The World of Susan Sontag Sta. Alan Brien, in his
article 'The World of Susan Sontag. at the January 22 issue of the Spectator, Makes an odd and erroneous assumption about me. Referring to a parody book review I wrote for the July 5. 1964, Herald-Tribune Book Week in New York, Mr. Brien, absolutely carried away by his antagonism toward Miss Sontag. states, in an authoritative tone, that I, too, was writing about Miss Sontag. I was not. In my parody. I was having some fun with an amusing tendency of a large group of intellectual' literary critics in the United States to share certain faddish att.tudes and a certain faddish vocabulary. I had about twenty critics in mind when I wrote my piece, though the single-minded Mr. Brien may find that difficult to imagine. Otherwise, I enjoyed Mr. Brien's article and felt complimented by his interest, however misplaced. in what I wrote
LILLIAN ROSS
The 'New Yorker, New York City [Alan Brien writes: 'In fact, my identification was more tentative than Miss Ross allows. But even in My most jaundiced moments, it had not occurred to me that there could be quite so many contestants for the place in her pillory. —Editor Spectator.]
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