Jumped the Gun, Sadly
I Was Betting Against Joan D's Demise
Worst case scenario. Joan Didion’s gone. Looks as if Evan O takes the sad honors.
Evan, please email Dennis at the Cult with your mailing address. I was hoping you’d be wrong, but as I wrote in the Comments my spider sense told me you’d win. If you’re outside the United State, please include a phone number. As for Jason and Tiffany, thanks for your info, and your awards will go out early next week.
In college I read The White Album and Slouching Toward Bethelem and I’ve been a fan of Didion’s clear, clean style ever since. She’s a master at controlling the reader’s reactions through withholding information. Her description of living on Franklin Street in a derelcit house became the basis of my description of the Paper Street house in Fight Club. Her list for what to pack for a writing assignment — what clothes, what booze — became my space monkey list of clothing items (two pairs black pants…).
Didion was a constant supporter of Bret Ellis whenever he drew into public scorn. Doug Coupland once told me, “If it wasn’t for Joan Didion, Ellis wouldn’t have a style,” and his cadence and clarity do echo hers in the best way.
Didion and the Dunne family seem like our literary Kennedys. I am very sorry to see her gone.
I actually read Joan Didion for the first time this year (‘The White album’). I can definitely see the influence her style had on Bret Easton Ellis. Interesting to see how it also had an influence for the house on Paper Street.
Sorry to bring the off topic comment here, but I can’t find whatever post discussed Titanic and I want to mention this before I forget… Right now I’m rewatching ‘Se7en’ for the first time in years. I just got to the part at the beginning where they are at the morgue where the first death is being explained to Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman — the fat spaghetti man.
The coroner talks about how he has been dead for weeks and how his stomach is oversized and has an unusual stretchiness to it. Morgan Freeman’s character is telling the chief of police how the death went on for hours, his throat was swollen, he passed out during the ordeal, etc.
It’s totally the Titanic trick! We see the body of the man and everything that has happened to him is explained. We know he died, but we don’t know why or exactly how. It’s amazing how much more you can pick up on things like this once someone lets you in on the tricks of the trade. RIP Joan Didion. Really sucks to lose a writer of that caliber.