News > March 3, 2005

Susan Sontag and Arthur Miller

By Kurt Vonnegut

Dr. Marc Leeds, PhD, an English teacher and old friend of mine, albeit 30 years my junior, recently asked me what he might say to his students about the writers Arthur Miller and Susan Sontag, both of whom had died very recently, both friends of mine.

I said that the fact of Miller’s having been widely and deeply mourned as a great person dated back to a time, before television, when a legitimate theater might still suddenly become a church with a rapt congregation, in which one heard and saw a great sermon preached. Miller created two such sermons, Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. Tennessee Williams did it at least twice, with the The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. Eugene O’Neill did it at least twice with The Iceman Cometh and Long Day’s Journey Into NIght. Thornton Wilder did it at least once with Our Town. Oscar Wilde did it at least once with the funniest sermon ever preached, which is The Importance of Being Earnest.

I said Susan Sontag’s principal gifts to our civilization were not that easily packaged, but were a brilliant, non-stop commentary on contemporary art practices and their effects on our emotions. She did get off one sound bite in an interview on television, which was to me a stunning sermon in and of itself. She was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.

Miller and Sontag, in addition, were seemingly born with stage presence, were birthright personages. When either of them entered a crowded room, all heads would turn in their direction.

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• Reader Comments

  Thank you, Mr. Vonnegut, for reminding us that civilization needs art, and that writing connects us through time and space.  Maybe there is hope for the readers…

  Posted by Sian on Mar 3, 2005 at 9:35 AM

  And that 80% really are the problem aren’t they?

  You know the most dangerous thing about the 80% is that they can be so easily convinced that they’re doing the work of the 10% merciful—at least that’s what I see today.

  http://craicpipe.blogspot.com/

  Posted by craichead on Mar 3, 2005 at 10:35 AM

  I’m conflicted: Vonnegut is by far my favorite author of fiction, yet his politics make me want to puke.

  Posted by J Craig on Mar 4, 2005 at 12:01 PM

  In many ways Kurt reminds me of Orwell in that Orwell was an avowed socialist his entire life, yet 1984 and Animal Farm very definitely seem to be along the lines of what happens when you place the power for social provision in the hands of government:  one rigid class system is replaced with another that’s worse.

  I have trouble getting over the irony sometimes of pointing out how evil and coercive government can be on the one hand and then wishing they’d take over our health care on the other!

  Hilary says that it takes a village to raise a child which is sort of what Kurt’s saying here I guess and in some ways I agree.  However there is not village.  The federal gov’t sure as hell ain’t one!  If we want to raise our children in a village we have to create a new one WITHIN our civilization.  That’s what Jesus seemed to be saying anyway.

  http://craicpipe.blogspot.com/

  Posted by craichead on Mar 4, 2005 at 12:20 PM

  “I’m conflicted: Vonnegut is by far my favorite author of fiction, yet his politics make me want to puke.”

  It’s sad that you’ve read Mr. Vonnegut’s work but have failed to grasp that someone who has witnessed the greatest horrors government can inflict on humanity, might be disposed to desire a government that actually cares for humanity. The goal of Socialism has always been to extend the benefits and protection of society to all of it’s members, not just the rich - why this should be viewed as nauseating is mystifying, to say the least.

  I recommend that you avoid irony and satire in the future, as your inability to detect these items may lead to further confusion.

  Posted by Barry Miller on Mar 4, 2005 at 7:17 PM

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