Susan Sontag (1933 ------ 2004) was one of the most noticeable figures in the world of literature. For more than 40 years she made it morally necessary to know everything----- to read every book worth reading, to see every movie worth seeing. When she was still in her early 30s, publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review, she appeared as the symbol of American culture life, trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. With great effort and serious judgment, Sontag walked at the latest edges of world culture.
Seriousness was one of Sontag’s lifelong watchwords (格言), but at a time when the barriers between the well-educated and the poorly-educated were obvious, she argued for a true openness to the pleasure of pop culture. In Notes Camp, the 1964 essay that first made her name, she explained what was then a little-known set of difficult understandings, through which she could not have been more famous. Notes on Camp, she wrote, represents “a victory of ‘form’ over ‘content’, ‘beauty’ over ‘morals’”.
By conviction she was a sensualist (感觉论者), but by nature she was a moralist, and in the works she published in the 1970s and 1980s, it was the latter side of her that came forward. In Illness as Metaphor ------published in 1978, after she suffered cancer ------ she argued against the idea that cancer was somehow a special problem of repressed (被压抑的) personalities, a concept that effectively blamed the victim for the disease. In fact, re-examining old positions was her lifelong habit.
In America, her story of a 19th century Polish actress who set up a perfect society in California, won the National Book Award in 2000. But it was as a tireless, all-purpose cultural view that she made her lasting fame.
“Sometimes,” she once said, “I feel that, in the end, all I am really defending… is the idea of seriousness, of true seriousness.” And in the end, she made us take it seriously too.
小题1:It is implied but not stated in the first paragraph that Sontag _________.| A．was a symbol of American cultural life | | B．developed world literature, film and art | | C．published many essays about world culture | | D．kept pace with the newest development of world culture |
小题2:She first won her name through _________.| A．publishing essays in magazines like Partisan Review | | B．her story of a Polish actress | | C．her explanation of a set of difficult understandings | | D．her book Illness as Metaphor |
小题3:From the works Susan published in the 1970s and 1980s, we can learn that ________.| A．she was more of a moralist than a sensualist | | B．she was more of a sensualist than a moralist | | C．she believed repressed personalities mainly led to illness | | D．she would like to re-examine old positions |
小题4:According to the passage, Susan Sontag would agree to the ideas except _________.| A．We should try hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. | | B．Cancer can be defeated because it is a special problem of repressed personalities. | | C．‘Form’ should be over ‘content’, ‘beauty’ should be over ‘morals. | | D．We should defend the idea of seriousness, of true seriousness. |
小题5:What is the passage mainly about?| A．A lifelong watchword: seriousness | | B．Susan Sontag is the symbol of American culture | | C．How Susan Sontag became famous | | D．An introduction to Susan Sontag and her watchword |
|