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Susan Sontag
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Regarding the Pain of Others Kindle Edition

by Susan Sontag (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 out of 5 stars 826 ratings

A brilliant, clear-eyed consideration of the visual representation of violence in our culture--its ubiquity, meanings, and effects.

Considered one of the greatest critics of her generation, Susan Sontag followed up her monumental On Photography with an extended study of human violence, reflecting on a question first posed by Virginia Woolf in Three Guineas: How in your opinion are we to prevent war?

"For a long time some people believed that if the horror could be made vivid enough, most people would finally take in the outrageousness, the insanity of war."

One of the distinguishing features of modern life is that it supplies countless opportunities for regarding (at a distance, through the medium of photography) horrors taking place throughout the world. But are viewers inured—or incited—to violence by the depiction of cruelty? Is the viewer’s perception of reality eroded by the daily barrage of such images? What does it mean to care about the sufferings of others far away?

First published more than twenty years after her now classic book On Photography, which changed how we understand the very condition of being modern, Regarding the Pain of Others challenges our thinking not only about the uses and means of images, but about how war itself is waged (and understood) in our time, the limits of sympathy, and the obligations of conscience.

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  1. Print length
    146 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  4. Publication date
    October 1, 2013
  5. File size
    757 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Twenty-six years after the publication of her influential collection of essays On Photography (1977), Sontag (In America) reconsiders ideas that are "now fast approaching the status of platitudes," especially the view that our capacity to respond to images of war and atrocity is being dulled by "the relentless diffusion of vulgar and appalling images" in our rapaciously media-driven culture. Sontag opens by describing Virginia Woolf's essay on the roots of war, "Three Guineas," in which Woolf described a set of gruesome photographs of mutilated bodies and buildings destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. Woolf wondered if there truly can be a "we" between man and woman in matters of war. Sontag sets out to reopen and enlarge the question. "No `we' should be taken for granted when the subject is looking at other people's pain," she writes. The "we" that Sontag has come to be much more aware of in the decades since On Photography is the world of the rich. She has come to doubt her youthful contention that repeated exposure to images of suffering necessarily shrivels sympathy, and she doubts even more the radical yet influential spin that others put on this critique-that reality itself has become a spectacle. "To speak of reality becoming a spectacle... universalizes the viewing habits of a small, educated population living in the rich part of the world...." Sontag reminds us that sincerity can turn a mere spectator into a witness, and that it is the heart rather than fancy rhetoric that can lead the mind to understanding.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The impact of violent images: Sontag's first full-length work on imagery since her acclaimed On Photography 25 years ago.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00F8HJ5JW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux (October 1, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 1, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 757 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 146 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 826 ratings

About the author

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Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag

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Susan Sontag was born in Manhattan in 1933 and studied at the universities of Chicago, Harvard and Oxford. She is the author of four novels, a collection of stories, several plays, and six books of essays, among them Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors. Her books are translated into thirty-two languages. In 2001 she was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the body of her work, and in 2003 she received the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. She died in December 2004.

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Customers find the book highly readable and very insightful, with one review highlighting its deep theory of human symbolic activity. Moreover, the book arrives in perfect condition and customers appreciate its great price.

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17 customers mention "Insight"17 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful and eye-opening, providing good observations. One customer particularly appreciates its deep theory of human symbolic activity.

"...Her thoughts and ideas are well founded and presented. I've since learned of her reputation, and must say she earned it...." Read more

"...point of view and believe that this book is a valuable asset to the student of art history, photographers in particular." Read more

"Beautifully written and enlightening picture of the cruelty people afflict on one another without thinking or even realizing that the one that is..." Read more

"I believe that this book gives good observations and questions of the nature and response to photography, art, and other depictions of war rather..." Read more

5 customers mention "Readability"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, with one describing the author as brilliant.

"...The best thing I can say is that reading her allows for, in my experience, the chance to almost have a discussion with her...." Read more

"...Sontag is a brilliant writer. I love her thoughts, I wish everyone would read her books." Read more

"...of empathy with her passion for photography, Sontag scores a highly readable win. Her intelligence is incandescent." Read more

"...readers in the subject and is written in such a way to be easily read from cover to cover in an engaging way." Read more

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Customers are satisfied with the book's sturdiness, noting that it arrived in perfect condition.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Ben
    5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful.
    Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2016
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    I had never heard of Susan Sontag prior to my Survey of Photography class. We read the first chapter of "On Photography", it was good. I went ahead and bought the book myself. Later in the semester we read a short bit on "Regarding the Pain of Others", it was even better. All I can say is based on those 2, especially this one, Susan Sontag is amazing. I don't agree with everything she says, but I can't recall an instance that I felt she was misguided or confused. Her thoughts and ideas are well founded and presented. I've since learned of her reputation, and must say she earned it. It's a shame she didn't have more time to write, though there are many other pieces I've yet to read. The best thing I can say is that reading her allows for, in my experience, the chance to almost have a discussion with her. It's written in such a way that it isn't spoon fed to the reader. That's not to say it's a hard read, but it's open enough that your own thoughts can blend with hers.
    20 people found this helpful
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  • justin
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book
    Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2025
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    Great book, came in perfect condition!
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  • Happy snapper
    4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, well written book on how war imagery has been used
    Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2018
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    Great book on the history of how photographs have been used when depicting war and tragedy. Sontag challenges the way society thinks about how these images are used and should be used. While I think some of her analogies and conclusions are flawed, overall I appreciate her point of view and believe that this book is a valuable asset to the student of art history, photographers in particular.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Stephanie T.
    5.0 out of 5 stars On Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
    Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2021
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    Beautifully written and enlightening picture of the cruelty people afflict on one another without thinking or even realizing that the one that is receiving the pain is exactly like us, a human being, with a heart, a soul and a mind. Why can’t we as humankind learn to see beyond our differences and enjoy the beauty of living? Collectively we could do so much good if we lived and let live, as long as someone does no harm to others, why do we care what religion, sexual orientation, color or lack of, or whatever someone chooses to believe? Let weird be weirder and wacky be wackier as long as we live in peace with the earth and it’s resources. Sontag is a brilliant writer. I love her thoughts, I wish everyone would read her books.
    13 people found this helpful
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  • rick
    5.0 out of 5 stars I believe that this book gives good observations and questions of the nature and response to ...
    Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2016
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    I believe that this book gives good observations and questions of the nature and response to photography, art, and other depictions of war rather than any real answers. Is it voyeurism looking at the gruesome and tragic, or does it elicit some compassion and motivate protest? How are the dead of enemy, friendly combatants, and civilians shown in pictures? Is remembering things we personally have not experienced through photographs an ethical act? In modern times have we become inured to these images, accepted as the daily news diet? The examples she gives from paintings, photographs, and movies can be Googled pretty instantly as you read along. It goes beyond propaganda and romanticism, which were the first things I expected when I got this book. Honestly, I just felt the book was a good companion tool while seeing these visual examples, reading the quotes and observations Sontag gives, and seeing how I respond to them.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • P. Meltzer
    3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting points, but what is her "argument"?
    Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2003
    Verified Purchase
    In my experience, a non-fiction book on history, sociology or politics generally does one of two things. It reports and/or it opines. However, it seemed to me that this little essay, though making a number of interesting observations about war and photography, did neither. Indeed, virtually the whole time, I kept waiting for her ultimate opinion on the issue to come out. By the end, I never saw it. And yet, in the very first sentence of her acknowledgments (and elsewhere therein), she refers to "the argument of this book." Even after reading the laudatory reviews of this book, I couldn't tell what others perceived the "argument" to be either. I am assuming that her "argument" has something to do with the effect that photography has on war. For example if I had to guess (and if it turns out that I am totally off base, it wouldn't shock me), it may be that too many photos of the suffering of others may numb the senses to it and thus should be discouraged. Or maybe, she is making the exact opposite "argument"--that we don't see enough such photos and thus people can't really appreciate how horrible war is. In addition, whatever her argument, is she suggesting that we as a people do something different than what we do now, or is she simply offering neutral observations on the way of the world as it exists now? I have no doubt that others smarter than I could answer all of these questions, but I would have appreciated a little synopsis of her self-described "argument" so I knew what it was.
    43 people found this helpful
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  • Sheila Pinkel
    5.0 out of 5 stars Book arrived in excellent condition
    Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2024
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    The book arrived in perfect condition.
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  • H. T. M. Bruin
    4.0 out of 5 stars Great work on the power and deceipt of images
    Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2009
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    Susan Sontag is known as a lover as well as a critique of photography. In Regarding the Pain of Others she focuses on the impact of horrible war-images - starting with paintings such as Goya's Disasters of the War (1810-1820) going up to the present, in which first photography and then film have taken over. She rightly and strongly criticises the old idea that 'pictures show the truth', and horrible pictures 'the truth of war', an idea especially popular in the Interwar Years (Ernst Friedrich, Virginia Woolf), but certainly anything but dead after 1945. Pictures have frames so they are framed (even when they are not staged or manipulated) and therefore can not show the truth in all its nuance, in all its effects. And besides: the photographer can have his or her intentions when painting or shooting the image, but that is not to say that this intention is indeed the consequence publication will have. A book that makes you think, and that is always a compliment.

    Leo van Bergen
    Author of: Before my Helpless Sight. Suffering, dying and military medicine on the Western Front 1914-1918 (Ashgate Publishing 2009)
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Nico
    5.0 out of 5 stars Titolo assolutamente imperdibile
    Reviewed in Italy on September 2, 2016
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    Questo scritto della Sontag è uno di quelli che definirei essenziale per chiunque si interessi di fotografia sociale o anche semplicemente dell'uso delle immagini. Porta a riflessioni profonde sulla società contemporanea e sulla relazione del singolo o della massa con le immagini.
    Mi sono trovato ad acquistarlo in inglese dato che in Italia il libro è praticamente introvabile causa cessata pubblicazione da parte dell'editore purtroppo, risulta comunque facilmente leggibile pur la Sontag, in quanto filosofa, utilizzi a volte termini poco comuni, ma con l'aiuto di un dizionario si affronta tranquillamente!
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  • Jan von Schmettow
    4.0 out of 5 stars Effortless and penetrating
    Reviewed in Germany on February 16, 2021
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    In this essay, Sontag weaves together complex philosophical arguments into an accessible, exhilarating and deeply touching read.

    Sontag's prose masterfully dances around the question of how pictures of atrocities have been used historically and can be politically employed today, how viewers' ethical standpoint has changed over the years: sketching how the experience of 'regarding the pain of others' has evolved over the centuries until today.

    Even though Sontag makes a plurality of well-taken arguments, her essay necessarily lacks extensive inquiries into the historical, cultural and political contexts to which varied pictures have responded to and have fallen into. Since variation in those contexts changes the audience's interpretation of depicted atrocities, her essay can be taken as a call for more research in this direction.
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  • The book arrived in very bad condition.
    1.0 out of 5 stars Poor condition
    Reviewed in Belgium on July 2, 2023
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    This (new) book was delivered in very poor condition.
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    The book arrived in very bad condition.
    1.0 out of 5 stars
    Poor condition

    Reviewed in Belgium on July 2, 2023
    This (new) book was delivered in very poor condition.
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  • Paul Larios
    5.0 out of 5 stars Relevant
    Reviewed in Mexico on December 13, 2017
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    Susan had an amazing way of explaining the threat of using images and being numbed, mentally, from all the saturation that we find online and on TV.

    This book is very relevant for this period of time.
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  • Roxy
    5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read, good conclusion.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 25, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    Is a small book, well written, and in depth how we look at painful images from photojournalists, she analyzed our reaction to mass media, and how we receive bad news about war, even how we look at religious paintings.

    The reader needs some life experience, to live in between ex soldiers, to listen to their memories, and then to look around and compare, to look at their misfortune, now, now when they aged, to observe their handicap movements which limits their daily live, and observe if it has been done enough for them, to help them with their struggle. A simpler example is; just think how heavily we rely on Social Services in UK, and wonder why?

    The book has a realistic point of view of how we perceive this images, a cruel reality we live in, and perhaps a wake-up call to a generation of blind people, driven only by glory or materialistic possessions, and comfort.

    Although it is easy to read, you need some knowledge of history from paintings to photography which depicts pain, death, and distress captured either with a brush by painters, or with the camera by photographers. Is well worth to have this book and meditate, a deep thinker will enjoy Sontag statement as much as I did.

    Totally recommended.
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