yesterday i picked up joan didion's new book, Where I Was From, at the library. i requested it after reading the review/interview with didion by Andrew O'Hehir on salon.com last week. a quote from that article seems to me directly related to the matters brought up by mike davis in my first entry on this subject. didion is a native californian, her family has been there for generations, she grew up steeped in the mythology of the state. all of which is the subject matter of the book. the quote that struck me, relating to current political events and natural disasters, is the following:
"She sees a state whose history was poisoned at the root by a heritage of carelessness and hucksterism, whose residents have always been willing to mortgage the future for a short term payout, and whose myth of freedom and independence has always been funded, at mind-blowing, almost unimaginable expense, by the same federal government many of its citizens profess to hate."
I haven't started the book itself yet, but didion is one of my favorite writers. she is one of the few nonfiction writers whom i read regularly and avidly, so i look forward to it.
1 comment:
William Faulkner did one story about California, called "Golden Land." It's about a real estate salesman originally from Nebraska. He's worried because his son wears women's underwear and his daughter acts in porno films. The story ends with his elderly mother wanting to go back to Nebraska to die, because Californians invent more cures than there are diseases to try them on, so she figures she can't die there. She says - sadly - "I will stay here and live forever." - Bruce
Post a Comment