The Macho Response: Susan Sontag

"Shocking,..does not expend the energy on being charming, or even comprehensible,...the ferocious will, the conscious and almost unnatural assembly of a persona that rises above and beyond that of ordinary people,...unremitting in her efforts,...to imagine a different way of existing,...mesmerizing, brilliant, abrasive, not quite likeable."

-- Katie Roiphe, describing "Reborn: Journals & Notebooks 1947-1963" - Sontag's just-released diaries - which were edited by her son, David Rieff (and make her sound a lot like me) in Slate.