{"id":2097131,"date":"2023-11-13T11:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T16:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-unfun-couple\/"},"modified":"2023-11-13T11:36:26","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T16:36:26","slug":"the-unfun-couple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-unfun-couple\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unfun Couple"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">6<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-unfun-couple%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2097131&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Meeting Orwell&#8217;s Caricatures: A \u200cTale of \u2064Intellectual Brutality<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In a well-known letter of George Orwell&#8217;s to Stephen Spender,\u2063 Orwell\u200d tells Spender that \u200dbefore he met \u2063him\u2063 he had put him down as \u2063a\u2062 Communist or\u2064 Communist sympathizer and &#8220;a\u200d sort of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-unfun-couple\/\" title=\"The Unfun Couple\">fashionable \u2063successful person<\/a>,&#8221; but now that he has met him he \u2062has had to change his mind. &#8220;Even if when I met you I had not happened\u2063 to like you, I should still have\u2062 been bound to change my attitude,&#8221; Orwell writes, &#8220;because when you \u200cmeet anyone in\u200d the flesh you realize \u2062immediately that he \u200bis a human being and \u2063not a sort of \u200dcaricature embodying \u200bcertain ideas.&#8221; Orwell concludes: &#8220;It is\u200b partly\u2064 for this\u2064 reason that I\u200c don&#8217;t mix \u2063much in literary \u2063circles, because I know from experience\u200b that once I have met \u200b&#038; spoken to anyone\u2063 I shall never again be able to \u200cshow any intellectual brutality towards \u2064him, even \u2064when I \u200bfeel \u200cI ought to, like \u200dthe\u200c Labour M.Ps. who get \u200cpatted on\u200c the back by dukes &#038; are lost forever more.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I have never met either Susan Sontag\u200d or \u2064George Steiner, though I have attacked both\u2064 in print.\u200b In separate essays, I called Sontag a &#8220;savant-idiot,&#8221; my neologism for someone of considerable learning, brilliance even, who\u2064 gets all \u2063the important things wrong. Steiner I referred\u200b to as a consummate mimic,\u2062 one who does &#8220;an \u200bincomparable impression \u2064of the \u2064world&#8217;s most learned\u200c man.&#8221; These two \u200bfigures, Susan Sontag and \u200cGeorge Steiner, were for\u2064 me the\u200c embodiment of\u200d Orwell&#8217;s\u200c remark\u2063 that &#8220;some \u200bideas are \u200cso stupid \u2062that only intellectuals believe them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>The \u2063Rise of Sontag\u200d and Steiner<\/h3>\n<p>George Steiner and Susan\u200b Sontag both came \u2064into prominence in\u2064 the\u2063 1960s. Sontag did so with \u2063her essay &#8220;Notes on\u200b Camp,&#8221; published in 1964 in <i>Partisan Review<\/i>, \u200cSteiner not with\u200b any single work but with a stock of critical \u2064essays and his book\u200c <i>Tolstoy or Dostoevsky.<\/i> Both were critics, though each came to disdain the importance of criticism\u200b or the title of \u200bcritic. Sontag, who wrote four novels and directed a few movies of \u2063her own composition, wished to be thought an artist; Steiner, who wrote on\u2064 a wide variety of subjects and also \u2062published novels, doubtless thought himself, outside all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/potential-gop-candidate-backs-down-admits-trump-commands-an-unexpected-lead\/\" title=\"GOP hopeful withdraws, acknowledges Trump's surprising lead.\">conventional boundaries<\/a>, a profound thinker. For writers of some difficulty, both enjoyed fairly large \u200baudiences\u2014Steiner through writing regularly in the <i>New\u200c Yorker<\/i>, \u200cSontag, who was \u2062striking-looking \u2063with her streak of white\u200d hair, through being much photographed in <i>Vogue<\/i>, the <i>New York Times<\/i>, and\u200b elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>Neither possessed \u200can admirable prose style. Susan Sontag&#8217;s English prose reads as if it\u2062 were a hurried translation from\u2062 the French. George Steiner specialized in\u2064 the clotted sentence and the wild connection, an example of the latter being &#8220;Antigone draws about herself an ethical \u2063solitude, a lucid dryness which seems to \u200bprefigure the stringencies of Kant.&#8221; \u200cIf you are looking for generosity \u200cof spirit, touches \u200dof intimacy, the \u200dleast scintilla of humor, you will\u2062 discover them in \u200dthe writing of\u200d neither \u200bSontag \u200cnor Steiner.<\/p>\n<p><i>Monsters &#038; Maestros: Days &#038; \u200bNights with \u2063Susan \u2064Sontag &#038; George Steiner<\/i> \u2062is Robert Boyers&#8217;s chronicle of his relationships with these\u2064 two writers, both of whom he admires. Boyers is the founder and longtime editor of <i>Salmagundi<\/i>, \u200ba\u200d little magazine \u200bpublished \u2062out \u200dof \u2063Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, where he is a professor of\u2064 English. \u200bHe came to \u2063know Sontag and Steiner through his\u200d invitations \u2062to them to write for his magazine and\u200b to participate in the New York State\u2063 Summer Writers Institute, which he founded and \u2063has directed since 1987.<\/p>\n<p>Boyers&#8217;s \u200dfriendships with Sontag and Steiner \u200dwere never one of equals. Born \u2062in 1942, Boyers \u2063was 9 years\u2063 younger than Sontag and\u2064 13 years younger than \u2062Steiner. Widely \u2064published though he is\u2014<i>Monsters \u2063&#038; \u200cMaestros<\/i> is his 12th\u200b book\u2014Boyers is fully conscious that his literary rank\u2064 never approached that of \u200deither Sontag or Steiner. Sontag\u2064 and Steiner\u2064 were also aware of this, for both\u2063 on more \u2062than one occasion treated him like hired help. Sontag once upbraided him \u200dfor \u2064introducing her for \u2064a lecture \u2064by \u200breferring to her by her first name. Steiner,\u200b he writes, \u200d&#8221;regarded me as hopelessly American&#8221; and was never above one-upping him. \u2064Snobs \u2062come in two broad \u2062general types, those who put\u2064 down \u2064those beneath them and \u200bthose\u2063 who\u200c take\u200c the put-downs from those above them. Sontag and \u2063Steiner qualify for the\u2062 first type, Boyers for the second.<\/p>\n<p>However monstrous Sontag and Steiner&#8217;s behavior, to him and to\u2062 others, Boyers is ever ready\u2064 to\u200b forgive them, for he takes\u200d both to be deeply significant writers. Their ultimate significance, as he writes on the final pages of his book, is that they were &#8220;committed to disturbing the peace of [their] contemporaries and disturbing the complacencies to which\u2062 most of us are inured.&#8221; He ends his\u2062 book\u200d by writing: &#8220;Contrary, polarizing, sometimes abrasive, both could seem at times unlovable. And yet how not to love them for the force and intellectual exhilaration they embodied?&#8221; Here it seems worth adding, as Boyers reports, that \u200cSontag \u200dand\u2062 Steiner did not especially\u2063 like each other.<\/p>\n<p>In \u2063his \u200cintroduction,\u200c Robert Boyers writes \u2064that his &#8220;friendships \u200cwith George Steiner and Susan Sontag\u200c were central\u2062 to \u200cmy life, \u200cand in part I&#8217;ve \u2062written this memoir to bear witness to their continuing importance\u2064 as writers and\u2062 thinkers.&#8221; He adds: &#8220;Though I\u200d had reason to think about their flaws and\u200b frailties\u2014I have much to say about\u200d them in \u2063this book\u2014my \u2062admiration for what was best in them rarely\u2062 faltered. Like them, \u2064I was always disposed to promote and celebrate\u2064 my superiors,\u200c and in \u2063George and Susan I knew I \u2062had found them.&#8221; But were Susan and George\u2062 truly \u200dsuperior? \u200cSontag called the \u2064&#8221;white race \u2026 the cancer \u2062of human history,&#8221; idealized the\u200d North Vietnamese communists, and claimed that American\u2064 imperialism\u2064 was responsible for the attack \u2062on the World Trade Center on\u200d September 11. As\u200b I wrote in my essay on Susan Sontag: &#8220;So how, then,\u2062 could a \u2064woman who was so inadequate as a\u2064 mother, so untrustworthy a \u200dfriend, so\u200d out of touch \u200cwith\u200b the most commonplace realities, have been a penetrating \u2063analyst of culture and politics? The short answer is that she wasn&#8217;t.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Robert\u200c Boyers mentions the old joke that George\u2064 Steiner was &#8220;the\u200c Jewish \u200bIsaiah Berlin&#8221;\u2014Berlin \u2064was of course himself Jewish\u2014but \u2063neglects\u200b to add that Berlin called\u2064 Steiner &#8220;that very rare thing, a genuine charlatan.&#8221; If the title \u200chadn&#8217;t long ago been taken by a \u2062<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/president-trump-preemptively-resigns-from-the-screen-actors-guild\/\" title=\"President Trump preemptively resigns from the Screen Actors Guild\">popular television show<\/a>, Steiner&#8217;s prose would fall nicely under the rubric\u200c of ponderosa. Another\u200c sample sentence: &#8220;Henry Adams was\u200c unacquainted with Julius Langbehn&#8217;s immensely influential identification of artistic eminence and national destiny in <i>Rembrandt als Erzieher<\/i> (<i>Rembrandt \u200cas \u2063Educator<\/i>), \u2064a tract \u2064which focuses also on the &#8216;teutonic, titanic&#8217; \u200brole of Beethoven.&#8221; Lest you think this sentence\u2064 chosen for its extreme clottedness, do know that \u200bSteiner, as the comedian Milton Berle used to say about \u2064his own stock of jokes, had \u2062a million of \u2063them.<\/p>\n<p>Boyers&#8217;s attempt\u2062 to resuscitate Susan Sontag\u2063 and George Steiner does not finally succeed. Neither critic\u2062 ever allowed reality to \u200bstand in \u200dthe\u2062 way\u2063 of his or her ideas. Both \u2062fail the \u200btest\u2014passed by all superior writers\u2014of re-readability. That Sontag and Steiner could also be unpleasant people further\u200b subtracts from their literary lustre. Ah, Susan, ah, George, how pleased I am \u200dto say\u2062 I never met either of\u2062 you.<\/p>\n<p><i>Monsters &#038; Maestros: Days &#038; Nights with Susan Sontag\u2063 &#038; George Steiner<\/i><br \/>  by Robert Boyers<br \/> Mandel \u200bVilar Press,\u200d 256\u2062 pp., $24.95 \u200d(paperback)<\/p>\n<p><i>Joseph Epstein \u2064is the\u200d author, most recently,\u2062 of <\/i>The Novel,\u2062 Who \u2064Needs It? <i>(Encounter Books).<\/i><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2>And the controversial opinions they held. He examines the impact of their work on \u2062society and the importance of their commitment to challenging conventional \u200dthinking.<\/h2>\n<p><span>  Namese Communists \u2062during the Vietnam War,\u2062 and defended oppressive regimes. Steiner, on\u2064 the \u2064other hand, often engaged\u200c in philosophical meanderings that were difficult\u200c to decipher and\u2064 lacked substance. Despite \u2063their \u2063<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bill-maher-schools-biologist-richard-dawkins-on-covid-basics\/\" title=\"Bill Maher Schools Biologist Richard Dawkins on COVID Basics\">intellectual prowess<\/a>, both Sontag and Steiner had \u200ctheir fair share of controversial opinions and flawed arguments.<\/p>\n<p>Boyers, however, sees beyond their flaws and is captivated\u200c by their ability to challenge \u200cthe\u2062 status quo and provoke intellectual thought. He believes that their significance\u200b lies in their unwavering commitment to disrupt conventional thinking and complacency. Even though they may have been unlikable at times, Boyers\u200c admires them for the force and intellectual stimulation they brought into the world.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2064 is fascinating \u200dto note that Sontag and Steiner,\u200b despite being familiar with \u200ceach other&#8217;s work,\u200b did not particularly like each other. This\u2062 adds an interesting dynamic to their individual \u2062personas and reinforces the idea that intellectual greatness \u2064does not\u200b necessarily equate to personal compatibility or harmony.<\/p>\n<p>In\u2064 his memoir, Boyers reflects \u200bon his personal friendships with Sontag and Steiner,\u200d acknowledging their \u2063flaws<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a well-known letter of George Orwell&#8217;s to Stephen Spender, Orwell tells Spender that before he met him he had put him down as a Communist or Communist sympathizer and &#8220;a sort of fashionable successful person,&#8221; but now that he has met him he has had to change his mind. &#8220;Even if when I met<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1362,"featured_media":2097132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2097131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2097131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2097132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2097131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2097131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2097131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}