On Joan Didion's "Goodbye to All That" and leaving and returning home
micahwimmer.substack.com
Since I first read Joan Didion’s “Goodbye to All That,” the final essay in her debut essay collection in the summer of 2012, I have never gone more than a few months without revisiting it. As a writer myself it functions as a sort of North Star for me, something I turn my eyes to when I’m need of reorienting myself, when I want to remind myself the standard I’m aiming for and of the power of words to tremendously affect oneself. There is a slight irony in an essay by Joan Didion holding that place in my mind and heart though as, though many days I view her prose as a sort of platonic ideal to pursue, my writing has very little in common with hers stylistically.
On Joan Didion's "Goodbye to All That" and leaving and returning home
On Joan Didion's "Goodbye to All That" and…
On Joan Didion's "Goodbye to All That" and leaving and returning home
Since I first read Joan Didion’s “Goodbye to All That,” the final essay in her debut essay collection in the summer of 2012, I have never gone more than a few months without revisiting it. As a writer myself it functions as a sort of North Star for me, something I turn my eyes to when I’m need of reorienting myself, when I want to remind myself the standard I’m aiming for and of the power of words to tremendously affect oneself. There is a slight irony in an essay by Joan Didion holding that place in my mind and heart though as, though many days I view her prose as a sort of platonic ideal to pursue, my writing has very little in common with hers stylistically.