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Rumpus Book ClubDid Susan Sontag Wreck Civilization?
“People say a lot of stupid things about the fifties, but it is true that there was this total separation between the people who were tuned into the popular culture and those who were involved in the high culture. There was nobody I ever met who was interested in both, and I always was.” – Susan Sontag
Ultimately, this was a noble experiment that went wrong. Academics tried to stake a claim on pop culture but instead pop culture staked a claim on them. Here at The Rumpus we’re creating the high culture Internet magazine of the fifties. And we’re voting for Adlai.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I think Pauline Kael said the same thing near the end of her life: like Sontag, she was fighting against high-culture bulwarks, but never thought there was a chance she could actually WIN and destroy the whole city. Something like that.