--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The best criticism, and it is uncommon…" description: "\"“The best criticism, and it is uncommon, is of this sort that dissolves considerations of content into those of form.”\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b8/susan-sontag-332_content_the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is_2509106.jpg" --- # The best criticism, and it is uncommon, is of this sort… ![“The best criticism, and it is uncommon, is of this sort that dissolves considerations of content into those of form.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b8/susan-sontag-332_content_the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is_2509106.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b8/susan-sontag-332_content_the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is_2509106.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b8/susan-sontag-332_content_the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is_2509106.jpg) > ““The best criticism, and it is uncommon, is of this sort that dissolves considerations of content into those of form.”” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote argues that true criticism should focus on form rather than content, because form reveals deeper meanings. **In simple terms:** Critique should examine structure, not just subject matter. Key Takeaway Prioritize analyzing how something is presented. Themes criticism form interpretation Mood analytical thoughtful Type critical theoretical When to use this quote - art reviews - literary analysis - media studies - academic essays Key Concepts aesthetics structural analysis Questions to Reflect On - How does focusing on form change your understanding? - When is content more important than form? A Different Perspective Form analysis can miss content significance. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Criticism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/criticism/) [Happiness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/happiness/) [Interpretation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/interpretation/) ## Related quotes > [The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-rohr/the-best-criticism-of-the-bad-is-the-practice-of-the-better/) [Richard Rohr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-rohr/) > [The best criticism is the sort that tells you what you already know but had been reluctant to accuse yourself of.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-d-mcclatchy/the-best-criticism-is-the-sort-that-tells-you-what-you-already-know/) [J. D. McClatchy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-d-mcclatchy/) > [If the mystical lovers of the arts, who consider all criticism dissection and all dissection destruction of enjoyment, thought logically, an exclamation like "Goodness…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karl-wilhelm-friedrich-schlegel/if-the-mystical-lovers-of-the-arts-who-consider-all-criticism/) [Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karl-wilhelm-friedrich-schlegel/) > [Today is such a time, when the project of interpretation is largely reactionary, stifling. Like the fumes of the automobile and of heavy industry…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/today-is-such-a-time-when-the-project-of-interpretation-is-largely-2/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Interpretation, based on the highly dubious theory that a work of art is composed of items of content, violates art. It makes art into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/interpretation-based-on-the-highly-dubious-theory-that-a-work-of-art/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/interpretation-is-the-revenge-of-the-intellectual-upon-art/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Today is such a time, when the project of interpretation is largely reactionary, stifling. Like the fumes of the automobile and of heavy industry…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/today-is-such-a-time-when-the-project-of-interpretation-is-largely/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“This philistinism of interpretation is more rife in literature than in any other art. For decades now, literary critics have understood it to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/this-philistinism-of-interpretation-is-more-rife-in-literature-than/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [A photograph is not only an image (as a painting is an image), an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace, something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/a-photograph-is-not-only-an-image-as-a-painting-is-an-image-an/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [While a painting, even one that meets photographic standards of resemblance, is never more than the stating of an interpretation, a photograph is never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/while-a-painting-even-one-that-meets-photographic-standards-of/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [In the very beginning, Yelp started as a service where we really didn't think people would write reviews for fun. The whole concept of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeremy-stoppelman/in-the-very-beginning-yelp-started-as-a-service-where-we-really-didn/) [Jeremy Stoppelman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeremy-stoppelman/) > [Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-franklin/who-is-rich-he-that-is-content-who-is-that-nobody/) [Benjamin Franklin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-franklin/) > [Because YouTube is focused on a lot of different types of content at the same time, it has many opportunities, and the hardest thing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-kyncl/because-youtube-is-focused-on-a-lot-of-different-types-of-content-at/) [Robert Kyncl](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-kyncl/) > [The reason I'm drawn to it is - both the off road racing and the motorcycles on the track - it takes a lot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dax-shepard/the-reason-i-m-drawn-to-it-is-both-the-off-road-racing-and-the/) [Dax Shepard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dax-shepard/) > [I was contacted by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, MP, through the Pune Film Institute and offered the post in the NFDC. I accepted it for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/suresh-gopi/i-was-contacted-by-rajyavardhan-singh-rathore-mp-through-the-pune/) [Suresh Gopi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/suresh-gopi/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Content quotes > [I was contacted by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, MP, through the Pune Film Institute and offered the post in the NFDC. I accepted it for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/suresh-gopi/i-was-contacted-by-rajyavardhan-singh-rathore-mp-through-the-pune/) [Suresh Gopi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/suresh-gopi/) > [The reason I'm drawn to it is - both the off road racing and the motorcycles on the track - it takes a lot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dax-shepard/the-reason-i-m-drawn-to-it-is-both-the-off-road-racing-and-the/) [Dax Shepard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dax-shepard/) > [Because YouTube is focused on a lot of different types of content at the same time, it has many opportunities, and the hardest thing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-kyncl/because-youtube-is-focused-on-a-lot-of-different-types-of-content-at/) [Robert Kyncl](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-kyncl/) > [Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-franklin/who-is-rich-he-that-is-content-who-is-that-nobody/) [Benjamin Franklin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-franklin/) > [In the very beginning, Yelp started as a service where we really didn't think people would write reviews for fun. The whole concept of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeremy-stoppelman/in-the-very-beginning-yelp-started-as-a-service-where-we-really-didn/) [Jeremy Stoppelman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeremy-stoppelman/) > [Most of us are not content with our lot because we want a lot more](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marianette-carbito/most-of-us-are-not-content-with-our-lot-because-we-want-a-lot-more/) [Marianette Carbito](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marianette-carbito/) > [Ambition devours gold and drinks blood and climbs so high by other men's heads, that at the length in the fall, it breaks its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-wentworth-1st-earl-of-strafford/ambition-devours-gold-and-drinks-blood-and-climbs-so-high-by-other/) Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford > [Style is important, but content comes first.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-j-kilpatrick/style-is-important-but-content-comes-first/) [James J. Kilpatrick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-j-kilpatrick/) > [Travelers must be content.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/travelers-must-be-content/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [Those who are content have enough; those that complain, have too much.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-franklin/those-who-are-content-have-enough-those-that-complain-have-too-much/) [Benjamin Franklin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-franklin/) > [Our content Is our best having.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/our-content-is-our-best-having/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [No one is content with his own lot.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/horace/no-one-is-content-with-his-own-lot/) [Horace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/horace/) > [I don't wanna say I'm growing up, but I definitely feel content.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/garrett-mcnamara/i-don-t-wanna-say-i-m-growing-up-but-i-definitely-feel-content/) [Garrett McNamara](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/garrett-mcnamara/) > [Chinnadana Nee Kosam' is a very good romantic entertainer. Compared to my previous films, the emotional content in this film is strong.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nithiin/chinnadana-nee-kosam-is-a-very-good-romantic-entertainer-compared-to/) [Nithiin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nithiin/) > [I'm transitioning to television and film, but ultimately, I want to have a stronger presence on the web and be able to curate the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/issa-rae/i-m-transitioning-to-television-and-film-but-ultimately-i-want-to/) [Issa Rae](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/issa-rae/) Browse all 865 Content quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The best criticism, and it is uncommon, is of this sort that dissolves considerations of content into those of form.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is-of-this-sort-that-dissolves/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Content" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is-of-this-sort-that-dissolves/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b8/susan-sontag-332_content_the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is_2509106.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b8/susan-sontag-332_content_the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is_2509106.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b8/susan-sontag-332_content_the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is_2509106.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The best criticism, and it is uncommon, is of this sort that dissolves considerations of content into those…” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Susan Sontag", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“The best criticism, and it is...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is-of-this-sort-that-dissolves/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-best-criticism-and-it-is-uncommon-is-of-this-sort-that-dissolves/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```