Regarding the Pain of Others

Regarding the Pain of Others is Susan Sontag"s searing analysis of our numbed response to images of horror. From Goya"s Disasters of War to news footage and photographs of the conflicts in Vietnam, Rwanda and Bosnia, pictures have been charged with inspiring dissent, fostering violence or instilling apathy in us, the viewer. Regarding the Pain of Others will alter our thinking not only about the uses and meanings of images, but about the nature of war, the limits of sympathy, and the obligations of conscience. "Powerful, fascinating. Sontag is our outstanding contemporary writer in the moralist tradition". (Sunday Times). "A coruscating sermon on how we picture suffering". (The New York Times). "A far-reaching set of ruminations on human suffering, the nature of goodness, the lures, deceptions and truth of images ...in short, a summary of what it means to be alive and alert in the twentieth century". (Independent). "Sontag is on top form: firing devastating questions". (Los Angeles...