Joan Didion’s “Political Fictions” introduces
an angle on American politics few have seen. It’s like
visiting the vacant set of a television show: what appears real and
sincere is revealed to be fake.
Didion, author of “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and
“The White Album” will be speaking at the Hammer Museum
Oct. 13 in an interview format.
Didion’s latest book is “Fictions,” a
collection of essays that reveal American politics for what it is
““ a machine fueled by focus groups and run by an elite few
who actually understand the game.
Didion extends this TV metaphor in “Insider
Baseball,” about the 1988 presidential election, the first of
eight essays which appeared individually in The New York Review of
Books before becoming “Fictions.”
In fact, the 1988 presidential election was the first time
Didion viewed the events through a political journalist’s
lens. Photo opportunities become less about showing the merits of a
candidate and more about creating a lasting sellable image to a
shrinking voting public.
“My perception of domestic politics at times seemed
incredible, even to myself,” Didion said. “So, I would
forget it, and think that there must be some more sensible thing
going on. Something that wasn’t so calculated to particular
people.”
In many cases, Cal alumna Didion breaks down the very syntax of
certain sentences in order to gather fuller meaning. She claims her
analytical technique derives from her close-textual reading as an
English student at UC Berkeley.
In the essay “Political Pornography,” Didion
addresses Bob Woodward’s book on the 1996 presidential
campaign “The Choice,” and the insistence by the author
that a journalist should remain neutral at all times. “If I
read on the front page of the newspaper a reportedly
“˜unbiased’ report, in the first place, I know
it’s not unbiased because somebody wrote it,” Didion
said. “All I want to know is where is this person coming
from?”
“God’s Country,” the books’ final essay,
discusses how the Clinton Impeachment affected the 2000
presidential race. Yet, Didion was not prepared for what happened
in the aftermath of that election.
“I was kind of stunned by it and didn’t write about
it immediately,” Didion said.
In fact, if there is something missing in
“Fictions,” it is her angle on the aftermath of the
last presidential election, an event that showed public alike what
Didion has been warning about all along.
Regardless, Didion’s view of American politics between
1988 and 2000 are refreshing and insightful, even if they have been
overshadowed by events of late.
Or maybe the book is stronger for this: Didion’s
“Political Fictions” is a reminder the current state of
politics is just as sticky as what many refer to as “the good
ol’ days.”
Didion will be reading at the UCLA Hammer Museum Oct. 13 at 5
p.m. “Political Fictions” was released in paperback
Aug. 27.