The Assistant Economy Francesca Mari ▪ Spring 2015 “It’s like an ever-descending spiral for you…" (Michal Dzierza / Flickr) In 1975 Susan Sontag, the American intellectual famous for On Photography and Against Interpretation , was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer and survived after a radical mastectomy, extensive radiation treatments, and thirty months of debilitating chemotherapy. In the aftermath she needed someone to help her catch up on her correspondence. Her editors at the New York Re...