Writing Quote by Susan Sontag
““The culture-heroes of our liberal bourgeois civilisation are anti-liberal and anti-bourgeois; they are writers who are repetitive, obsessive, and impolite, who impress by force - not simply by their tone of personal authority and by their intellectual ardor, but by the sense of acute personal and intellectual extremity. The bigots, the hysterics, the destroyers of the self - these are the writers who bear witness to the fearful polite time in which we live. Mostly it is a matter of tone: it is hardly possible to give credence to ideas uttered in the impersonal tones of sanity.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: “Notes on ‘Camp’”, 1964
She critiques cultural elites who claim liberalism yet act anti-liberal, using extreme, forceful tones that undermine genuine discourse.
In simple terms: Cultural critics use harsh tones that block authentic ideas.
Key Takeaway
Beware of style over substance.
Themes
culture
politics
literature
tone
authenticity
Mood
critical
skeptical
Type
analytical
philosophical
When to use this quote
- academic debates
- media criticism
- public discourse
- political commentary
Key Concepts
postmodernism
critical theory
authorial voice
Questions to Reflect On
- How does tone affect credibility?
- When does provocation become counterproductive?
A Different Perspective
Such extremes can alienate audiences and stifle constructive dialogue.
![“Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… [The anthropologist] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner alienation as an urban intellectual.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fe1/susan-sontag-332_alienation_anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-a_15322.jpg)
