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Notes on "Camp" - Susan Sontag

By Susan Sontag

Release Date: 2019-06-14

Genre: Philosophy

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From one of the greatest prose stylists of any generation, the essay that inspired the theme of the 2019 Met Gala, Camp: Notes on Fashion

Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the sensibility—unmistakably modern, a variant of sophistication but hardly identical with it—that goes by the cult name of “Camp.”

So begins Susan Sontag’s seminal essay “Notes on ‘Camp.’ ” Originally published in 1964 and included in her landmark debut essay collection Against Interpretation, Sontag’s notes set out to define something that even the most well-informed could describe only as “I know it when I see it.” At once grounded in a sweeping history (Louis XIV was pure Camp) and entirely provisional, Camp delights in low and high culture alike. Tiffany lamps, the androgynous beauty of Greta Garbo, King Kong (1933), and Mozart all embody the Camp sensibility for Sontag—an almost ineffable blend of artifice, extravagance, playfulness, and a deadly seriousness. At the time Sontag published her essay, Camp, as a subversion of sexual norms, had also become a private code of signification for queer communities.

In nearly every genre and form—from visual art, dĂ©cor, and fashion to writing, music, and film—Camp continues to be redefined today, as seen in the 2019 Met Gala that took Sontag’s essay as the basis for its theme. “Style is everything,” Sontag tells us, and as Time magazine points out, “ ‘Notes on “Camp” ’ launched a new way of thinking,” paving the way for a whole new style of cultural criticism, and describing what is, in many ways, the defining sensibility of our culture today.

Notes on "Camp" - Susan Sontag

By Susan Sontag

Release Date: 2019-06-14

Genre: Philosophy

4.5 (18 ratings)
Read Download
From one of the greatest prose stylists of any generation, the essay that inspired the theme of the 2019 Met Gala, Camp: Notes on Fashion

Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the sensibility—unmistakably modern, a variant of sophistication but hardly identical with it—that goes by the cult name of “Camp.”

So begins Susan Sontag’s seminal essay “Notes on ‘Camp.’ ” Originally published in 1964 and included in her landmark debut essay collection Against Interpretation, Sontag’s notes set out to define something that even the most well-informed could describe only as “I know it when I see it.” At once grounded in a sweeping history (Louis XIV was pure Camp) and entirely provisional, Camp delights in low and high culture alike. Tiffany lamps, the androgynous beauty of Greta Garbo, King Kong (1933), and Mozart all embody the Camp sensibility for Sontag—an almost ineffable blend of artifice, extravagance, playfulness, and a deadly seriousness. At the time Sontag published her essay, Camp, as a subversion of sexual norms, had also become a private code of signification for queer communities.

In nearly every genre and form—from visual art, dĂ©cor, and fashion to writing, music, and film—Camp continues to be redefined today, as seen in the 2019 Met Gala that took Sontag’s essay as the basis for its theme. “Style is everything,” Sontag tells us, and as Time magazine points out, “ ‘Notes on “Camp” ’ launched a new way of thinking,” paving the way for a whole new style of cultural criticism, and describing what is, in many ways, the defining sensibility of our culture today.

More by Susan Sontag

On Photography

Regarding the Pain of Others

Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors

Against Interpretation

Notes on "Camp"

The Volcano Lover

In America

As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh

Reborn

Growing Up Absurd

A Susan Sontag Reader

The Case of Comrade Tulayev

On Women

Styles of Radical Will

At the Same Time

Under the Sign of Saturn

Where the Stress Falls

Ante el dolor de los demĂĄs

Alice in Bed

I, etcetera

The Benefactor

Death Kit

Contra la interpretaciĂłn y otros ensayos

Sobre la fotografĂ­a

La enfermedad y sus metĂĄforas El sida y sus metĂĄforas

One-Way Street

Debriefing

El amante del volcĂĄn

Yo, etcétera

Estilos radicales

Al mismo tiempo

Bajo el signo de Saturno

Duet for Cannibals

Brother Carl

En América

CuestiĂłn de Ă©nfasis

Renacida

De las mujeres (Serie ENDEBATE)

El benefactor

Estuche de muerte

L'amante del vulcano

Susan Sontag

La mente despejada

Rinata. Diari e appunti 1947-1963

Obra imprescindible

Style radykalnej woli

Contro l'interpretazione

Przeciw interpretacji

Kilka uwag o emancypacji

The Doors und Dostojewski

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