Tag: Joan Didion

Book Review, Criticism

The Uptown Local, Or: Listening to On the 6 Might Be a Better Experience

In 1999, Jennifer Lopez released her first record, On the 6—a title that alluded to her commute from the Bronx to Manhattan while working her early jobs as a dancer. Perhaps Cory Leadbeater thought better of titling his memoir the same, opting instead for The Uptown Local, which says as little about Joan Didion as the book itself…but “at least” readers know he had to … Continue reading The Uptown Local, Or: Listening to On the 6 Might Be a Better Experience

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Essay

Martha Revisits Joan Didion’s “Everywoman.com” Essay, Reminds That the Two Are Kindred Perfectionists With a Similarly “Icy” Demeanor

With the renewed interest in Martha Stewart after the release of R.J. Cutler’s aptly titled Martha, there is likely to be some equally renewed interest in an article that Joan Didion wrote about the one-woman brand in question for The New Yorker back in 2000, selections of which are interwoven throughout the documentary via voiceover. Reprinted in 2021’s Let Me Tell You What I Mean … Continue reading Martha Revisits Joan Didion’s “Everywoman.com” Essay, Reminds That the Two Are Kindred Perfectionists With a Similarly “Icy” Demeanor

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Book Review, Criticism, Essay

Not A Girl, Finally A Woman: MARINA’s Eat the World

Like many pop stars who weren’t yet pop stars in the early 2000s, Britney Spears was both an inspiration and a cautionary tale to someone like MARINA. Her influence undeniable on every millennial from Taylor Swift to Charli XCX. In 2021, MARINA paid homage to that influence in a “justice for Britney” sort of way with the “Purge the Poison” lyrics, “2007/When Size 0 was … Continue reading Not A Girl, Finally A Woman: MARINA’s Eat the World

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Criticism

What If The Year of Magical Thinking Is Actually A Book About the Hazards of Codependency?

Earlier this year, Sloane Crosley released a book called Grief Is for People. Detailing the loss of her close friend and mentor, Russell Perreault, it is, in many ways, a spawn of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking (this connection can be read about more in-depth in the Vol. 37 issue of The Opiate). Crosley, accordingly, is not shy about referencing it a few … Continue reading What If The Year of Magical Thinking Is Actually A Book About the Hazards of Codependency?

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Essay

The Literary Inspiration Behind Olivia Rodrigo’s “All-American Bitch”

With the release of Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album, Guts, there’s been a palpable shift in her lyrical style to that of the, let’s call it, “Lana Del Rey variety.” Not just because titles like “all-american bitch,” “the grudge” and “girl i’ve always been” smack of the Del Rey brand, but because she’s taken a more literary route on the first track mentioned (which also happens … Continue reading The Literary Inspiration Behind Olivia Rodrigo’s “All-American Bitch”

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Essay, Writing and Pop Culture

On That And Just Like That… Moment, Or: Asking A Writer Not To Write About Certain People Is A Particularly Egregious Form of Censorship

As trouble in “paradise” inevitably keeps mounting for the Bradshaw/Shaw reunion, it was plain to see that things were already going to be majorly problematic when Aidan’s (John Corbett) ex-wife, Kathy (Rosemarie DeWitt), called Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) to arrange a little sit-down. Although she tried to tell herself (and her friends) it wasn’t weird, Carrie is no stranger to the uncomfortable revelations that arise … Continue reading On That And Just Like That… Moment, Or: Asking A Writer Not To Write About Certain People Is A Particularly Egregious Form of Censorship

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Essay

This Ain’t Joan Didion’s Sacramento (And It Never Was)

Is there a chance that California’s capital is crying out in some way for its dead daughter? The only so-called “high-value star” of its show? Is that why the town—usually referenced solely as a footnote to where Didion is from—is now only being mentioned on an international scale for serving as the site of a second mass shooting in the span of a month? It’s … Continue reading This Ain’t Joan Didion’s Sacramento (And It Never Was)

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Essay

Is It the End or the Beginning of California Literature Now?

East Coastians would likely balk at the term “California literature” as being an oxymoron. And yet, that’s precisely what Joan Didion carved out for herself as a genre. Yes, there were others who had written about California before her—John Steinbeck and Nathanael West come to mind (even Raymond Chandler, for the less hoity-toity)—and all just as negatively through the guise of “poetic darkness.” But none … Continue reading Is It the End or the Beginning of California Literature Now?

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Criticism

Joan Didion Knows Where to Cut: Plucking Flowers With “Pretty Nancy”

The excitement surrounding Joan Didion’s release of a “new” book called Let Me Tell You What I Mean needn’t be mitigated by the fact that it is a collection of older essays (previously unreleased, therefore everything old is new again), gathered from 1968 to 2000. For Didion is perhaps at her most signaturely eviscerating during this period, and one wonders if a release of truly … Continue reading Joan Didion Knows Where to Cut: Plucking Flowers With “Pretty Nancy”

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Criticism

The Abandonment of California by Joan Didion: A Comparative Glance at Run River and Where I Was From

In an alternate universe, perhaps Joan Didion herself might have become some version of Lily Knight, the dissatisfied, cuckolding Sacramento girl who couldn’t seem to fathom how to be a good wife to the man who loved her. Without her writing talent as a ticket out of town, Didion could have easily become just another Golden State tragedy, damned to a lifetime of complacence and … Continue reading The Abandonment of California by Joan Didion: A Comparative Glance at Run River and Where I Was From

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