Sontag war photography

Now when it comes to "self-definition", everyone will say indifferently that I can only define myself. Susan sontag in the 20th century seems to be a person who doesn't need to be defined, or she can't be defined. She is a writer, art critic, female intellectual, drama director, bisexual ... No matter what her career or private life is, the stories behind her are wonderful enough to keep her name in the minds of the public, while Sontag is always denying, overthrowing and reshaping, and will never frame herself in one.

When we talk about Sontag now, which one will come to your mind first? The conscience of the American public, the beautiful girl harvester, Kemp's godmother, a talented girl ... She broke away from the writer's framework in our cognition, and her life was absurd, free and intense, which made her a unique susan sontag.

She used to live a hard life, so she lived a chic life.

Oppose interpretation, eager to grow.

Many people say that susan sontag is the ideal of young writers and artists. As a child, she showed an obsession with literature. Writers such as Shakespeare, Dickens and the Bronte sisters need not say much about Kant's Critique of Pure Reason at the age of 65,438+05. When she grows up, all her boyfriends and girlfriends have their own places in the fields of art and literature. She likes photography and movies, and even tries to be a movie actress. Life is limited, so the time for growth is compressed, and she opposes being defined. She is a legendary woman who combines art and literature.

Sontag has been running, challenging new things and observing human beings and self. She has a sense of crisis about time since she was a child. In reading, she is much faster than her peers and has a precocious mind, which is not a bad thing for her who is determined to become a writer.

After graduating from high school, she entered the University of California, Berkeley. 17 years old, is a well-deserved talented woman. College time has a far-reaching impact on Sontag's later life. The first time she was taken to a gay bar by a female classmate, it opened the door to a new world. /kloc-at the age of 0/7, she has the enthusiasm of a girl, and she has a flash marriage with Philip, a professor at the University of Chicago who has known him for ten days, just because he has enough talent to make her fall. At that time, she was too romantic or hasty, thinking that the love wrapped in worship could overcome the age difference and last forever, but she underestimated the power of self-ambition.

Sontag did not feel happy after giving birth to his son David at the age of 19. She doubts the value of getting married early and having children early. She wants to pursue her doctorate, so she considers doing so. She left her children and her husband to study at Oxford University, and then moved to France to live with her same-sex girlfriend. Sontag broke free from the shackles of the traditional family, felt the happiness of the same sex and got fresh air. She divorced at the age of 25.

Flash marriage, childbirth, doctoral studies and divorce, her 25-year life may have condensed the life track of others for decades. She is willful, she longs for freedom, but she seems so impatient. Why is Sontag so eager to grow up quickly?

Sontag's parents came to China to do business when she and her sister were very young, so when they were young, their parents didn't accompany them every day like children of the same age. When she was 5 years old, her father died of tuberculosis in China. Sontag didn't know the news until a year after his death. Soon, my mother and Mr. Sontag held a secret wedding without telling her and her sister, which was a pity for the Sontag sisters.

In the most important growth stage of Sontag, she had no mentor parents to give her the answers to love and life. She can only explore by herself, which is her consciousness. Because she didn't get enough love from her parents, she wanted to grow up quickly, and she longed for the love of different people. Whether men or women, they and they are the hub of Sontag's love. In our opinion, her nine beautiful girlfriends and handsome boyfriends are just affairs, but it seems to prove that she wants a lot of love. The vacancy once paralyzed by books became more and more abrupt, and it was not until Sontag's death that the vacancy was completely filled.

Gaze at yourself and see the truth.

Benefactor, metaphor of disease and volcano lover ... Sontag is not only a writer and critic, she regards Kemp as a serious aesthetic figure. The core of Kemp lies in its unnatural, artificial and exaggerated love, which is simply "kitsch". Exaggerated, gaudy and bizarre, Kemp is always marginalized because he does not conform to the public aesthetic, and is criticized by "elegant" people.

Just like a recent sentence, you may not like what I like, but please allow it to exist. Aside from our usual standards of beauty and ugliness, I personally think it is absurd and funny. It is beauty, and it is the rebellion that Kemp wants to convey. Because everyone has different aesthetic standards, they will have different views on the same thing, and the diversity of opinions will give it its own value. Sontag wants to clear the name of the Kemp culture that everyone has spurned.

What can we get from her sensitivity of not sticking to general standards? Sontag himself is as interesting as Kemp. When people see her academic resume and realize the sharp thinking in her literary works, they will classify her as a female intellectual. People who do research are generally serious and disciplined, while Sontag is full of energy. This kind of vitality not only refers to her elite qualities at a young age, but also refers to her not being rigid in her own thoughts, always playing the devil's advocate and speaking, writing and living at will. In her mind, she is the standard to measure everything, and then what can be revealed is the truth.

Talking about Kemp, photography and disease metaphor, Sontag still wants to return to literature. She said: "I do believe that truth exists somewhere, but I prefer the form of truth in art and literature." In literature, the opposite of truth may also be truth. "

On politics, race and war, Sontag's voice is known as "the conscience of the people" today. She always runs counter to the mainstream authority and even acts "unpatriotic". Although her words are sharp, that is the "ugly" truth that Sontag explored. At that time, her views, like Kemp's, were not accepted by ordinary standards, but she did not give up the debate and did not accept that it was against her conscience. As for aesthetics and truth, her general pattern runs through art, literature and life.

Love life and refuse to give up.

Looking back on Sontag's emotional experience in his life, it can be said that there is no empty window. She is the woman who lives with different men and women by virtue of her beauty and talent. Painter, poet, dancer, writer, actor, photographer ... every relationship of hers is full of passion, but it is fleeting. Some people say that when looking for a partner, you always have to look for complementarity. However, Sontag is looking for someone who is excellent in her (his) field, or she is looking for someone similar to herself.

I can't say that Sontag is a promiscuous person. She may just want to have in-depth communication with the object of communication. The collision of emotion, thought and body is a prelude to her entering a new field. "Compressing time" seems to be her attitude towards life, not only treating 24 hours as 48 hours, forcing her to mature, but also expanding the breadth of life, rather than stopping at writing. Living with different people is probably her way.

She is a freewheeling, absurd and serious person, and she is very positive about death. She is different from the optimism of dying. She has a strong will to survive. She has no time to be depressed. She faces death with great energy. At the age of 40, Sontag was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and could only live for one and a half years. Doctors around her advised her to treat conservatively. But she doesn't believe in evil. She doesn't believe that she will be easily knocked down. She accepted the doctor that her French girlfriend found for her and tried intensive chemotherapy. Sontag is hard on himself and willing to put all his eggs in one basket. She lived for another 30 years. Because she has experienced it, she knows the beauty of life.

Her anti-cancer experience also made her reflect a lot, so she wrote Metaphor of Disease. Disease is not a "sin" in the cultural background, nor is it an individual's "self-harm". It should not be a symbol of discrimination and oppression. This is just a physiological disorder. 1989, with the prevalence of AIDS, she wrote about AIDS and its metaphor, and talked about the biggest disaster brought by the disease is loneliness. Campo, homosexuality and disease, Sontag always stands with a few people or socially recognized weak people. If no one is willing to speak and shout, it will always be misunderstood.

The final contest with death made Sontag pay more attention to the world in front of her, and also made her discover more possibilities. For example, she directed the drama Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo, was elected as an academician of the American Academy of Literature and Arts, and publicly accused progressives of making false statements. Cancer didn't soften her a little, but she was still sharp, bold and frank. In 2004, Sontag died of a failed bone marrow transplant. Although she had hope for life, it backfired. This time, she didn't defeat death, and a star fell. Death seemed too early for Sontag, who was 7 1 year old at that time, because she still had a lot of things to do, and maybe she could create many surprises that we didn't know.

Look at the photo of Sontag. No matter what age stage, 15 or 70 years old, the firmness in her eyes has not changed. You can feel the strength in her eyes, which is a belief in life. Sontag spared no effort in everything. She loves, writes and thinks. She once worked hard to live, regardless of other people's eyes and results. She left smartly without looking back.