Reviews
At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches by Anne Jump, David Rieff, Paolo Dilonardo, Susan Sontag
rltinha's review against another edition
4.0
Quando a Susan Sontag escreve sobre literatura não dá qualquer margem para o alheamento. Tudo nela e na sua abordagem é investimento pleno e dedicação inata ao que toma tanto como missão como prazer.
Ler literatura é estar só comungando do âmago de outrem. É conhecer o mundo adensando a todo o momento os motivos do merecimento de um certificado de ignorância. Ler sobre a literatura segundo a perspectiva de Sontag é sentir uma companhia flagrante nessa tal tarefa solitária.
Ler literatura é estar só comungando do âmago de outrem. É conhecer o mundo adensando a todo o momento os motivos do merecimento de um certificado de ignorância. Ler sobre a literatura segundo a perspectiva de Sontag é sentir uma companhia flagrante nessa tal tarefa solitária.
dinguini's review
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Her essays on culture/literature are interesting, at times brilliant. The political ones leave much to be desired.
caterpillarnotebooks's review against another edition
5.0
makes me believe in what I know is true again
peternotkavinsky's review against another edition
3.0
Ler Susan Sontag é sempre bom. Os ensaios sobre livros são bem legais, mas bem específico, pois são sobre certos livros. A coletânea como um todo senti que não funcionou para mim. Como disse, os ensaios sobre livros fariam mais sentidos como introdução dos respectivos livros. Os sobre 11 de setembro são muito bons, e gostei bastante dos discursos. Mas, acho que prefiro os livros que são mais direcionados a um tema em especial.
dontgetnastybro's review against another edition
4.0
Hay algunos tópicos en los que Susan Sontag evidencia cierta ingenuidad que supongo pretende demarcar cierta distancia con los temas que trata, esto que es producto, especulo yo, de su edad al momento de escribir algunos de estos ensayos o su evidente posición de privilegio social (me refiero sobretodo a los ensayos que tienen que ver con temas como el intervecionismo estadounidense en el medio oriente y por consiguiente en su posición bastante apologista de la política exterior del estado de Israel) quizás le hacen perder algo de poder a este libro, sin embargo todo eso se compensa porque Sontag es muy buena argumentando sus puntos de vista, siempre lo fue.
Para Sontag-ólogos.
Para Sontag-ólogos.
andrewreads's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
melanie_reads's review against another edition
4.0
While not her best, it is alas, the last. It was helpful also to read the foreword to better understand the context of these essays and how truly heart breaking to read the lament that she wishes she had more time to write about what burned deep inside her.
Many, many wonderful "big ideas" broken down into tiny bits:
1. There is no final photograph.
2. Literature was freedom. Especially in a time in which the values of reading and inwardness are so strenuously challenged.
3. The likelihood that your acts of resistance cannot stop the injustice does not exempt you from acting in what you sincerely and reflectively hold to be in the best interests of your community.
4. The greatest offense now, in matters both of the arts and of culture generally, not to mention political life, is to seem to be upholding some better, more exigent standard, which is attacked, both from the left and the right, as either naive or (a new banner for the philistines) "elitist."
rickyblue's review
5.0
I really enjoyed this book.
I think the best part is the first section. I particularly liked the essays about Victor Serge and Anna Banti.
The section on 9/11 and its aftermath was also powerful.
I found the speeches uneven but definitely worthwhile.
If truth is light I think this book should glow in the dark.
I think the best part is the first section. I particularly liked the essays about Victor Serge and Anna Banti.
The section on 9/11 and its aftermath was also powerful.
I found the speeches uneven but definitely worthwhile.
If truth is light I think this book should glow in the dark.
chon's review
I'm always struck by Sontag and her brilliance.
The essays and speeches on their own are obviously incredible but they feel a little jarring to be pushed together into one book. Though this is barely noticeable since I get deeply involved with each idea she puts on the table. To be honest, I'm a little shy almost to add more words to describe her and her words, which are perfectly expressive standing on their own. Needing no further descriptions. On that note, from the sea of wonderful passages, here's one:
Time exists in order that everything doesn’t happen all at
once ... and space exists so that it all doesn’t happen to you.
"By this standard, the novel is an ideal vehicle both of space and of time. The novel shows us time: that is, everything doesn’t happen at once. (It is a sequence, it is a line.) It shows us space: that is, what happens doesn’t happen to one person only. In other words, a novel is the creation not simply of a voice, but of a world. It mimics the essential structures by which we experience ourselves living in time, and inhabiting a world, and attempting to make sense of our experience. But it does what lives (the lives that are lived) cannot offer, except after they are over. It confers-and withdraws-meaning or sense upon a life. This is possible because narration is possible, because there are norms of narration which are as constitutive of thinking and feeling and experience."
The essays and speeches on their own are obviously incredible but they feel a little jarring to be pushed together into one book. Though this is barely noticeable since I get deeply involved with each idea she puts on the table. To be honest, I'm a little shy almost to add more words to describe her and her words, which are perfectly expressive standing on their own. Needing no further descriptions. On that note, from the sea of wonderful passages, here's one:
Time exists in order that everything doesn’t happen all at
once ... and space exists so that it all doesn’t happen to you.
"By this standard, the novel is an ideal vehicle both of space and of time. The novel shows us time: that is, everything doesn’t happen at once. (It is a sequence, it is a line.) It shows us space: that is, what happens doesn’t happen to one person only. In other words, a novel is the creation not simply of a voice, but of a world. It mimics the essential structures by which we experience ourselves living in time, and inhabiting a world, and attempting to make sense of our experience. But it does what lives (the lives that are lived) cannot offer, except after they are over. It confers-and withdraws-meaning or sense upon a life. This is possible because narration is possible, because there are norms of narration which are as constitutive of thinking and feeling and experience."