5 ms·

Joan Didion has died

217 points by chewymouse 5y ago

staplung 5y ago
And of course, At the Dam, one of my all time favorite pieces of non-fiction http://deathray.us/no_crawl/others/atthedam.html http://deathray.us/no_crawl/others/atthedam.html
tyre 5y ago
A rarely mentioned part of her work is the small book Salvador. She wrote a fair amount on the horrors in Central America during the 1980s, many of which were backed by the US government. It’s a difficult, harrowing read. But as a student educated in the United States well after these events happened, I never knew this part of our history and the long-lasting repercussions.
neonate 5y ago
https://archive.ph/RcFKd https://archive.ph/RcFKd http://web.archive.org/web/20211224011509/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/books/joan-didion-dead.html http://web.archive.org/web/20211224011509/https://www.nytime...
509engr 5y ago
Her essay on California's water system is one of the most beautiful pieces of writing about public works I have ever encountered. http://archive.pov.org/thirst/holy-water/ http://archive.pov.org/thirst/holy-water/
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  > this requires prodigious coordination, precision, and the best efforts of several human minds and that of a Univac 418 The top of this page says 2004. Is that correct? Univac is anachronistic to 2004.
  - 509engr 5y ago
    I had a hard time finding a publication date for the original, but searching for it suggests 1979.
- jelling 5y ago
  Then you'd probably love "Powerbroker: Robert Moses and the Death of New York" by Robert Caro. Long, but he's a master.
  - PaulHoule 5y ago
    Political Fictions is my favorite Joan Didion book, particularly her essay on Insider Baseball., which together with Asimov’s Franchise anticipates 538 and all the other media on elections that ultimately disenfranchise voters.
    - TomDavey 5y ago
      > anticipates 538 and all the other media on elections that ultimately disenfranchise voters. Serious question: how does "media on elections" disenfranchise voters? I would have thought that they usefully inform voters, or at least remind voters of the importance of voting.
      - jdavis703 5y ago
        There are some people that are suspicious of polling averages and models have under-performed Trump vs. the official vote totals. They think it’s a form of “suppression polling” where the opponents supporters are demoralized by a conspiracy of weak polling numbers that suppress turnout. I believe there are simpler and more convincing explanations for polling errors that seemed consistently biased against Trump, but some people are happy to jump to far fetched conspiracy theories.
        noduerme 5y ago
        I think the simplest explanation is that pollsters are from the media/elite; when Trumpers get a phone call from a pollster, it's either their chance to "own the libs" by lying, or they're embarrassed to admit their reactionary beliefs so they say what they think a centrist or liberal would say. Then they vote for the furthest right wing loonies they can find. You can see this kind of thing in practice if you've ever been a non-white person in a redneck bar.
- raegis 5y ago
  The book Cadillac Desert and the documentary of the same name (narrated by Alfre Woodard) woke me up to this problem. (I live in CA but grew up back east). It's astonishing that we use so much imported water on our lawns (including during Winter) while watering lawns is not even necessary elsewhere.
  - randycupertino 5y ago
    If you liked Cadillac Desert you might enjoy reading A Kingdom from Dust, a long-form article in California Sunday magazine that details the Resnick family behind Pom pomegranate products and their lobbying for water rights in Kern county: https://story.californiasunday.com/resnick-a-kingdom-from-dust/ https://story.californiasunday.com/resnick-a-kingdom-from-du...
    - 509engr 5y ago
      Mark Arax, the author of that article has a longer book, A Dreamt Land, on the subject of California agriculture and water, (probably the article is an excerpt) that is a really good read too. A little more up-to-date than Cadillac Desert, and more focused on California and the Central Valley.
  - 0x0nyandesu 5y ago
    I find it funny that a farm in the valley has "water use rights" and will end up using millions of gallons of water per month and pay almost nothing for it meanwhile my sfm which uses about 15k gallons a month will cost $300 for the privilege and I'm allowed to keep going and water outside as much as I want however California regulations prevent me from installing a second shower head in my walk in shower wet room under the guise of not wasting water. All this even though the place where I live is basically 97% recycled water so you're really just paying for the cost of treating the water. Eh I generally don't understand why my property has to stay a dessert while 10 minutes from my house the farms take the water and sell it for themselves in the fruit.
    - leesalminen 5y ago
- justinpage 5y ago
  Thank you for sharing this!
- bspammer 5y ago
  There is something so strange about reading such a beautiful thing and then reading that comment at the bottom. The juxtaposition is just bizarre. Is there a word for this feeling? It happens to me frequently online. Anyway, thank you for sharing.
  - quirino 5y ago
    The song "That Funny Feeling" by comedian Bo Burnham may be related to the feeling you're describing
  - carrolldunham 5y ago
    bathos?
  - 509engr 5y ago
    Wow, that is quite bizarre. I hadn't noticed the comment due to my browser extensions.
- e40 5y ago
  I thought you might have engaged in hyperbole. Nope. Thank you for sharing that.
- fsckboy 5y ago
  >I have always wanted a swimming pool, and never had one >In fact a swimming pool requires, once it has been filled and the filter has begun its process of cleaning and recirculating the water, virtually no water can confirm, she's never had a swimming pool, they require the addition of water all the time in an arid climate.
rurban 5y ago
The documentary about her, by her nephew, is still on Netflix. I just watched it. It's excellent. Initially I was a bit sceptical, because I only knew her A+ screenwriting and her lifestyle reporting, but she was a great one.
- Quarrel 5y ago
  For those looking, it is: Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Didion:_The_Center_Will_Not_Hold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Didion:_The_Center_Will_N... 89% on RT. So pretty fkn good.
BruceEel 5y ago
Pretty sure I'm singing to the choir here, but "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", I literally cannot recommend it enough.
bsanr 5y ago
- _bfhp 5y ago
  I don't know much about her, but Didion's central legacy is based around her creativity and putting art and ideas out into the world. Bryant's life surely has many lessons to teach us, but in terms of legacy he was not someone who could potentially inspire anyone--you have to be into basketball or sports in general for his life to be relevant to you at all, much less a source of new ideas. Maybe a fitting comparison would be the deaths of a famous philosopher and a famous Christian theologian writer?
- blitz_skull 5y ago
  Why are the only choices being an athlete or being black? Seems like you’re trying to funnel responses into a rather arbitrary and contentious direction.
- clairity 5y ago
  i'm squarely with you on this one. the implicit racism and bias is thick here (note the spite and bile spewed in those many kobe posts). while i appreciate didion's work, she's not even a minor blip in literature and history. also compare this to the lack of interest/discussion around bell hooks[0], a black feminist writer who is at least a minor blip in american culture and history. besides being one of the best basketball players ever, kobe was a tech investor and media producer in the few short years since his retirement from the nba. there are literally dozens of murals all across LA of kobe. he'll also be forgotten by the zeitgeist eventually, but it will likely be decades before that happens. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29581259 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29581259
  - tclancy 5y ago
    Do you honestly think bell hooks would be cool with you lumping her with Kobe, even if he bought her a giant diamond after the fact? To be clear, it reads like you invoked her name to dog whistle about misandry which would be funny if it weren’t for the way the world is because of the Internet which is because of, yknow, HackerNews type folks.
mturmon 5y ago
NYRB, where she wrote for decades, has put her essays in front of the paywall. https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/joan-didion/ https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/joan-didion/ (Their home page has a dozen specific recommendations.)

217 points by chewymouse 5y ago

And of course, At the Dam, one of my all time favorite pieces of non-fiction http://deathray.us/no_crawl/others/atthedam.html http://deathray.us/no_crawl/others/atthedam.html

tyre 5y ago

A rarely mentioned part of her work is the small book Salvador. She wrote a fair amount on the horrors in Central America during the 1980s, many of which were backed by the US government. It’s a difficult, harrowing read. But as a student educated in the United States well after these events happened, I never knew this part of our history and the long-lasting repercussions.

neonate 5y ago

https://archive.ph/RcFKd https://archive.ph/RcFKd http://web.archive.org/web/20211224011509/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/books/joan-didion-dead.html http://web.archive.org/web/20211224011509/https://www.nytime...

509engr 5y ago

Her essay on California's water system is one of the most beautiful pieces of writing about public works I have ever encountered. http://archive.pov.org/thirst/holy-water/ http://archive.pov.org/thirst/holy-water/

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
> this requires prodigious coordination, precision, and the best efforts of several human minds and that of a Univac 418 The top of this page says 2004. Is that correct? Univac is anachronistic to 2004.
- 509engr 5y ago
  I had a hard time finding a publication date for the original, but searching for it suggests 1979.
jelling 5y ago
Then you'd probably love "Powerbroker: Robert Moses and the Death of New York" by Robert Caro. Long, but he's a master.
- PaulHoule 5y ago
  Political Fictions is my favorite Joan Didion book, particularly her essay on Insider Baseball., which together with Asimov’s Franchise anticipates 538 and all the other media on elections that ultimately disenfranchise voters.
  - TomDavey 5y ago
    > anticipates 538 and all the other media on elections that ultimately disenfranchise voters. Serious question: how does "media on elections" disenfranchise voters? I would have thought that they usefully inform voters, or at least remind voters of the importance of voting.
    - jdavis703 5y ago
      There are some people that are suspicious of polling averages and models have under-performed Trump vs. the official vote totals. They think it’s a form of “suppression polling” where the opponents supporters are demoralized by a conspiracy of weak polling numbers that suppress turnout. I believe there are simpler and more convincing explanations for polling errors that seemed consistently biased against Trump, but some people are happy to jump to far fetched conspiracy theories.
      - noduerme 5y ago
        I think the simplest explanation is that pollsters are from the media/elite; when Trumpers get a phone call from a pollster, it's either their chance to "own the libs" by lying, or they're embarrassed to admit their reactionary beliefs so they say what they think a centrist or liberal would say. Then they vote for the furthest right wing loonies they can find. You can see this kind of thing in practice if you've ever been a non-white person in a redneck bar.
raegis 5y ago
The book Cadillac Desert and the documentary of the same name (narrated by Alfre Woodard) woke me up to this problem. (I live in CA but grew up back east). It's astonishing that we use so much imported water on our lawns (including during Winter) while watering lawns is not even necessary elsewhere.
- randycupertino 5y ago
  If you liked Cadillac Desert you might enjoy reading A Kingdom from Dust, a long-form article in California Sunday magazine that details the Resnick family behind Pom pomegranate products and their lobbying for water rights in Kern county: https://story.californiasunday.com/resnick-a-kingdom-from-dust/ https://story.californiasunday.com/resnick-a-kingdom-from-du...
  - 509engr 5y ago
    Mark Arax, the author of that article has a longer book, A Dreamt Land, on the subject of California agriculture and water, (probably the article is an excerpt) that is a really good read too. A little more up-to-date than Cadillac Desert, and more focused on California and the Central Valley.
- 0x0nyandesu 5y ago
  I find it funny that a farm in the valley has "water use rights" and will end up using millions of gallons of water per month and pay almost nothing for it meanwhile my sfm which uses about 15k gallons a month will cost $300 for the privilege and I'm allowed to keep going and water outside as much as I want however California regulations prevent me from installing a second shower head in my walk in shower wet room under the guise of not wasting water. All this even though the place where I live is basically 97% recycled water so you're really just paying for the cost of treating the water. Eh I generally don't understand why my property has to stay a dessert while 10 minutes from my house the farms take the water and sell it for themselves in the fruit.
  - leesalminen 5y ago
justinpage 5y ago
Thank you for sharing this!
bspammer 5y ago
There is something so strange about reading such a beautiful thing and then reading that comment at the bottom. The juxtaposition is just bizarre. Is there a word for this feeling? It happens to me frequently online. Anyway, thank you for sharing.
- quirino 5y ago
  The song "That Funny Feeling" by comedian Bo Burnham may be related to the feeling you're describing
- carrolldunham 5y ago
  bathos?
- 509engr 5y ago
  Wow, that is quite bizarre. I hadn't noticed the comment due to my browser extensions.
e40 5y ago
I thought you might have engaged in hyperbole. Nope. Thank you for sharing that.
fsckboy 5y ago
>I have always wanted a swimming pool, and never had one >In fact a swimming pool requires, once it has been filled and the filter has begun its process of cleaning and recirculating the water, virtually no water can confirm, she's never had a swimming pool, they require the addition of water all the time in an arid climate.

rurban 5y ago

The documentary about her, by her nephew, is still on Netflix. I just watched it. It's excellent. Initially I was a bit sceptical, because I only knew her A+ screenwriting and her lifestyle reporting, but she was a great one.

Quarrel 5y ago
For those looking, it is: Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Didion:_The_Center_Will_Not_Hold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Didion:_The_Center_Will_N... 89% on RT. So pretty fkn good.

BruceEel 5y ago

Pretty sure I'm singing to the choir here, but "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", I literally cannot recommend it enough.

bsanr 5y ago

_bfhp 5y ago
I don't know much about her, but Didion's central legacy is based around her creativity and putting art and ideas out into the world. Bryant's life surely has many lessons to teach us, but in terms of legacy he was not someone who could potentially inspire anyone--you have to be into basketball or sports in general for his life to be relevant to you at all, much less a source of new ideas. Maybe a fitting comparison would be the deaths of a famous philosopher and a famous Christian theologian writer?
blitz_skull 5y ago
Why are the only choices being an athlete or being black? Seems like you’re trying to funnel responses into a rather arbitrary and contentious direction.
clairity 5y ago
i'm squarely with you on this one. the implicit racism and bias is thick here (note the spite and bile spewed in those many kobe posts). while i appreciate didion's work, she's not even a minor blip in literature and history. also compare this to the lack of interest/discussion around bell hooks[0], a black feminist writer who is at least a minor blip in american culture and history. besides being one of the best basketball players ever, kobe was a tech investor and media producer in the few short years since his retirement from the nba. there are literally dozens of murals all across LA of kobe. he'll also be forgotten by the zeitgeist eventually, but it will likely be decades before that happens. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29581259 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29581259
- tclancy 5y ago
  Do you honestly think bell hooks would be cool with you lumping her with Kobe, even if he bought her a giant diamond after the fact? To be clear, it reads like you invoked her name to dog whistle about misandry which would be funny if it weren’t for the way the world is because of the Internet which is because of, yknow, HackerNews type folks.

mturmon 5y ago

NYRB, where she wrote for decades, has put her essays in front of the paywall. https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/joan-didion/ https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/joan-didion/ (Their home page has a dozen specific recommendations.)