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
Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or intellectual beauty. Moral beauty has a tendency to decay very rapidly into sententiousness or untimeliness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Moral beauty in art is fleeting and less enduring than artistic or intellectual beauty.
In this quote, Susan Sontag reflects on the nature of moral beauty in art, suggesting that it is not as lasting as the beauty found in artistic expression or intellectual thought. She warns that moral beauty can quickly deteriorate into something trite or outdated, emphasizing the fragility of ethical themes in art and their tendency to lose their impact over time.
Themes
Moral BeautyArtPerishabilityAestheticIntellectual Beauty
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the philosophy of art, one could reference this quote to discuss the transient nature of moral themes.
More from Susan Sontag
All quotes →Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.
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Gide and I have attained such perfect intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives birth to!
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Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.
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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.
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It hurts to love. It's like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.
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