Details
Synopsis
Susan Sontag looks at the depiction of the cruelties of modern life on the evening news, along with the media's role in shaping the viewer's perception of events. As, thanks to television, atrocity becomes commonplace, does the viewer become anesthetized to it? Does it lead to greater violence? How exactly are people affected by their inability to do anything about what they see? And how does this knowledge affect the way they conduct their daily lives? As Sontag asks these questions, she brings up some of the issues she tacked in her classic work ON PHOTOGRAPHY (1977), exploring them anew (and sometimes with different conclusions) in light of events in Bosnia, Rwanda, Palestine, and New York City. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.
| Size | | Length: | 144 pages | | Height: | 8.3 in | | Width: | 5.5 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 1.6 oz |
Industry Reviews
"[A] coruscating sermon....Sontag, of course, has done our homework for us....And, as usual, she provokes."
New York Times Book Review - John Leonard (03/23/2003)
"Around this vast subject Sontag hangs observations and musings on a variety of themes. One sometimes has the impression of a long fireside conversation from which we have only the contributions of one participant. Sontag knows her subject well, and she expresses herself elegantly. She is at ease in the history of photography and in the history of painting, in the analysis of history an din the analysis of the media, and she never slides into pedantry. Nor does she seek to force her ideas upon us, but rather to make us reflect, with some melancholy, upon a range of troublesome topics."
New Republic - Tzvetan Todorov (04/21/2003)
"[Sontag] is a most probing critic, one of the very best writers on photography in its history....Timely as it is, Sontag's extended meditation on the imagery of war in REGARDING THE PAIN OF OTHERS is guaranteed to make some readers uneasy. These are things they'd rather not dwell on. Consumers of daily violence, she knows, are schooled to be cynical about the temptation of strong feelings. Her book on the other hand bristles with indignation."
New York Review of Books - Charles Simic (05/01/2003)
"The great merit of Sontag's book is that it questions the assumption that photographs tell the truth,...Sontag's book...[asks] crucial questions about the uneasy relationship that exists between photography, war and propaganda."
Nation - Peter Wollen (10/06/2003)
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