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
Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Science fiction films explore themes of disaster rather than focusing solely on scientific concepts.
In this quote, Susan Sontag emphasizes that the true essence of science fiction films lies in their exploration of human experiences in the face of disaster. Although these films may be set in futuristic or scientific contexts, their core narratives often reflect timeless themes of conflict, fear, and survival, placing them within the broader tradition of art that deals with human suffering and existential crises.
Themes
Science FictionFilmsDisasterArtHuman Experience
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the deeper meanings of science fiction films during a film studies class.
More from Susan Sontag
All quotes →Gide and I have attained such perfect intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives birth to!
Susan SontagRead
Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.
Susan SontagRead
In NY sensuality completely turns into sexuality - no objects for the senses to respond to, no beautiful river, houses, people. Awful smells of the street, and dirt... Nothing except eating, if that, and the frenzy of the bed.
Susan SontagRead
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.
Susan SontagRead
Conventions vs. spontaneity. This is a dialectical choice, it depends on the assessment you make of your own times. If you judge that your own time is ridden with empty insincere formalities, you plump for spontaneity, for indecorous behavior even...Much of morality is the task of compensating for one's age. One assumes unfashionable virtues, in an indecorous time. In a time hollowed out by decorum, one must school oneself in spontaneity.
Susan SontagRead
Similar quotes
I've come to appreciate how special a song is compared to other art forms, because you can carry it around in your head and your heart, and it remains part of you. It just comes as natural as a bird to me, always did. It's the way singer-songwriters make sense of our lives.
Kris KristoffersonRead
Writing is the delicate, difficult, and dangerous means of succeeding in avowing the unavowable.
Helene CixousRead
If you had a sign above every studio door saying ‘This Studio is a Musical Instrument’ it would make such a different approach to recording.
Brian EnoRead
For a film maker, an Oscar is like a Nobel Prize, you know. So I am very happy... delighted. There is nothing more after this. I cannot hope to get anything more prestigious.
Satyajit RayRead
Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.
Marilyn MonroeRead
In those days, a gay man was made to feel nothing but shame about his feelings and his sexuality. I wanted my drawings to counteract that, to show gay men being happy and positive about who they were. Oh, I didn't sit down to think this all out carefully. But I knew - right from the start - that my men were going to be proud and happy men!
Tom Of FinlandRead