The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on February 15, 2021, 10:34:28 am ---I read an article by Nathan Heller about cars in American culture. It was from July 2019.
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I always read Nathan Heller.
I thought I was catching up, but then I ran into the Feb. 1 that turned out to have lots of authors I always read: Jane Mayer, Jon Lee Anderson, John Seabrook, Nathan Heller.
About Heller's article: I've never read Joan Didion, but she's the kind of author who gets mentioned in TNY, so I figured she's an Important Writer, and I ought to read about her.
The articles about smells, the Chinese Cultural Revolutilon, and the Blackwell sisters were interesting, too. I don't know why it cought my eye, but I even read the short fiction. :o
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on February 19, 2021, 02:17:33 pm ---I always read Nathan Heller.
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I usually do, too. I read his work when he was on the staff at Slate. But somehow I missed the car one.
--- Quote ---I've never read Joan Didion, but she's the kind of author who gets mentioned in TNY, so I figured she's an Important Writer
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She is. You could read her without committing too much time because she's most well known for her essays. You could probably find many of them online. The one about the Manson murders and the decay of Haight-Ashbury hippie culture in the late '60s is particularly celebrated. I haven't read it lately.
I did see a documentary about her a year or so ago. In one of her essays (maybe the one above) she wrote about finding a child (about 9, maybe?) on LSD. The interviewer asks her what she thought about that.
"I thought it was GOLD," she says.
Jeff Wrangler:
(Re: Joan Didion)
--- Quote from: serious crayons on February 19, 2021, 04:54:00 pm ---She is. You could read her without committing too much time because she's most well known for her essays. You could probably find many of them online. The one about the Manson murders and the decay of Haight-Ashbury hippie culture in the late '60s is particularly celebrated. I haven't read it lately.
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I seem to remember a TNY article about her from not too terribly long ago. IIRC, the reason for Heller's article now is a new publication of a collection of her essays. He mentions the Haight-Ashbury essay.
I remember she published a book following the unexpected death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne--I think it was called The Year of Magical Thinking, or something like that. (Again IIRC, Heller says her daughter died, too.) I know she also published a novel--I think it's a novel--called A Book of Common Prayer, because it would turn up if I wasn't careful what I put in the search box when I was searching on eBay for The Book of Common Prayer. :laugh:
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on February 19, 2021, 05:56:48 pm ---(Re: Joan Didion)
I seem to remember a TNY article about her from not too terribly long ago. IIRC, the reason for Heller's article now is a new publication of a collection of her essays. He mentions the Haight-Ashbury essay.
I remember she published a book following the unexpected death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne--I think it was called The Year of Magical Thinking, or something like that. (Again IIRC, Heller says her daughter died, too.) I know she also published a novel--I think it's a novel--called A Book of Common Prayer, because it would turn up if I wasn't careful what I put in the search box when I was searching on eBay for The Book of Common Prayer. :laugh:
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Yes, correct on all points. I think she might have written a second book about her daughter's death, although both deaths occurred in close succession. She published a novel in 1970 called Play it as it Lays and maybe one or two others later. I remember reading PIAIL at this job I had in college -- making appointments for air-conditioner sales people that mostly involved just sitting around until someone called, then getting their contact info.
She also published a number of book-length nonfiction books. Where I Was From which is about, I believe, Sacramento, has has always sounded kind of good. But it's those early essays that launched her stardom, collected in Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album. If you ever go to a literary event, like a reading in a bookstore or an annual book festival, you'll see a older women carrying canvas totes, and many of them are printed with drawings of Joan Didion. (Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe are also popular. Are these from Barnes & Noble or some big book-store chain?)
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on February 19, 2021, 08:51:28 pm ---She also published a number of book-length nonfiction books. Where I Was From which is about, I believe, Sacramento, has has always sounded kind of good. But it's those early essays that launched her stardom, collected in Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album.
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Heller mentions all of them
--- Quote ---If you ever go to a literary event, like a reading in a bookstore or an annual book festival, you'll see older women carrying canvas totes, and many of them are printed with drawings of Joan Didion. (Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe are also popular. Are these from Barnes & Noble or some big book-store chain?)
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I'm sure I've seen Poe, at least, at Barnes and Noble--and is there any bookstore chain left besides Barnes & Noble?
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