[HN Gopher] Joan Didion: On Self-Respect (1961)
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Joan Didion: On Self-Respect (1961)
Author : smartmic
Score : 58 points
Date : 2022-01-28 20:28 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.vogue.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.vogue.com)
| neonate wrote:
| http://web.archive.org/web/20220128203213/https://www.vogue....
|
| https://archive.is/BTXmx
| miesman wrote:
| Another short thing she wrote about living that I really like:
|
| " I'm not telling you to make the world better, because I don't
| think that progress is necessarily part of the package," she once
| wrote. "I'm just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure
| it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to
| live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live
| recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride
| in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should
| bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave's a fine and
| private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they
| sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the
| Amazon, or touch their children. And that's what there is to do
| and get it while you can and good luck at it" -- Joan Didion
| fumeux_fume wrote:
| This excellent essay reminds me of a profound saying I overheard
| while, of all things, shopping at the grocery store: "if you
| don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything." In the
| case of this essay, if you don't account for the value of
| yourself and what you believe, everything will feel like it costs
| too much.
| op00to wrote:
| That makes no sense. It is entirely possible for someone to not
| have deep convictions yet not be swayed by others.
| paulcole wrote:
| Yes. That's what a saying/cliche like this is. Something that
| is generally true but may be false for a specific individual.
| coldtea wrote:
| Not really. What you mean is they could just as well be "cool
| headed", think it through for themselves, and not be swayed
| here and there.
|
| But you'll need to arrive at a deep conviction after doing
| that thinking. Else, you'll just let the crowd/peer/society
| pressure lead you to act as they wont on the matter.
|
| You say that you won't be swayed otherwise, because once
| you've e.g. rationally arrived that X is better, you'll stand
| your ground? Well, you've just described a deep conviction in
| a roundabout way :)
| starkd wrote:
| wow. What an amazing essay. I have not read much from her, but
| what a command of the language, what insight and wisdom into
| herself. This is the type of thing keep going back to, because
| you can't fully understand it in one reading.
| wanderingstan wrote:
| The book "Year of Magical Thinking" was my introduction to her
| writing, though coming from a later time in her life. Highly
| recommended.
| clpm4j wrote:
| She was such a good writer. I have trouble finding modern
| writers/journalists of her caliber.
| criddell wrote:
| There's a great documentary on Netflix about her called _The
| Center Will Not Hold_.
| everybodyknows wrote:
| Eulogy for Didion from another great talent:
|
| https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/joan-didion-and...
| prvc wrote:
| >Didion wrote the essay as the magazine was going to press, to
| fill the space left after another writer did not produce a piece
| on the same subject. She wrote it not to a word count or a line
| count, but to an exact character count.
|
| Even using a movable type system, I don't see why matching a
| specific number of characters, rather than lines would be
| necessary.
| isx726552 wrote:
| Yeah that doesn't really make sense. Print is always measured
| in physical units: pages, columns, inches, etc. Type can be
| adjusted to fill this much space, so the character and even
| word counts are somewhat flexible. There are of course limits
| to the amount of adjustment that can be made, but even with
| none at all, proportional fonts means exact character counts
| would not be the right unit of measure to ensure a piece of
| writing fit an allotted amount of space.
| mandmandam wrote:
| 9,049 character without spaces, 10,862 with.
|
| What an odd line to add in - perhaps it's intended as a
| thematic pun, considering we're talking about a measure of
| character?
| georgeecollins wrote:
| "Most of our platitudes notwithstanding, self-deception remains
| the most difficult deception. "
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