Regarding the Pain of Others (Audible Audio Edition) Susan Sontag Jennifer Van Dyck Audible Studios Books
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Twenty-five years after her classic On Photography, Susan Sontag returned here to the subject of visual representations of war and violence in our culture. How does the spectacle of the sufferings of others (via television or newsprint) affect us? Are viewers inured - or incited - to violence by the depiction of cruelty?
In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag takes a fresh look at the representation of atrocity - from Goya's The Disasters of War to photographs of the American Civil War, lynchings of blacks in the South, and the Nazi death camps, and to more contemporary horrific images of Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Israel, and Palestine, as well as New York City on September 11, 2001.
Sontag once again changes the way we think about the uses and meanings of images in our world, and offers an important reflection about how war itself is waged (and understood) in our time.
Regarding the Pain of Others (Audible Audio Edition) Susan Sontag Jennifer Van Dyck Audible Studios Books
This is a short but thought-provoking contemplation on how we as viewers respond to photos/artwork that displays suffering, and what the motivations of the creators of such objects might be, both conscious and latent. This is the first work by Sontag I've read, though it probably won't be my last. Her writing is concise, clear, and sometimes masterly. She brings Joyce Carol Oates to mind, or at least their nonfiction works have a similar, probing style (and here I'm thinking of Oates' "On Boxing").This book focused primarily on photos/artwork related to war, which makes its scope perhaps smaller than I would have desired in a work with a title that sounds so sweeping. Therein lies my only quibble with a book that I would have otherwise awarded five stars. There is mention of everything from the Crimean War to Kosovo, but smaller incidents like the photos of the mass suicides of the Baader-Meinhof Group, for instance, receive no attention. Sontag is intelligent (that's an understatement) so I can't for the life of me figure out why she excludes non-war related images from the category of her titular "Pain" (the exception being lynchings in Jim Crow South).
That, as previously mentioned, is a minor quibble with an otherwise flawless study. It bears mentioning that the work is shorter than I would have preferred it to be, if only because Sontag's lucid prose is a joy to read. She mentions another work of hers dealing with essays on photography at some point in the course of "Pain." I think I will have to seek that book out. Hopefully it's a little longer. In any case, recommended...
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Regarding the Pain of Others (Audible Audio Edition) Susan Sontag Jennifer Van Dyck Audible Studios Books Reviews
Susan Sontag is known as a lover as well as a critique of photography. In Regarding the Pain of Others she focuses on the impact of horrible war-images - starting with paintings such as Goya's Disasters of the War (1810-1820) going up to the present, in which first photography and then film have taken over. She rightly and strongly criticises the old idea that 'pictures show the truth', and horrible pictures 'the truth of war', an idea especially popular in the Interwar Years (Ernst Friedrich, Virginia Woolf), but certainly anything but dead after 1945. Pictures have frames so they are framed (even when they are not staged or manipulated) and therefore can not show the truth in all its nuance, in all its effects. And besides the photographer can have his or her intentions when painting or shooting the image, but that is not to say that this intention is indeed the consequence publication will have. A book that makes you think, and that is always a compliment.
Leo van Bergen
Author of Before my Helpless Sight. Suffering, dying and military medicine on the Western Front 1914-1918 (Ashgate Publishing 2009)
Had to read for class. Not impressed, however not bad; just didnt like.
Seemed to linger on points you shared with the author going into the book. Didn’t quite feel like I had my view expanded - but the depth of the conversation is what I expected from what I knew of the author. I found myself researching the images and art and photographer named she utilized as reference.
I had never heard of Susan Sontag prior to my Survey of Photography class. We read the first chapter of "On Photography", it was good. I went ahead and bought the book myself. Later in the semester we read a short bit on "Regarding the Pain of Others", it was even better. All I can say is based on those 2, especially this one, Susan Sontag is amazing. I don't agree with everything she says, but I can't recall an instance that I felt she was misguided or confused. Her thoughts and ideas are well founded and presented. I've since learned of her reputation, and must say she earned it. It's a shame she didn't have more time to write, though there are many other pieces I've yet to read. The best thing I can say is that reading her allows for, in my experience, the chance to almost have a discussion with her. It's written in such a way that it isn't spoon fed to the reader. That's not to say it's a hard read, but it's open enough that your own thoughts can blend with hers.
Great book on the history of how photographs have been used when depicting war and tragedy. Sontag challenges the way society thinks about how these images are used and should be used. While I think some of her analogies and conclusions are flawed, overall I appreciate her point of view and believe that this book is a valuable asset to the student of art history, photographers in particular.
The author asks questions and triggers insights about our fascination with the spectacle of pain and proclivity for cruelty. There may be no magic remedies that would assure more caring attitudes toward Other and empathetic interactions among peoples, but it would have been a more satisfying read to have had the author present some possible ways of nurturing care for all.
I believe that this book gives good observations and questions of the nature and response to photography, art, and other depictions of war rather than any real answers. Is it voyeurism looking at the gruesome and tragic, or does it elicit some compassion and motivate protest? How are the dead of enemy, friendly combatants, and civilians shown in pictures? Is remembering things we personally have not experienced through photographs an ethical act? In modern times have we become inured to these images, accepted as the daily news diet? The examples she gives from paintings, photographs, and movies can be Googled pretty instantly as you read along. It goes beyond propaganda and romanticism, which were the first things I expected when I got this book. Honestly, I just felt the book was a good companion tool while seeing these visual examples, reading the quotes and observations Sontag gives, and seeing how I respond to them.
This is a short but thought-provoking contemplation on how we as viewers respond to photos/artwork that displays suffering, and what the motivations of the creators of such objects might be, both conscious and latent. This is the first work by Sontag I've read, though it probably won't be my last. Her writing is concise, clear, and sometimes masterly. She brings Joyce Carol Oates to mind, or at least their nonfiction works have a similar, probing style (and here I'm thinking of Oates' "On Boxing").
This book focused primarily on photos/artwork related to war, which makes its scope perhaps smaller than I would have desired in a work with a title that sounds so sweeping. Therein lies my only quibble with a book that I would have otherwise awarded five stars. There is mention of everything from the Crimean War to Kosovo, but smaller incidents like the photos of the mass suicides of the Baader-Meinhof Group, for instance, receive no attention. Sontag is intelligent (that's an understatement) so I can't for the life of me figure out why she excludes non-war related images from the category of her titular "Pain" (the exception being lynchings in Jim Crow South).
That, as previously mentioned, is a minor quibble with an otherwise flawless study. It bears mentioning that the work is shorter than I would have preferred it to be, if only because Sontag's lucid prose is a joy to read. She mentions another work of hers dealing with essays on photography at some point in the course of "Pain." I think I will have to seek that book out. Hopefully it's a little longer. In any case, recommended...
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