I love Susan Sontag for her crisp and biting writings. I like that she takes risks and in the process takes you for a ride through her beautiful imagery. I just finished reading Illness and Metaphor and think that her opening is probably one of my all-time favorites
Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerious citizenship. Everyone who is born hold 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 citizens of that other place. I want to describe, not what it is really like to emigrate to the kingdom of the ill and live there, but the punitive or sentimental concocted about that situation: not real geography, but stereotypes of national character.
I’m surprised that paragraph stands out to you. It’s an anthropologic cliché and mildly clever at best. Boas is rolling over (laughing).
Comment by David Ulevitch — October 3, 2007 @ 5:51 am
In the first place I am not looking for cleverness.
Secondly, I think the first paragraph is pretty accurate description of the fate that will meet every last human being.
Third, I think she nicely paints an image on the existential nature of human life but then makes a turn to say that she is actually won’t be covering matters of life and death but with the metaphors and images that motivate our human/cultural understanding of illness. It is a nice contrast that clearly presents what the work is about and all with a few sentences.
I have no idea why Boas would be rolling over (laughing) or why this is an anthropological cliche… It is a thought piece, not an anthropological analysis, even if she includes plenty of cultural (but more literary) analysis.
Comment by Biella — October 3, 2007 @ 6:22 am
Interesting. In one of his writings Sándor Márai describes illness as travel of the poor. To some extend and with harmless deseases, I’d tend to be closer to that line of thought. (I don’t think the book (School of the Poor or somesuch) been translated to English.)
Comment by Thomas — October 3, 2007 @ 11:08 am