Before Sontag became a parody

When an unpublished diary or book of letters from a celebrated writer comes to the attention of the reading public nowadays, there is often a sense that a game is being played between two parties. Writers — being the megalomaniacs they invariably are — dream of grandiosity and world domination, therefore these documents are predominately contrived from the moment pen goes to paper. They are for potential posterity, and a legacy, rather than any truthful insights. The readers readily take part in this charade, hoping to catch their idols off guard in the process.

As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh, Diaries 1964-1980 ostensibly plays along in the aforementioned game, but there are glimpses within these fragmented, and at times, difficult diary entries, that simultaneously reveal a weaker side to the self-confident persona which Susan Sontag convincingly projected to her readers over her successful career as an essayist, novelist and film director.