“Every culture has its southerners -- people who work as little as they can, preferring to dance, drink, sing brawl, kill their unfaithful spouses; who have livelier gestures, more lustrous eyes, more colorful garments, more fancifully decorated vehicles, a wonderful sense of rhythm, and charm, charm, charm; unambitious, no, lazy, ignorant, superstitious, uninhibited people, never on time, conspicuously poorer (how could it be otherwise, say the northerners); who for all their poverty and squalor lead enviable lives -- envied, that is, by work-driven, sensually inhibted, less corruptly governed northerners. We are superior to them, say the northerners, clearly superior. We do not shirk our duties or tell lies as a matter of course, we work hard, we are punctual, we keep reliable accounts. But they have more fun than we do ... They caution[ed] themselves as people do who know they are part of a superior culture: we mustn't let ourselves go, mustn't descend to the level of the ... jungle, street, bush, bog, hills, outback (take your pick). For if you start dancing on tables, fanning yourself, feeling sleepy when you pick up a book, developing a sense of rhythm, making love whenever you feel like it -- then you know. The south has got you.”

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About Susan Sontag

American writer and critic

Susan Sontag was an American writer and critic. She worked mainly in essays, and also wrote novels. Her first major work was the essay "Notes on 'Camp'" in 1964. She is best known for critical books such as Against Interpretation, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, and Regarding the Pain of Others, as well as the short story "The Way We Live Now" and the novels The Volcano Lover and In America. Her work often explored culture, images, and the experience of illness and suffering.

More from Susan Sontag (146 quotes) →

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Books by Susan Sontag

On Photography

2001

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Regarding the Pain of Others

2017

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Against Interpretation

2001

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Illness as metaphor

1978

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Death kit

2002

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