Against Interpretation | Quotes

Sontag believed interpretation can be useful if it is rescuing something from obscurity. However, this has also led to the notion that old texts needed to be translated for modern audiences and hence revamped. While historical context can help us understand a work of art, interpretation has gone too far by trying to make old works of art take on new meanings.

Sontag uses figurative language to represent the assault on art inflicted by interpretation. Critics have become intellectual archeologists going on a "dig," finding hidden meanings covered up by time, the way a scientist might excavate artifacts.

Sontag's figurative language is evocative of the modern condition to draw a parallel between interpretation and industrial pollution. Interpretation is essentially intellectual pollution, and, like pollution, it is a product of modern times.

According to Sontag, intellectuals do not like the mysterious nature of art, and so by breaking down its form they have made it palatable and anointed themselves the gatekeepers of meaning.

The shadow world of meanings is one of the most frustrating aspects of interpretation for Sontag. When followed to its logical conclusion, interpretation can be never-ending to the point where audiences are all existing in a world where everything they say or do is symbolic of something else. In this process audiences lose sight of reality and live entirely among codes and symbols instead.

Art should be mysterious, like nature. Imposing meanings upon it is thus another example of modern humans "taming" something natural, wild, and beautiful. Sontag sees the intellectual pursuit of trying to tame art as ridiculous as trying to "interpret" a forest or a flock of birds.

Sontag shows that adding meanings to art inherently indicates that the person adding such meanings is not satisfied with the work on its own and feels the need to impart further importance or symbolism to make the art what the critic wants it to be.

To Sontag the newness of the film medium insulates it from excessive interpretation. Sontag is anti-intellectual and advocates for the democratization of the artistic experience. Thus, the fact that the film medium is both relatively young and usually functions as part of mass culture, makes the art form especially appealing to her.

Sontag sees many flaws in art films that she finds to be pretentious, such as those of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, but the beauty of the film images themselves outweigh these problems, making them ultimately good art. Film as a medium, therefore, allows for flaws and weaknesses while still being worthwhile in terms of their artistic value.

Sontag wants art criticism to change and improve. The critical emphasis on interpreting content has long reigned, with other approaches to art appreciation being lost and undervalued. Sontag wants to silence the unnecessary interpretation of content with an appreciation and explanation of form and style.

By transparence Sontag is again alluding to a directress and lack of hidden meanings to be uncovered. Transparency in art would be a work that is, indeed, obvious in its meaning(s) and does not require the assistance of a critic or intellectual to be able to understand it. In criticism, Sontag is also calling for transparency. This means critics should enhance the experience of art by helping to fully define and appreciate its obvious forms.

Sontag offers that the excessive need for interpretation is a reflection on the fact that people are overstimulated and therefore cannot simply enjoy art for its own sake, but must pile up meanings on the art, to make it function as more than just an experience or a feeling.

When critics and commentators pile meanings on to art, they are failing to enhance the experience of art because; they are making it needlessly confusing by claiming that there are secret messages hidden in the content of art.

Sontag reiterates that the purpose of criticism should not be to translate the hidden meanings of content within artworks, but simply to offer pointed descriptions of art's forms.

Sontag closes her essay with this line. She is calling for a rejection of hermeneutics—the excessive quest for meaning in art—and instead an embrace of "an erotics of art." Art should be enjoyed for its own sake and the way it arouses the senses. Erotic in this sense is referring to the way art is stimulating to the mind and how it has the power to stir emotions.