In a lecture at the University of California, Berkeley in 1976, Joan Didion reminisced about her college days, admitting her struggle to focus on academic topics like “Paradise Lost” and the “Hegelian dialectic.” Instead, she found herself gazing out of the window at the nearby Bevatron laboratory, preoccupied with trivial thoughts. This memory, like others in Didion’s life story, is meticulously crafted yet not entirely reliable.
In her collection Let Me Tell You What I Mean, Didion narrates her journey as a writer, portraying herself as a novice in the realm of storytelling. Contrary to her claim of not being an “intellectual” or “political,” she indeed embodies both. Early in her career, Didion not only experimented with her distinctive writing style but also sought to counter what she perceived as the compromised journalism prevalent at her time.
Through essays originally featured in her Saturday Evening Post column during the 1960s, Didion criticized the conventional media for its complacency and praised the more radical publications of Berkeley. She lambasted the mainstream newspapers for their insipidness and their cozy relationship with the political elite, contrasting them with the Berkeley Free Press. Didion’s approach involved attending press events to expose the superficiality of the proceedings, shedding light on the manipulative practices employed in reporting.
As her career progressed, Didion realized that meaningful insights could be gleaned not from attending events but from analyzing campaign memoirs and official statements. She adopted a critical stance, as seen in her scrutiny of Martha Stewart’s public persona, where she debunked the myth of Stewart as a perfect homemaker by revealing the capitalist underpinnings of her image.
Didion’s journalistic style mirrored a form of literary critique, akin to close reading, dissecting and demystifying the prevailing political and cultural narratives propagated by mainstream media. Her prowess lay in recognizing subpar craftsmanship and dismantling contrived scenes created for media consumption, all the while constructing her polished narratives. In her latest collection, Didion doesn’t always explain her intentions explicitly but intricately demonstrates her keen insights and discerning eye for the deceptive devices prevalent in mid-century reporting. She transcends being merely a collector of words, emerging as a discerning critic of the press who delved deeper into societal issues beyond the superficial musings about lights at the Bevatron.
