joandidion - Jezebel

posts about #joandidion more →
Saint Joan: Young Women And The Cult Of Didion
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
More Arrests In Lindsay Burglary; Cross Snorted Coke In Front Of Obama
Kanye West Headed To Court
Woman Waives Anonymity To Say, "I Was Raped By My Father."
This Week We Discovered Shoving Garlic Up Our Hoohas Was Srsly "Uncool"
Joan Didion Is Kind Of A Downer About The Election


Esquire Editors Not-So-Fondly Remember A Few Females Who Once Wrote For Them

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

whynotshesaid
11/19/09

In reply to Saint Joan: Young Women And The Cult Of Didion
I really got into Joan Didion in my mid-20s, right as I was starting journalism school, and she is one of the handful of writers whose style makes appearances in my own writing. I have read nearly everything she's written. While I tend to appreciate her more from an intellectual and stylistic point of view, some of her stuff has had a very powerful emotional impact on me, particularly her essay "On Self-Respect," which I read shortly after I left my ex-husband and our abusive relationship. Her words so clearly illuminated the fact that I conducted my life the way I did because I lacked self-respect, because I was constantly searching for validation outside of myself and always coming up short. I can hardly think of another piece of writing - perhaps "Of Human Bondage" by Somerset Maugham? - that had such a profound impact on who I am as a person.

That said, I don't really understand the hero worship aspect the writer is referring to. I know it exists with some, and I think it can be attributable to what Didion's career represents - that a talented, smart, somewhat flawed young woman can become one of the most important figures in American letters. I am hardpressed to think of another woman who occupies such a place in our culture. It's not really all that different from generations who idolized Kerouac or Salinger or whoever. They don't just represent their own literary and cultural achievements, but also what is possible for others. So if I had to guess I would say that might be part of what is going on here. But then again, I am not the kind of person who is often starstruck or sent into tears by the mere presence of another person, no matter how much I admire their work.
Reply

whynotshesaid was starred whynotshesaid was unstarred

girlscoutcookie is back from hiatus
11/18/09

In reply to Saint Joan: Young Women And The Cult Of Didion
I couldn't make it through The Year of Magical Thinking. Couldn't even make it through the first chapter. Too hard. But my mom read it, and our conversation about it made me realize that it's something that maybe I'll only be able to read after my parents are gone, because now that's a vague idea I don't want to consider possible, but then it'll be a concrete reality I will already have faced. I don't know. What I did read just broke my heart.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem, though. Amazing from start to finish. Especially the one about Joan Baez.

Plus, Joan Didion was in my sorority, which is my favorite thing about my sorority, because of how she's awesome.
Reply

Trulymadlyme
11/18/09

@girlscoutcookie is back from hiatus: Especially the one about Joan Baez.

Especially since her observation about Baez would apply to Obama. That is what is interesting about her writing.
Reply

Trulymadlyme was starred Trulymadlyme was unstarred

hughman
11/18/09

In reply to Saint Joan: Young Women And The Cult Of Didion
joan didion was one of my writer idols in high school (another was oriana fallaci). i was a gay boy in the south and it was the 70s. needless to say, my parents thought i was crazy. and thus i moved away as soon as i graduated.
Reply

hughman was starred hughman was unstarred

Trulymadlyme
11/18/09

In reply to Saint Joan: Young Women And The Cult Of Didion
I didn't expect to like her writing. In fact, I absolutely hated "Play It As It Lays." But right around the time when I was 28, single, living in the city, partying a shit ton, working a job where I was well paid, but unfulfilled, I randomly stumbled onto "Goodbye to All That" and realized exactly what was happening to me and what happened to me the previous ten years because the essay's observations were just so fucking spot on and clear. The fact that she wrote it in 1968 and I read it in 2008, still shocks me. I don't see writing like that much anymore.
Reply

Edited by Trulymadlyme at 11/18/09 4:59 PM Trulymadlyme was starred Trulymadlyme was unstarred

L'Adelina
11/19/09

@Trulymadlyme: "Goodbye to All That" is one of the most perfect essays she's ever written. I read it first my freshman year of college and loved it, but didn't really get it until I re-read it six years later, and wow, it is shocking how well it still reads.
Reply

Trulymadlyme promoted this comment L'Adelina was starred L'Adelina was unstarred

SarahHeartburn
11/18/09

In reply to Saint Joan: Young Women And The Cult Of Didion
I love and admire her too, but I hope she lives long enough to write a "get the fuck offa me awready" response. Or something like that.
Reply

SarahHeartburn was starred SarahHeartburn was unstarred

TRexstasy
11/18/09

In reply to Saint Joan: Young Women And The Cult Of Didion
St. Joan the Unblinking has risen to the top of my personal canon of great writers over the last year. No one, male or female, looks at our American lives with such keen penetration, such ruthless attention to detail, and yet produces so much real beauty, devoid of sentiment and put-on pathos. Joan Didion is the Bomb Freakin Diggity. Any of us would be blessed to write a tenth as well.
Reply

TRexstasy was starred TRexstasy was unstarred

AnnieSaBu
11/18/09

@TRexstasy: Hear hear. Her sentences are so precise and beautiful that they seem almost familiar, even as you marvel at the achievement. It's like, "how did no one think to put it that way before?"
Reply

TRexstasy promoted this comment AnnieSaBu was starred AnnieSaBu was unstarred

sybann
11/18/09

In reply to Saint Joan: Young Women And The Cult Of Didion
Writers never write for us. Good artists produce because they must.
Reply

sybann was starred sybann was unstarred

BlueJeans
11/18/09

@sybann: I agree with the second statement, but I don't think the first is necessarily true. I agree that artists -- real artists -- have to produce, but I also believe that the creation of art is a social phenomena as well as the manifestation of a personal drive and aptitude. And perhaps not with all artists, but many do write for an audience, even if in a broad sense.
Reply

sybann promoted this comment BlueJeans was starred BlueJeans was unstarred

sybann
11/19/09

@BlueJeans: Correction: writers who ARE artists don't... there are lots of folks who produce things for an audience and sometimes it IS art. But not always.
Reply

sybann was starred sybann was unstarred

BlueJeans
11/20/09

@sybann: Derek Walcott? Seamus Heaney? There's almost an entire school of thought in poetry that deals with navigating the personal as well as the cultural and is consciously about a heritage. Walcott was absolutely writing for the Caribbean. And what about theater? And film? Horror film? I think the audience is, for many artists, an important factor in creation.
Reply

BlueJeans was starred BlueJeans was unstarred

PilgrimSoul
11/18/09

In reply to Saint Joan: Young Women And The Cult Of Didion
Am I weird? I love Didion's writing, but I in no way flatter myself to claim I know her. I hadn't realized she was of some particular amazingness to young women, though I'm Canadian and my literary idols tend more in the direction of Alice Munro.

I just... I find her writing sardonic and sharp, and the way she's described here, it's not recognizable to me.
Reply

PilgrimSoul was starred PilgrimSoul was unstarred

AnnieSaBu
11/18/09

@PilgrimSoul: These are my thoughts too, except that I do consider Didion to be my favorite writer. And yet I don't idolize her as a person or imagine that I know her. It's not worship of Joan Didion, it's love of her work. It's actually hard for me to imagine a "mother figure" or "bedroom saint" emerging from behind her steely prose. I do understand how the Year of Magical Thinking, as an account of her emotional life, might have led to some blurring between the art and the artist, but not more so than any other autobiographer.
Reply

whynotshesaid promoted this comment AnnieSaBu was starred AnnieSaBu was unstarred

bluebears
11/18/09

@PilgrimSoul: I don't feel I know her. Part of what I love about her is that she's able to write about culture or even herself (Year of Magical Thinking) in such a penatrating way and yet I feel like what she shares with the world is only the first few layers of her onion, if you will.

eta: I do idolize her though (as much as someone my age can idolize any stranger)
Reply

Edited by bluebears at 11/18/09 5:15 PM bluebears was starred bluebears was unstarred

girlscoutcookie is back from hiatus
11/18/09

@PilgrimSoul: I love Alice Munro SO MUCH. She's more accessible to me than Joan Didion, though I admire them both; Munro's work is more the style of my own (the day a few weeks ago when my creative writing teacher compared a piece of mine to Munro's was the proudest day of my career thus far). I could never do creative nonfiction like Didion.
Reply

Plum-Pie
11/18/09

@PilgrimSoul: I read her for the first time earlier this year (I'm 29) and I think I'm too old for her work to make a major dent. I'm not shocked by what she does or how (well) she does it.
Reply

Plum-Pie was starred Plum-Pie was unstarred

Trulymadlyme
11/19/09

@Plum-Pie: Even Goodbye to All That? I found her at 28 and holy hell it was the absolute right point.
Reply

Trulymadlyme was starred Trulymadlyme was unstarred

Plum-Pie
11/19/09

@Trulymadlyme: OK, I will try that one. I'm not dismissing her talent and she was already on my 'to read more of, at some point' list. But, as the 'What am I doing with my life? What's really important to me?'-type questions are pretty much resolved in my life (currently), it's been a few years since a book really shook me up emotionally or morally.

#tips
Reply

Plum-Pie was starred Plum-Pie was unstarred

whynotshesaid
11/19/09

@AnnieSaBu: These are my thoughts exactly. I also consider Didion to be my favorite writer (my handle comes from "Play It As It Lays"), but it's not because I think I know her or worship her or anything like that. It's because her writing is so precise, like a scalpel, and also because she is enormously intelligent and clear-thinking. (Aside: I'm reading David Foster Wallace's collection of essays and he reminds me a lot of her, albeit with more profanity and a slightly coarser sensibility, but no less penetrating in his insights.)

I don't really understand hero worship, unless by "hero worship" you mean wishing you could emulate someone's career and admiring their work intensely. But holding a copy of her book and crying while listening to her speak? I don't get that at all.
Reply

whynotshesaid was starred whynotshesaid was unstarred

puritanicalish
10/27/09

In reply to Slouching Towards Bethlehem
i saw this last nite and it was incredible. vanessa redgrave was nothing short of amazing and at the end joan didion came out and they took a bow together. magical.

also, principal rooney from ferris bueller's day off was in attendance.
as well as harvey keitel. #theyearofmagicalthinking
Reply

bowleserised promoted this comment puritanicalish was starred puritanicalish was unstarred

Rona
10/27/09

In reply to Slouching Towards Bethlehem
That's the only book I've read by Joan Didion, and it was well worth it. #theyearofmagicalthinking
Reply

whynotshesaid promoted this comment Rona was starred Rona was unstarred

whynotshesaid
10/27/09

@Rona: I really recommend Slouching Towards Bethlehem. The essay On Self-Respect changed my life.

And also, Play It As It Lays is one of my favorite novels. I take my username from that book. #theyearofmagicalthinking
Reply

whynotshesaid was starred whynotshesaid was unstarred

L'Adelina
10/27/09

In reply to Slouching Towards Bethlehem
If you have ever lost someone important to your life, you owe it t yourself to read The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. It is one of the most honest books ever written about death and loss and it only has gotten better after every read. #theyearofmagicalthinking
Reply

bluebears promoted this comment L'Adelina was starred L'Adelina was unstarred

bluebears
10/27/09

@L'Adelina: I love that book. I don't even think you need to experience a loss to appreciate it, the emotions are so raw it really transports you. #theyearofmagicalthinking
Reply

bluebears was starred bluebears was unstarred

Gumbina80
10/23/09

In reply to More Arrests In Lindsay Burglary; Cross Snorted Coke In Front Of Obama
Okay conservatives, I'm going to cop to being a hypocrite on this Cross issue. If he had done it in Dumbya's presence, I would have found it a humorous, subversive reference to the President's own coked-up past. But in this case, I find the gag without merit. #lindsaylohanburglary
Reply

Zulkey promoted this comment Gumbina80 was starred Gumbina80 was unstarred

Zulkey
10/23/09

@Gumbina80: I think it's immature no matter who the Pres is. What is he, 14? #lindsaylohanburglary
Reply

Zulkey was starred Zulkey was unstarred

Ms Meghan
10/23/09

In reply to More Arrests In Lindsay Burglary; Cross Snorted Coke In Front Of Obama
The problem with what Spike Lee said is that ... actually there isn't any. Many other people have said it, and it probably wouldn't hurt Tyler Perry to stfu and listen.

Speaking of, regarding the whole Oprah/Precious thing ... if I hear the phrase "the Preciouses of the world" one more time I'm gonna punch someone. #lindsaylohanburglary
Reply

Ms Meghan was starred Ms Meghan was unstarred

doogan821
10/23/09

In reply to More Arrests In Lindsay Burglary; Cross Snorted Coke In Front Of Obama
This picture of Lindsey makes my eyes hurt. Her hair, skin and dress are all the same color. #lindsaylohanburglary
Reply

TheFormerJuneBronson promoted this comment doogan821 was starred doogan821 was unstarred

TheFormerJuneBronson
10/23/09

@doogan821: I feel like I've seen corpses on CSI made up in the same colors. #lindsaylohanburglary
Reply

willwriteforfood
10/23/09

In reply to More Arrests In Lindsay Burglary; Cross Snorted Coke In Front Of Obama
"I am really not that adept a cook as [Julia Child] was, especially with that rapid-fire knife. If I did that in my kitchen everybody would run because there would be a lot of blood probably."

Oh, this is me. I cook a lot but I am afraid of my knife, especially chopping onions, because I have nicked myself many times with that thing. I am fascinated and horrified by Jamie Oliver's chopping skills. He doesn't even look at the board, he'll just talk at the camera and dice the celery at the same time. I keep waiting for his fingers to end up in the soup. #lindsaylohanburglary
Reply

willwriteforfood was starred willwriteforfood was unstarred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

SUBSCRIBE TO Jezebel

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment