User Profile

I am deep into the other essays (ie: where she is For and not Against Interpretation).

It is a little exhausting and I don't recommend it was a way to pass time while you are waiting in the cold for the bus. But there are things I am really taking notes on. For example, when she is talking about different Robert Bresson films on their own terms but before she diverges into the big themes of his work in general. Taken side-by-side, the former is the type of thing I am looking to learn from, the latter is what I want to avoid.

I am a few essays in and it is hitting the spot.

It was a strategic decision to read this book right now because I am on the cusp of starting a film watching blog. I had a pretty good idea of what this book was going to say but I wanted to hear the thesis in full.

I am reading it because I want to be able to write some prose for my blog but I don't really want to engage in criticism. It is more of a record to myself of what I appreciated about a given film watching experience. (And the same goes for wyrmsign and the books I read.)

At the end of the first essay, Susan Sontag says that we need "less hermeneutics and more erotics" in our approach to enjoying art. That's the sort of bold statement I am looking for from this book.

I am a sucker for these feminist takes on classic literature. Some of them genuinely add a fullness to the original stories and do a great job of rehabilitating them such as The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Other works brutally expose them such as The Mere Wife by Mariana Dahvana Headley. Clytemnestra is in the latter category.

One little nit: I would have cut a short section at the end where Clytemnestra tries to explain the relationship with her lover Aegisthus. It's just unnecessary.