Under the Sign of Saturn

Essays

By: Susan Sontag

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Sontag's most important critical writings from 1972 to 1980 are collected in Under the Sign of Saturn. One of America's leading essayists, Sontag's writings are commentaries on the relation between moral and aesthetic ideas, discussing the works of Antonin Artaud, Leni Riefenstahl, Elias Canetti, Walter Benjamin, and others. The collection includes a variety of her well-known essays.

In "Fascinating Fascism", Sontag eviscerates Leni Riefenstahl's attempts to rehabilitate her image after working for Adolf Hitler on propaganda films during World War II. "Approaching Artaud" reflects on the work and influence of French actor, director, and writer Antonin Artaud. The title essay is a study of the life and temperament of Walter Benjamin, who Sontag describes as a sad and lonesome man. The book also includes the essays "On Paul Goodman", "Syberberg's Hitler", "Remembering Barthes", and "Mind as Passion".

Susan Sontag's writings are famously full of intellectual range and depth, and are at turns exhilarating, ominous, disturbing, and beautiful. Under the Sign of Saturn manages to touch on all of these notes and more.

©2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great essays and a great reading performance

I love some of the essays in this book and the reader does an outstanding job. Overall a great audiobook experience.

A book takes my breath away and exited my emotions

What a powerful mind ! Opinionated, incisive and likely right.

Her comment on Leni’s triumph is so… “ the leader make the crowd come” the word is true

Audiobook version filled with mistakes

This is not a review of the text, but of the reading. At several points, the narrator reads an entirely different word from what the text says, often giving a completely different meaning, usually a nonsensical one.