http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/sontag-onstyle.html

“Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind. We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires.” - Rene Girard 

Mimetic Theory - mimesis is human desire. 

in art it's a re-representation of nature. 

It is assumed that a work of art is its content, that a work of art by definition says something ("What X is saying is...,")

Interpretation is a radical strategy for conserving an old text, which is thought too precious
to repudiate, by revamping it. The interpreter, without actually erasing or
rewriting the text, is altering it. But he can’t admit to doing this. He claims
to be only making it intelligible, by disclosing its true meaning.

The old style of interpretation was insistent, but respectful;
it erected another meaning on top of the literal one. The modern style of
interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs “behind” the
text, to find a sub-text which is the true one.

In a culture whose
already classical dilemma is the hypertrophy of the intellect at the
expense of energy and sensual capability, interpretation is the revenge of
the intellect upon art.

Once upon a time (say, for Dante), it must have been a revolutionary
and creative move to design works of art so that they might be
experienced on several levels. Now it is not. It reinforces the principle of
redundancy that is the principal affliction of modem life.

What we decidedly do not need now is further to assimilate Art
into Thought, or (worse yet) Art into Culture.

The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it
is what it is, rather than to show what it means.

Notes

🍻 Would I get a beer with the author? 

boring book club

Sontag, Against Interpretation

Link

Highlights