Where the Stress Falls (41 page)
Read Where the Stress Falls Online
Authors: Susan Sontag
[1995]
Continent, city, country, society: the choice is never wide and never free.
And here, or there … No. Should we have stayed at home, wherever that may be?
—ELIZABETH BISHOP
“Questions of Travel”
“Questions of Travel”
FICTION
The Benefactor
Death Kit
I, etcetera
The Way We Live Now
The Volcano Lover
In America
Death Kit
I, etcetera
The Way We Live Now
The Volcano Lover
In America
ESSAYS
Against Interpretation
Styles of Radical Will
On Photography
Illness As Metaphor
Under the Sign of Saturn
AIDS and Its Metaphors
Styles of Radical Will
On Photography
Illness As Metaphor
Under the Sign of Saturn
AIDS and Its Metaphors
FILM SCRIPTS
Duet for Cannibals
Brother Carl
Brother Carl
PLAY
Alice in Bed
A Susan Sontag Reader
“A Poet’s Prose” was written as an introduction to Marina Tsvetaeva,
Captive Spirit: Selected Prose
(Virago Press, 1983).
Captive Spirit: Selected Prose
(Virago Press, 1983).
“Where the Stress Falls” appeared in
The New Yorker,
June 18, 2001.
The New Yorker,
June 18, 2001.
“Afterlives: The Case of Machado de Assis” is the foreword to a reprinting of
Epitaph of a Small Winner
(Noonday Press, 1990).
Epitaph of a Small Winner
(Noonday Press, 1990).
“A Mind in Mourning” appeared in the
Times Literary Supplement,
February 25, 2000.
Times Literary Supplement,
February 25, 2000.
“The Wisdom Project” appeared in
The New Republic
, March 16, 2001.
The New Republic
, March 16, 2001.
“Writing Itself: On Roland Barthes” is the introduction to
A Barthes Reader
, ed. Susan Sontag (Hill and Wang, 1982).
A Barthes Reader
, ed. Susan Sontag (Hill and Wang, 1982).
“Walser’s Voice” is the preface to Robert Walser,
Selected Stories,
ed. Susan Sontag (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982).
Selected Stories,
ed. Susan Sontag (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982).
“Danilo Kiš” is the introduction to Danilo Kiš,
Homo Poeticus: Essays and Interviews,
ed. Susan Sontag (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995).
Homo Poeticus: Essays and Interviews,
ed. Susan Sontag (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995).
“Gombrowicz’s
Ferdydurke”
is the foreword to a new translation of Witold Gombrowicz,
Ferdydurke
(Yale University Press, 2000).
Ferdydurke”
is the foreword to a new translation of Witold Gombrowicz,
Ferdydurke
(Yale University Press, 2000).
“Pedro Páramo
” is the foreword to a new translation of Juan Rulfo,
Pedro Páramo
(Grove Press, 1994).
” is the foreword to a new translation of Juan Rulfo,
Pedro Páramo
(Grove Press, 1994).
“DQ”
was published in Spanish translation in a National Tourist Board of Spain catalogue, “España: Todo bajo el sol,” in 1985; it has never before appeared in English.
was published in Spanish translation in a National Tourist Board of Spain catalogue, “España: Todo bajo el sol,” in 1985; it has never before appeared in English.
“A Letter to Borges,” written on the tenth anniversary of Borges’s death and published in Spanish translation in the Buenos Aires daily
Clarin
, June 13, 1996, has never before appeared in English.
Clarin
, June 13, 1996, has never before appeared in English.
“A Century of Cinema” was written for and first published in German translation in
Frankfurter Rundschau,
December 30, 1995.
Frankfurter Rundschau,
December 30, 1995.
“Novel into Film: Fassbinder’s
Berlin Alexanderplatz”
appeared in
Vanity Fair
, September 1983.
Berlin Alexanderplatz”
appeared in
Vanity Fair
, September 1983.
“A Note on Bunraku” was a program note for performances of the Bunraku Puppet Theatre at the Japan Society in New York City on March 12—19, 1983.
“A Place for Fantasy” appeared in
House and Garden
, February 1983.
House and Garden
, February 1983.
“The Pleasure of the Image” appeared in
Art in America
, November 1987.
Art in America
, November 1987.
“About Hodgkin” was written for
Howard Hodgkin Paintings
, the catalogue of an exhibition organized by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1995, and subsequently seen at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It was first published in Britain by Thames & Hudson in 1995.
Howard Hodgkin Paintings
, the catalogue of an exhibition organized by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1995, and subsequently seen at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It was first published in Britain by Thames & Hudson in 1995.
“A Lexicon for
Available Light”
appeared in
Art in America
, December 1983.
Available Light”
appeared in
Art in America
, December 1983.
“In Memory of Their Feelings” was written for the catalogue
Dancers on a Plane: Cage
,
Cunningham, Johns,
which accompanied an exhibit at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London from October 31 to December 2, 1989.
Dancers on a Plane: Cage
,
Cunningham, Johns,
which accompanied an exhibit at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London from October 31 to December 2, 1989.
“Dancer and the Dance” first appeared in French
Vogue
, December 1986, in French translation and in English.
Vogue
, December 1986, in French translation and in English.
“On Lincoln Kirstein” is a revision, done in 1997 for a publication by the New York City Ballet, of a tribute to Lincoln Kirstein written ten years earlier, on his eightieth birthday, which appeared in
Vanity Fair
, May 1987.
Vanity Fair
, May 1987.
“Wagner’s Fluids” was the program essay for a production of
Tristan und Isolde
staged by Jonathan Miller at the Los Angeles Opera in December 1987.
Tristan und Isolde
staged by Jonathan Miller at the Los Angeles Opera in December 1987.
“An Ecstasy of Lament” was the program essay for a production of
Pelléas et Mélisande
staged by Robert Wilson at the Salzburg Festival in July 1997.
Pelléas et Mélisande
staged by Robert Wilson at the Salzburg Festival in July 1997.
“One Hundred Years of Italian Photography” is the foreword to
Italy: One Hundred Years of Photography
(Alinari 1988).
Italy: One Hundred Years of Photography
(Alinari 1988).
“On Bellocq” is the introduction to a new edition of E. J. Bellocq,
Storyville Portraits
(Jonathan Cape and Random House, 1996).
Storyville Portraits
(Jonathan Cape and Random House, 1996).
“Borland’s Babies” is the preface to Polly Borland’s
The Babies
(power-House Books, 2001).
The Babies
(power-House Books, 2001).
“Certain Mapplethorpes” is the preface to Robert Mapplethorpe’s
Certain People: A Book of Portraits
(Twelvetrees Press, 1985).
Certain People: A Book of Portraits
(Twelvetrees Press, 1985).
“A Photograph Is Not an Opinion. Or Is It?” was written as an accompanying text to Annie Leibovitz’s
Women
(Random House, 1999).
Women
(Random House, 1999).
“Homage to Halliburton” was published in
Oxford American,
March/April 2001.
Oxford American,
March/April 2001.
“Singleness,” one of a group of essays inspired by Borges’s “Borges y yo,” was collected in
Who’s Writing This?
, ed. Daniel Halpern (Ecco Press, 1995).
Who’s Writing This?
, ed. Daniel Halpern (Ecco Press, 1995).
“Writing As Reading,” a contribution to a series called “Writers on Writing” in
The New York Times
, appeared on December 18, 2000.
The New York Times
, appeared on December 18, 2000.
“Thirty Years Later …” is the preface to a new edition of the Spanish translation of
Against Interpretation
(Alfaguara, 1996). It was first published in English in
Threepenny Review
(Summer 1996).
Against Interpretation
(Alfaguara, 1996). It was first published in English in
Threepenny Review
(Summer 1996).
“Questions of Travel” appeared in the
Times Literary Supplement,
June 22, 1984.
Times Literary Supplement,
June 22, 1984.
“The Idea of Europe (One More Elegy)” started as a talk delivered at a conference on Europe held in Berlin in late May 1988. It has never before appeared in English.
“The Very Comical Lament of Pyramus and Thisbe (An Interlude)” was written for the catalogue of an art exhibition in Berlin and first published there, in German translation, in
Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit Berlin 1990,
ed. Wulf Herzogenrath, Joachim Sartorius, and Christoph Tannert (Edition Hentrich, 1990). It appeared in English in
The New Yorker,
March 4, 1991.
Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit Berlin 1990,
ed. Wulf Herzogenrath, Joachim Sartorius, and Christoph Tannert (Edition Hentrich, 1990). It appeared in English in
The New Yorker,
March 4, 1991.
“Answers to a Questionnaire” was written in July 1997, in response to a questionnaire sent by a French literary quarterly. It was published, in French, in “Enquête: Que peuvent les intellectuels? 36 écrivains répondent,”
La Règle du Jeu,
n.s. 21 (1998), and has never before appeared in English.
La Règle du Jeu,
n.s. 21 (1998), and has never before appeared in English.
“Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo” was first published in
The New York Review of Books
, October 21, 1993.
The New York Review of Books
, October 21, 1993.
“‘There’ and ‘Here’” appeared in
The Nation
, December 25, 1995.
The Nation
, December 25, 1995.
“Joseph Brodsky” was written in 1997 as the afterword to Mikhail Lemkhin,
Joseph BrodskylLeningrad Fragments
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998).
Joseph BrodskylLeningrad Fragments
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998).
“On Being Translated,” a speech given in November 1995 at a conference on translation held at Columbia University and organized by Francesco Pellizzi, the editor of
Res,
was printed in Res 32 (Autumn 1997).
Res,
was printed in Res 32 (Autumn 1997).
1
The version of the aesthete sensibility I once tried to include under the name “camp” can be regarded as a technique of taste for making the aesthete appreciations less exclusionary (a way of liking more than one really wants to like) and as part of the democratizing of dandy attitudes. Camp taste, however, still presupposes the older, high standards of discrimination—in contrast to the taste incarnated by, say, Andy Warhol, the franchiser and mass marketer of the dandyism of leveling.
2
This modernist dictum that writing is, ideally, a form of impersonality or absence underlies Barthes’s move to eliminate the “author” when considering a book. (The method of his
S/Z
: an exemplary reading of a Balzac novella as virtually an authorless text.) One of the things Barthes does as a critic is to formulate the mandate for one kind of writer’s modernism (Flaubert, Valéry, Eliot) as a general program for
readers.
Another is to contravene that man date in practice—for most of Barthes’s writing is precisely devoted to personal singularity.
S/Z
: an exemplary reading of a Balzac novella as virtually an authorless text.) One of the things Barthes does as a critic is to formulate the mandate for one kind of writer’s modernism (Flaubert, Valéry, Eliot) as a general program for
readers.
Another is to contravene that man date in practice—for most of Barthes’s writing is precisely devoted to personal singularity.
3
There is a metaphoric use of translation-as-adaptation, which evokes the older, physical sense of translation: translating (transposing) from one
medium
to another. Here there are no guidelines about what may be produced by following the original more, rather than less, literally; or (as is often recommended) choosing an inferior work to strut one’s stuff. When
Berlin Alexanderplatz
was “translated to the screen” by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the filmmaker preserved a large part of the spirit of Döblin’s masterpiece, and also made a film that is a masterpiece. What might seem a counterexample, with equally exemplary results: Henry Bernstein’s
Mélo
is far from a great play, but Alain Resnais’s
Mélo,
which scrupulously follows the text of Bernstein’s boulevard melodrama of 1928, is a great film. Resnais did not have to improve Bernstein’s play. He only had to add to it his own genius.
medium
to another. Here there are no guidelines about what may be produced by following the original more, rather than less, literally; or (as is often recommended) choosing an inferior work to strut one’s stuff. When
Berlin Alexanderplatz
was “translated to the screen” by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the filmmaker preserved a large part of the spirit of Döblin’s masterpiece, and also made a film that is a masterpiece. What might seem a counterexample, with equally exemplary results: Henry Bernstein’s
Mélo
is far from a great play, but Alain Resnais’s
Mélo,
which scrupulously follows the text of Bernstein’s boulevard melodrama of 1928, is a great film. Resnais did not have to improve Bernstein’s play. He only had to add to it his own genius.
WHERE THE STRESS FALLS. Copyright © 2001 by Susan Sontag. All rights reserved. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
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is a U.S. registered trademark and is used by Farrar, Straus and Giroux under license from Pan Books Limited.
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First published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
eISBN 9781429923828
First eBook Edition : August 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sontag, Susan, 1933—
Where the stress falls : essays / Susan Sontag. p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-42131-1
PS3569.O6547 W48 2001
814’54—dc21
2001033704
First Picador Edition: November 2002
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