In this segment Sontag talks to Charlie Rose about her latest novel, which she tells us marks her transformation to being a better writer than she was before. She in the course of the interview tells us that generally writers after their forties and fifties unlike artists and composers get worse, but somehow she is the exception. Charlie Rose is a good guy who is ordinarily sympathetic to his guests. He is this way with Sontag. But while this works in most cases I found here that he had to do a bit more to somehow puncture the tremendous pretensiousness of the self- absorbed Sontag. The truth is when writers have to define their work to others ordinarily something is not alright. When the work really matters the readers determine this.
In any case despite Sontag's very clear and attractive voice, her considerable intelligence this interview gives a strong sense that as she did not understand so much about world- politics so she did not understand the character and quality of her own writing. All who care for her work care for her essays. The fiction she so self- promotes here has been read by few and most likely will be read by even fewer in the future.
