23 July 2012

Sontag on aphorisms

Maria Popova at Brainpickings brings together some of Susan Sontag's thoughts on aphorisms, which she (Sontag) describes as impatient thinking. I liked Sontag's characterisation of typical aphoristic subject matter:
the hypocrisies of societies, the vanities of human wishes, the shallowness + deviousness of women; the sham of love; the pleasures (and necessity) of solitude; + the intricacies of one’s own thought processes.
John Naughton cites Auden and Kronenberger as counter-evidence. Maybe the exception that proves the rule, or just a complete non-alignment of two very different perspectives.

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