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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
inspiring
joan didion conservative republican = top 10 anime betrayals of all time
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
What can I say, Joan is a genius. Her words stay with you long after you close the book. This insightful social portrait of counter culture and post war America is truly beautiful.
We had to read the first story in the collection (Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream) for class, and I loved it. Her writing is so lyrical, and the way she structures her pieces totally breaks all the "rules" we're being taught. I'm glad for both those things. I enjoyed the rest of the book, though I like her feature articles more than the writerly musings towards the end.
I like Joan. She wouldn't be the sort of writer you'd go to for a hug. She just sort of stands back and tells you things and is entirely clear sighted and astute about whatever she's choosing to write about. You'll either like her or you won't. Either way I imagine she'll hit on something about your own existence that you never realised yourself. She's a proper grown up, of which I'm not sure there's so many left. Although she's not here anymore either. Don't imagine she'd be a fan of nowadays somehow. But I'd like her here to write about it. 4/5 - not a 5 but some of the essays would be, I just wasn't in the venn diagram for a few of them.
reflective
slow-paced
the first thing i’d like to note is didion’s writing style. it is like a single thread that weaves into a spiderweb, strung together in delicate and translucent and deathly precise fashion. her prose very much reminds me of california, of the shimmering mirage-like quality that is folded over the entire state.
in the preface of the book, didion says:
“my only advantage as a reporter is that i am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. and it always does. that is one last thing to remember: writers are always selling somebody out.”
in this collection of essays, she sells out the illusion of the californian image.
i think this is a worthy book for californians and all people who have thought about going to california to read— despite the essays taking place in the 50s and 60s, there’s still an undeniable essence that lingers in the californian unconscious today. the constant rejection of the past towards a new future. take the gold rush from the 40s, the silicon valley boom of the 2010s. california has always been a place held on a pedestal of shiny growth and new development and hollow promises, and didion is a witness to all who have been chewed and spit out under the intoxication of such golden ideals. didion unrolls this with such a gentleness and respect for californias people and geography that it makes my palms itchy.
my favorite essays:
- some dreamers of the golden dream (love and death in the inner californian desert cities)
- on keeping a notebook (i find it really cute when writers talking about their writing, artists talk about their art, etc)
- letters from paradise (hawaii and tourism for escapism)
- notes from a native daughter (roots of sacramento)
- i can’t get that monster out of my head (the monster that is hollywood)
in the preface of the book, didion says:
“my only advantage as a reporter is that i am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. and it always does. that is one last thing to remember: writers are always selling somebody out.”
in this collection of essays, she sells out the illusion of the californian image.
i think this is a worthy book for californians and all people who have thought about going to california to read— despite the essays taking place in the 50s and 60s, there’s still an undeniable essence that lingers in the californian unconscious today. the constant rejection of the past towards a new future. take the gold rush from the 40s, the silicon valley boom of the 2010s. california has always been a place held on a pedestal of shiny growth and new development and hollow promises, and didion is a witness to all who have been chewed and spit out under the intoxication of such golden ideals. didion unrolls this with such a gentleness and respect for californias people and geography that it makes my palms itchy.
my favorite essays:
- some dreamers of the golden dream (love and death in the inner californian desert cities)
- on keeping a notebook (i find it really cute when writers talking about their writing, artists talk about their art, etc)
- letters from paradise (hawaii and tourism for escapism)
- notes from a native daughter (roots of sacramento)
- i can’t get that monster out of my head (the monster that is hollywood)