'One of the most interesting and valuable critics we possess' - New Republic
Susan Sontag's second collection of groundbreaking essays contains some of the most important pieces of criticism of the twentieht century, including the classics 'The Aesthetics of Silence', a brilliant account of language, thought and consciousness, and 'Trip to Hanoi', written during the Vietnam War. Here too is an excoriating account of America's identity and future, a robust and surprising discussion of pornography and other richly rewarding writings on art, film, literature and politics.
CONTENTS
I
The Aesthetics of Silence
The Pornographic Imagination
"Thinking Against Oneself": Reflections on Cioran
II
Theatre and Film
Bergman's Persona
Godard
III
What's Happening in America (1966)
Trip to Hanoi
'Sontag emerges from Styles of Radical Will as an open and vulnerable intellect, a consciousness in process of transformation... brilliant and important' - The Nation
'She has come to symbolize the writer and thinker in many variations: as analyst, rhapsodist, and roving eye, as public scold and portable conscience' - Times
