Water—California water—is a recurring presence in Joan Didion’s work, both her fiction and nonfiction; it is, indeed, an ‘obsession.’ In this article, I argue that water control—as epitomized by the Hoover Dam and California water history—has its counterpart in control over writing, the total command of Didion’s obsessively honed prose. I do so by analyzing two essays of the 1970s (“At the Dam,” “Holy Water”) and her 2003 memoir Where I Was From.
My hands on the turbine": Joan Didion, Water, and Control / C. Scarpino. - In: IPERSTORIA. - ISSN 2281-4582. - 2022:19(2022 Jun 25), pp. 114-128. [10.13136/2281-4582/2022.i19.1163]
My hands on the turbine": Joan Didion, Water, and Control
C. Scarpino
2022
Abstract
Water—California water—is a recurring presence in Joan Didion’s work, both her fiction and nonfiction; it is, indeed, an ‘obsession.’ In this article, I argue that water control—as epitomized by the Hoover Dam and California water history—has its counterpart in control over writing, the total command of Didion’s obsessively honed prose. I do so by analyzing two essays of the 1970s (“At the Dam,” “Holy Water”) and her 2003 memoir Where I Was From.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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