2/20/25 - Joan Didion Reflection

 2/20/25

Joan Didion is one of those authors in which you see the human being through the page, rather than just gazing upon a slew of words neatly arranged on hundreds of pages. She writes with a full sense of earnest intent and makes herself as clear as glass without adding an extra coat of sugar.

I believe that God has each person saved for which period they are to live in, and Didion is a very keen example of this. It almost seems as though she was destined to be a writer, as her sense of documentation and narrative explicitly illustrate her subjects for the observing eye to behold. The nineteen-sixties and seventies in America were without any shadow of doubt a turbulent time period in need of close study and precise documentation for later generations to understand it- Didion takes the artistic approach by formatting this documentation in unique ways, using unique language and writing methods otherwise seen as chaotic and unconventional.

The standout example of this specific period in her life was writing "The White Album" in homage to The Beatles 1968 self-titled release. She directly pays homage by writing in a style of literary collage, stating that the sixties were so hectic that it was the only true way to document it, further alluding to the albums' format of over two LP's worth of songs that vary drastically from one another.

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