December 30, 2004
Susan
Susan Sontag died this week at seventy-one. She was one of those writers I aspired to read and could never quite grasp, falling away, but still in utter fascination with the brilliance of it all, drawn back again and again. Tolstoi and Proust and Cynthia Ozick also come to mind. My intentions are unbearable.
Her obituary in the Los Angeles Times recalled that she often counseled all who aspire to live fully the life of the mind to “Be serious, be passionate, wake up!” We churchers in these times might find no better advice.