Saturday, September 21, 2013

Joan Didion Knows Her Shit

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA


I saw this needle in a haystack. Somehow, a link to an interview with Joan Didion somehow stood out from the rest of the static on Twitter. The Paris Review features a series called the Art of Fiction in which they engage in deep discussion with fiction writers about their craft. I came across an outstanding interview conducted with Didion circa 1977.

Check out Joan Didion, The Art of Fiction No. 71.

Didion dishes on the intricacies of writing and explains some of her daily routine. She kicks off the interview with explaining how writers have a hostile relationship with readers.
It's hostile in that you're trying to make somebody see something the way you see it, trying to impose your idea, your picture. It's hostile to try to wrench around someone else's mind that way. Quite often you want to tell somebody your dream, your nightmare. Well, nobody wants to hear about someone else's dream, good or bad; nobody wants to walk around with it. The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to the dream... [...read more here]

Excellent series about an excellent writer that appears in an excellent publication.

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