# Quote — Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation and Other Essays

> Interpretation thus presupposes a discrepancy between the clear meaning of the text and the demands of (later) readers. It seeks to resolve that discrepancy. The situation is that for some reason a text has become unacceptable; yet it cannot be discarded. Interpretation is a radical strategy for conserving an old text, which is thought too precious to repudiate, by revamping it. The interpreter, without actually erasing or rewriting the text, is altering it. But he can’t admit to doing this. He claims to be only making it intelligible, by disclosing its true meaning.

- Author: [Susan Sontag](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-sontag.md)
- Book: [Against Interpretation and Other Essays](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-sontag/against-interpretation-and-other-essays.md)
- Page: 6
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Sontag#Against_Interpretation_and_Other_Essays_(1966)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-sontag/against-interpretation-and-other-essays/interpretation-thus-presupposes

## More from this book

> Art today is a new kind of instrument, an instrument for modifying consciousness and organizing new modes of sensibility. And the means for practicing art have been radically extended. ... Painters no longer feel themselves confined to canvas and paint, but employ hair, photographs, wax, sand, bicycle tires, their own toothbrushes and socks. Musicians have reached beyond the sounds of the traditional instruments to use tampered instruments and (usually on tape) synthetic sounds and industrial noises.

p. 296 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-sontag/against-interpretation-and-other-essays/art-today-is-a-new.md)

> What is most beautiful in virile men is something feminine; what is most beautiful in feminine women is something masculine.

p. 279 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-sontag/against-interpretation-and-other-essays/what-is-most.md)

> The discovery of the good taste of bad taste can be very liberating. The man who insists on high and serious pleasures is depriving himself of pleasure; he continually restricts what he can enjoy; in the constant exercise of his good taste he will eventually price himself out of the market, so to speak. Here Camp taste supervenes upon good taste as a daring and witty hedonism. It makes the man of good taste cheerful, where before he ran the risk of being chronically frustrated. It is good for the digestion.

p. 291 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-sontag/against-interpretation-and-other-essays/the-discovery-of-the.md)