Tag Archives: Joan Didion

McElwee’s March

There is a little bit of everything in Sherman’s March: self-deprecation, Burt Reynolds, war, melancholy, failure, historical reanalysis, and cultural satire (did I mention Burt Reynolds?), all in hopes of reaching some semblance of love, art, and selfhood. Ross McElwee puts everything he has into this documentary equivalent of the epic poem, and to a large degree, succeeds in his efforts. His two hour and forty minute runtime is nothing short of a marathon, and it all comes together to make a truly unique cinematic experience. In a way, too, every single second is necessary for his artistic endeavor to meet its proper conclusion. That’s the thing about Ross… he lets the camera, an extension of his body, take him wherever the camera needs to go. Furthermore, the authorial sincerity behind this intimate journey, no matter the consequence, dictates where and how and why the story unfolds the way it does. Continue reading

The Truth in Lies/”You Have to Ride the Wave”

People often confuse New Journalists with actual journalists. Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem is never meant to be a series of hard-hitting journalism, otherwise Didion would not reveal that she is “bad at interviewing people” (xiv) and that she dreads the whole process. No, it is a series of very personal accounts that aim to reveal California and in turn the state of the world as Didion herself sees it. Granted, the insistence to use quotes and source them in “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream” may make it seem as though Didion is presenting the facts as they are and allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions, but to focus only on the incident about which she is writing is to do a horrible injustice to Didion as an author. Continue reading

Handbook for the Sellout

You found a way to draw a line,
between the world and you:
Faking your identity.

-Five Iron Frenzy, Handbook for the Sellout

In her text Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion arranges a multitude of profiles, which discuss the life and times of various figures, generally in-or-around California. When Didion writes her profiles, she takes care to go in depth; she researches her topics, conducts interviews, and makes sure to record events as accurately as she can. However, due to the thoroughness of this project, some secrets must be shed.

In this way, yes, Didion is selling out her subjects. She is revealing matters that have been hidden up to now, usually without the prior knowledge of her subjects. Didion credits her ability to discover these secrets to her stature and temperament, and the ways in which these factors separate her from the connotations her occupation carries. In other words, Didion has deliberately taken advantage of her personality to “draw a line between the world and [her].” To her subjects, she is a non-entity–and it is that which makes her literary prowess so dangerous.

Of course, not all creative non-fiction writers can necessarily pull this off. To properly sell someone out requires subtlety and patience; things that Didion carries in droves. The process of selling out comes from the author and the profile format, not the creative non-fiction genre itself.

Be Careful of What You Say

It is interesting that Joan Didion acknowledged her style of story divulgence in the preface of her collection of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem. It was a move that revealed a self-awareness of her own tactful and un-serendipitous methods that make a difference in the field of literary journalism. Her choice to start the collection this way cemented her position as a literary investigative journalist, it was her way of saying “this is what I do and this is why it works”.

It has been said that there are no friends, only interests– “You have the right to remain silent” and probably should around Joan Didion. She’s almost like a cop, she comes of as a harmless friendly figure that embodies the feeling of safety while she’s actually collecting a pile of evidence that grows with each word that is said… She’ll drop acid with you for the sake of investigative journalism Continue reading