How Susan Sontag Taught Me to Think - The New York Times

The critic A.O. Scott reflects on the outsize influence Sontag has had on his life as a critic.

“Susan Sontag alone on a bed. N.Y.C. 1965.” Photograph by Diane Arbus I spent my adolescence in a terrible hurry to read all the books, see all the movies, listen to all the music, look at everything in all the museums. That pursuit required more effort back then, when nothing was streaming and everything had to be hunted down, bought or borrowed. But those changes aren’t what this essay is about. Culturally ravenous young people have always been insufferable and never unusual, even though they tend to invest a lot in being different — in aspiring (or pretending) to something dee

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