Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a sense of the past.
Susan SontagRead
Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights how diseases with unclear causes and ineffective treatments can take on excessive importance in public discourse.
Susan Sontag suggests that when a disease's origins are ambiguous and effective treatments are lacking, it becomes imbued with profound meaning and discussion. The uncertainty surrounding such diseases often leads to heightened focus and significance, reflecting societal fears and the human desire to seek understanding in the face of what is unknown.
Themes
DiseaseCausalitySignificanceUncertaintyTreatment
In practice
Example use cases
In a public health seminar discussing the impacts of misinformation on disease perception.
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Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.
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It hurts to love. It's like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.
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