Literary Journalism: Blog Post 2
Susan Sontag’s Notes on “Camp” piece initially confused me significantly. After reading the first paragraph, I immediately thought of the 2019 Met Gala and thought she drew inspiration from this event, but then I remembered that the piece was written in 1964 — well before this year’s gala.
Beginning the piece then confused me even more, since Camp is such an absurd and outrageous concept. Reading through her descriptions, I realized that I had observed Camp in the world before, and this realization made me appreciate her explanation that many things in the world have not been named, or at least never described.
Since Camp is such an extraordinary concept, I enjoyed reading her attempt to put this creativity into words. A literary device she utilized that was beneficial was listing. Breaking up such a complex topic into an organized and structured list helped me to conceptualize her points.
Starting off the first point with a definition, “Camp is a certain mode of aestheticism,” and stating examples of items that fall under the category of Camp was also helpful because this gives the reader a clear idea of her vision.
A journalistic approach that I found difficult to follow were some of her advanced vocabulary. I believe that journalists should write according to the nature of their viewership. If most are already unfamiliar with a term or concept, the language used to describe it should be stated as simply as possible. Even discussing the history of these terms may not be enough.
However, her points also read in a sort of long-form cohesive narrative, which I appreciate since this writing method is easy to follow. I also thought it was interesting how she personified the term Camp — doing so really brought the piece to life.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading her piece on Camp and plan on utilizing the descriptive listing method in my own writing for storytelling as well. Conversely, analyzing this piece according to the literary journalism workshop guidelines has given me things to consider to avoid doing in my work, such as using overly broad terms and providing too much of a historical background.
