I have to say I’m amazed at the fact that almost all the obituaries for Susan Sontag omitted her primary, longtime relationship with Annie Leibovitz, the photographer. Of 315 articles in Nexis, only 29 mention Leibovitz, and most of them referred merely to their joint projects. Leibovitz was unmentioned as a survivor in the NYT and Washington Post. It’s striking how even allegedly liberal outlets routinely excise the homosexual dimension from many people’s lives – even from someone dead. But perhaps it is reflective of Sontag’s own notions of privacy and identity. She championed many causes in her day, but the gay civil rights movement was oddly not prominent among them.
THE BLOG EXPLOSION: Jeff Jarvis has a great post on what has happened. As what might now be thought of as an “old-timer,” I have to say that my own experience in the blogosphere has changed. I used to be able to keep some kind of grip on a lot of what’s out there. But it’s hopeless now. Even Glenn can’t manage it. Our little village is now a fast-growing exurb. I’m not complaining. But I’m trying to adjust. And the decentralized nature of blog-world can make that harder.
QUOTE FOR THE DAY I: “I’d much rather be doing this than figthing a war,” – helicopter pilot Lt. Cmdr. William Whitsitt, helping the survivors of the south Asian tsunami. Earth to Whitsitt: you’re a soldier.
QUOTE FOR THE DAY II: “[‘Desperate Housewives’] has nothing to say about the vicissitudes of the average or even the well-to-do American stay-at-home wife; it is neither feminist, nor pro-feminist nor proto-feminist nor post-feminist. Feminism has as little to do with Desperate Housewives as it did with Sex and the City. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine in either case what outright misogynists would have done differently.” – Germaine Greer, in the Guardian.
The Dish 