#SUSAN SONTAG

[mournfulroses]

Susan Sontag, from a diary entry featured in Reborn: Journals & Notebooks, 1947 - 1963

[lunamonchtuna]

— Susan Sontag, from “Death Kit,” (1967) (via lunamonchtuna)

[firstfullmoon]

when susan sontag wrote “I must change my life so that I can live it, not wait for it”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Women have another option. They can aspire to be wise, not merely nice; to be competent, not merely helpful; to be strong, not merely graceful; to be ambitious for themselves, not merely for themselves in relation to men and children. They can let themselves age naturally and without embarrassment, actively protesting and disobeying the conventions that stem from this society’s double standard about aging. Instead of being girls, girls as long as possible, who then age humiliatingly into middle-aged women, they can become women much earlier — and remain active adults, enjoying the long, erotic career of which women are capable, far longer. Women should allow their faces to show the lives they have lived. Women should tell the truth.

—Susan Sontag, "The Double Standard of Aging," The Saturday Review, Sept 23, 1972

(Philo Thoughts)

[booklover]

“The fear of becoming old is born of the recognition that one is not living now the life that one wishes. It is equivalent to a sense of abusing the present.”

― Susan Sontag, Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

[petaltexturedskies]

light snow, silence, the empty streets, the fog, thrilling cold—so much beauty. Like breathing pure oxygen.

Susan Sontag, As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks 1964-1980

[diaries-of-despair]

— August 5, 1966 / Susan Sontag, Journals and Notebooks

[perfectfeelings]

I must change my life so that I can live it, not wait for it.

Susan Sontag, Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1964

[mournfulroses]

Susan Sontag, from a diary entry featured in As Consciousness Is Harnessed To Flesh: Journals & Notebooks, 1964 - 1980

[houseofpurplestars]

"The likelihood that your acts of resistance cannot stop the injustice does not exempt you from acting in what you sincerely and reflectively hold to be the best interests of your community.”

- Susan Sontag

[funeral]

Susan Sontag, The Benefactor

[thephotoregistry]

Susan Sontag, Petra, Jordan, 1994

Annie Leibovitz

[petaltexturedskies]

she is very startling — pixie-like, other-worldly — small, finely-built, dark hair, and much make-up which made her look very pale — large, questioning eyes — a marked accent which I could not label — her speech is over-precise — she shines and polishes each syllable with the very tip of her tongue and teeth — one feels that if one were to touch her, she would crumble into silver dust.

Susan Sontag describing Anaïs Nin, in a diary entry dated 8 April 1949 featured in Reborn: Journals & Notebooks, 1947-1963

[guulabii]

susan sontag, on women

[thirdity]

The metatheater of Genet and Beckett reflects the feelings of an era whose greatest artistic pleasure is self-laceration, an era suffocated by the sense of eternal return, an era which experiences innovation as an act of terror. That life is a dream, all the metaplays presuppose. But there are restful dreams, troubled dreams, and nightmares. The modern dream — which the modern metaplays project — is a nightmare, a nightmare of repetition, stalled action, exhausted feeling.

Susan Sontag, "The Death of Tragedy"

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Oh, Canada (Paul Schrader, 2024)