Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a sense of the past.
Susan SontagRead
In NY sensuality completely turns into sexuality - no objects for the senses to respond to, no beautiful river, houses, people. Awful smells of the street, and dirt... Nothing except eating, if that, and the frenzy of the bed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the transformation of sensual experiences into a more primal sexuality, criticizing the lack of beauty in urban life.
Susan Sontag's quote highlights a stark observation about urban existence, particularly in New York City, where the rich layers of sensual experience are stripped away, leaving behind a raw and often unpleasant reality. She suggests that in such an environment, the essence of human experience becomes reduced to basic desires, losing its connection to the beauty and sensory richness that typically inspire deeper human interactions.
Themes
SensualitySexualityUrban LifeBeautyExperience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can inspire a discussion at an urban art exhibition about the relationship between environment and human experience.
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Conventions vs. spontaneity. This is a dialectical choice, it depends on the assessment you make of your own times. If you judge that your own time is ridden with empty insincere formalities, you plump for spontaneity, for indecorous behavior even...Much of morality is the task of compensating for one's age. One assumes unfashionable virtues, in an indecorous time. In a time hollowed out by decorum, one must school oneself in spontaneity.
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