Susan Sontag, author and activist, dies at 71

AP ^ | 12/28/4

[SmithL]

NEW YORK -- Susan Sontag, the author, activist and self-defined "zealot of seriousness" whose voracious mind and provocative prose made her a leading intellectual of the past half century, died Tuesday. She was 71.

Sontag died Tuesday morning, officials at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center said. She had been treated for breast cancer in the 1970s.

Sontag called herself a "besotted aesthete," an "obsessed moralist" and a "zealot of seriousness."

[guitarist]

She's not an atheist anymore.

[SolutionsOnly]

I've always wondered what transpires when these types of people have when they plead their case to St Peter. It would be so very interesting to be a fly on the wall.

[Jaded]

There's probably not much difference in their ideology.

[SuziQ]

I didn't realize she was that old.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Here: I made it a working link for you. :)

[weegee]

Is SHE one of Atta's 72 virgins?

[Lancey Howard]

Maher may have lost his show "Politically Incorrect" (in part, at least) because of his comment. Sontag, as a known radical nincompoop who few took seriously, would have been shrugged off for her sentiments but Maher expressed himself on his own prime-time show.

[Recall]

"besotted aesthete"

I don't know what that means but it's probably what killed her.

[A Jovial Cad]

Can't say that this news is gonna curdle much beer in my neck of the woods--if any.

[rcocean]

I've never understood her popularity. She was a communist symp, making wild moronic political statement.

I found her writing to be convoluted, turgid, and unreadable. I always assumed she was a German who learned English as a second language.

I assume the same people who find NTY editorials hard-hitting and persuasive, think of Sontag as an Intellectual giant.

[NJ Neocon]

Does anyone know if she was the one who said something to the effect that she would certainly not fly the flag after 9/11. That it represented fascism?

[Viking2002]

Ding dong, the bitch is dead. She earns no pass in death that she didn't deserve in life.

[Old Professer]

Razors cut flesh, bone and hair without regard.

[freespirited]

A lot of people are clueless. But few manage to express it quite as obnoxiously.

[Truthsayer20]

"The truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean Algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Marx, and Ballanchine ballets don't redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history."

Author Susan Sontag, Partisan Review, Winter 1967, p. 57.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[rdcorso]

I didn't know who she was before 9/11 but after hearing her opinion I knew she was a worthless d-bag.Susan Sontag,warrior,genius,and expert on war.Give me a break.

[justshutupandtakeit]

I don't really care what the Left says about anything but I will tell you that there were many courageous Germany soldiers fighting us in WWII as there were many courageous Japanese soldiers.

Belittling your enemies' courage does not help you win a fight. Recognizing it might help you win.