26 Comments

At least you didn't call her out by name and jinx her (five friggen days ago!!) the way Chandler Morrison did on Twitter

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Yeah, but our buddy Evan O called her out a week ago today! Evan, you are a witch.

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December 23, 2021
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Yeah, it hurt to look at her hands.

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Crazy that three predictions came true in just a couple of days.

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December 23, 2021
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I just learned she co-wrote The Panic in Needle Park... my introduction to her work. I'm sorely behind...

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Well, I read somewhere that on a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero, and the average lifespan in the US is around 80, so someone treading lightly into their upper 80s has a pretty good shot at getting their death predicted :/

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I apologize for my prescience. I'll refrain from making future predictions!

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(witch!)

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(I wrote 'witch' in exactly the hissing tone of Piper Laurie as Margaret White in the film 'Carrie.')

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founding

A mentor of mine said that 'The White Album' was her writing career inspiration. I read it on South Beach in Miami for the first time about a year ago and I've been a fan since. Sad sad news.

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Look for the essay "The Seacoast of Despair" and it will make you never want to be rich.

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It's in her collection "Slouching Toward Bethlehem."

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founding

Will do, thank you!

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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.

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Funny, but I put a "refrigerated fur closet" in the Paper Street house because Didion mentions one. Then Fincher had one built for the movie set. See how the Didion effect goes on and on?

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“The Didion effect”. Her legacy is going to remain very much intact for quite some time.

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This too was a little too much for me today. I have really been a fan for so many years. Time to re-engage with all my LA Lady Literary Empresses

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Hello Zoe. I have a beautiful hardcover of Didion's last book. Please give Dennis a snail mail address, and I'd like to send the book to you.

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Wow wow wow… it was on my wish list even…

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founding

Adding these to my reading list. Seems like a rough end of the year for the writer's world. Stay safe everyone!

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founding

My heart broke this morning when I heard. An absolute literary giant. ♥️

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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.

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Alas, that's why I call this gig "PlotSpoiler." When you recognize the tricks of storytelling, well, you become a tougher audience. But when you're fooled, you really appreciate it.

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To me it is the essay on her migraines. Along with her piece on Georgia O'Keeffe. I never read an art essay like that before, still don't even know if it really is one. (Both in the White Album).

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there is no end

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