Day 9: Sylvia Townsend Warner, Susan Sontag, Edna Millay
Story: Sylvia Townsend Warner - The Phoenix
I loved the ending of this one. It all builds up to it and it made me burst out a big laugh. It feels like one of Kafka's silly stories. A ripper.
Essay: Susan Sontag - The Artist as Exemplary Sufferer
Why are we so fascinated by love and suffering? Sontag writes that artists have replaced the saints as "exemplary sufferers", and our fascination with the suffering artist is tied to Christianity.
"The cult of love in the West is an aspect of the cult of suffering--suffering as the supreme token of seriousness. We do not find among the Hebrews, Greeks, and the Orientals the same value placed on love because we do not find there the same value placed on suffering. Suffering was not the hallmark of seriousness; rather, seriousness was measured by one's ability to evade or transcend the penalty of suffering, by one's ability to achieve tranquility and equilibrium."
I find the ideas in this essay so interesting, and its amazing that Sontag can turn a review of an author's published diaries (from Cesare Pavese) into a philosophical text in its own right.
Most of Sontag's essays in the collection I have are on famous people I don't know, but I think I will read them anyway for all her insights about the world.
Poem: Edna Millay - Time Does Not Bring Relief
I am enjoying reading Edna Millay's poems, which are direct, candid and true. This one is about grief