PARALLEL LIVES:
Susan Sontag (RIP 12/28/04) and Karl Petruso

Loathed television.	Loathes television.
Stepfather was in Army Air Corps.	Father was in Army Air Corps.
Wrote "Notes on Camp" and Illness as Metaphor.	Read "Notes on Camp" and Illness as Metaphor.
Had salt-and-pepper hair.	Has salt-and-pepper beard.
Lived in Paris for many years, grooving on the fin de siècle.	Has spent many an hour over the past three decades in Orly Airport, waiting for connecting flights to and from Athens. Bought a jaunty beret in a duty-free shop there once.
Was a prominent force in PEN, passionately committed to confronting and eradicating censorship wherever and whenever she saw it.	Thinks Salman Rushdie got a pretty raw deal with that fatwa business a few years back.
Gave new meaning to the term Modernist.	Was already not into Postmodernism before not being into Postmodernism was cool.
Used to hang out with Genet, Burroughs and Ginsberg.	Has a photo showing Genet, Burroughs and Ginsberg at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention taped to his office door.

Coincidences, you say? I don't think so.

Return to Petruso Homepage