would find acceptable.  And the book raises and answers a question larger than his two subjects; what makes a critic memorable and why?

[Dan Lalande · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brilliant comparative study of cultural critic Susan Sontag and film reviewer Pauline Kael, who, for better or worse (and there's a lot of debate about it), co-erased the line between high-toned art and appreciable populism. Seligman's brain respects the formal, moralistic Sontag while his heart goes out to the riffy, vituperative Kael. The tipping factor is his personal relationship with the latter, which he shares in a lovely, sentimental coda.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read either Sontag or Kael in years, so I'm not sure what made me pick this up but I'm glad I did. I've admired but had problems with both writers over the years, the same problems Seligman and apparently a lot of other people have. Specifically, that Sontag can be too severe and joyless in her criticism, while Kael can be too enamored of pop and trash, suspicious of so-called high art. Choosing these two writers to compare and contrast was inspired, since on the surface they seemed so different, but mostly while reading this book I kept thinking how odd it was there was a time in America, not so long ago, when there were public intellectuals like these two, who discussed culture in a nuanced, engaging manner and were widely read and argued over. They don't seem to have equivalents today, and, for all their faults, that's a shame.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this compare-and-contrast gloss of Sontag and Kael, certainly more than I've liked reading Sontag's critical work. Seligman's voice is genial and approachable, and though it doesn't necessarily sound so interesting, the drama of his conflicted feelings about these two writers made for an engaging read. Now I need to read some Pauline Kael, whom I've managed to avoid all these years.

I picked this off Nicole's bookshelf last weekend, when I was sick, and managed to read it through my headcold haze.

[Frederic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read and loved Kael for almost fifty years but have only been dipping into Sontag for the past few...this book functions as a terrific appreciation of and/or introduction to two wonderful essayists whose work about the supposed ephemera of Pop Culture and Current Events is as engaging and compelling as when it was first published...I've neither read nor heard of Craig Seligman before but this enthusiastic panegyric makes me curious to read more of his work...

[Justin Kiczek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seligman's writing is simply impeccable throughout much of the book. Criticism of criticism has never been so good. He achieves what he says makes critics like Pauline Kael so successful: he simultaneously REALLY makes you want to go out and see/read/experience what is being critiqued, while, you, almost to the same degree, relish the critic's own voice.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

a delightful and engaging read, this book not only celebrates the title critics, but engagingly celebrates (and enacts) the art of criticism. This is a book about loving to read, think, and question ... for readers who love thinking and questioning.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really enjoyable book about two very interesting people but I'm not convinced that the compare and contrast format the book was written in did much to add to it.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good quick read. a book you pick up in the library and get into where you otherwise might not ever bump into it.

[lindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jon Waters blurbed this: "'Songtag & Kael' is a great double date -- criticism that 'puts out.'"

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am somewhat of a junkie about Sontag, this was amusing.