Read this excerpt from Didion's Why I Write:
http://www.idiom.com/~rick/html/why_i_write.htm.
What, according to Didion, makes her a writer? Consider your own writing self,
and generate some of your own characteristics as a writer. Do you, like Didion,
see pictures and specifics? Are you more of an abstract thinker? Describe
yourself as a writer, your strengths and your weaknesses, and perhaps the kind
of writer you would like to become.
Read this essay on Joan Didion by Barbara Grizzuti-Harrison (it's quite long but
a great read--stick with it!):
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/103/didion-per-harrison.html. What
does Grizzuti-Harrison object to in Didion's work? What does she object to about
Didion the person?
Compare Grizzuti-Harrison's essay to Sandra Braman's essay on Didion at
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~despey/didion.htm. Which critique do you
identify with more? Offer some examples from your own reading of Didion in
The Norton Reader to back up your opinion.
Read this short excerpt from Didion's "The White Album":
http://www.idiom.com/~rick/html/the_white_album.htm. What characteristic aspects
of Didion's writing described by Grizzuti-Harrison or Braman (above) do you find
in this piece? What does Didion mean when she says this was a "story without a
narrative"? Try writing a short essay of your own in which you describe a time
of sickness or injury. What does it mean to come to grips with your own human
frailties?
Further Reading (these essays and more by Didion are archived
at The New York Review of Books Archives
http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/archives.html):
Clinton Agonistes
http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWarchdisplay.cgi?19981022016R
Submitted to The New York Review of Books in 1998, Didion's piece on
the Clinton White House scandal presents an interesting and critical view of all
the parties involved, from the man himself, to the special prosecutor, to the
media.
The Lion King: a review of D'Souza's book on Ronald Reagan.
http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWarchdisplay.cgi?19971218013R
Didion’s 1997 review of D’Souza’s book on Ronald Reagan discusses the man behind
the presidency.