On the Pain of Others (The Susan Sontag Collection)

Author: Susan Sontag (USA), translated by Huang Canran
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This book is Susan Sontag's second monograph on photography after On Photography, and also her last work published posthumously. It focuses on war photography, exploring the relationship between the suffering reflected in images and the viewers. Horrific images, while capable of evoking the viewers' compassion, make these images, which permeate daily life yet seem alien to it, seem redundant and absurd due to people's sense of helplessness. If we believe in the content of images without thinking, our moral judgment will only weaken. Sontag writes about images in pure text, providing viewers with space to confront "the suffering of others."
Susan Sontag was born in New York, USA, in 1933. She graduated from the University of Chicago and later pursued graduate studies in philosophy, literature, and theology at Harvard University and Oxford University. In the 1980s, Sontag served as the director of the International P.E.N. Club. In 1993, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The planned works for the Sontag Anthology include Against Interpretation, Illness as Metaphor, Where the Stress Falls, The Form of Radical Will, Under the Sign of Saturn, and Regarding the Pain of Others. Among these, Against Interpretation and Illness as Metaphor have been published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House. Where the Stress Falls and Regarding the Pain of Others were scheduled to be published before Susan Sontag's visit to China in May 2004. Under the Sign of Saturn and The Form of Radical Will were published in October 2004. Regarding the Pain of Others is Susan Sontag's second monograph on photography after On Photography, and also her last work published posthumously. It focuses on war photography, exploring the relationship between the suffering reflected in images and the viewers. Horrific images, while capable of evoking the viewers' compassion, make these images, which permeate daily life yet seem alien to it, seem redundant and absurd due to people's sense of helplessness. If we believe in the content of images without thinking, our moral judgment will only weaken. Sontag writes about images in pure text, providing viewers with space to confront "the suffering of others."