Book #05

Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag

 'The ultimate Camp statement: it's good because it's awful.'

These two classic essays were the first works of criticism to break down the boundaries between 'high' and 'low' culture, and made Susan Sontag a literary sensation.

I really thought I was going to enjoy this once I discovered it focused on camp aesthetic and not, as I’d previously thought, Americans at summer camp. Sadly, I found this impossibly pretentious, entirely disengaging, and a chore rather than a pleasure. And Sontag does not seem like a woman I’d like to share a cocktail with.

Really, I shouldn’t be surprised, as fashion and aesthetic are not things I’m remotely interested in, nor am I interested in being spoken down to or infantilised. Maybe I would’ve fared better if Sontag’s notes were indeed written on summer camp.