"On Keeping a Notebook" (Didion): A Reaction

I spent last night anxiously rushing through tons of reading material, trying to find something that spoke to me. I picked up 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology because essays are one of my favorite forms of expression. Seeing Didion's name in the table of contents reminded me of another essay by her of which I had read an excerpt (On Self-Respect) and absolutely loved, so I started On Keeping a Notebook.

Didion's style just makes me smile. It's not even happy; I just love her flow. The point of her essay was a nice one, and one I will keep in mind during my year (as this blog is for others, but I should also keep a private notebook for myself). The essence of her opinion is as follows: "I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not."

But more than her points, her phrasing is really appealing to me. I believe there are elements of her diction in some of the prose I write, but her witty precision is delightful. I'm sure her style isn't for everyone, but I would strongly encourage you to read her six-page essay to see what I'm talking about. Just click below.
http://www.ranablog.com/pdfs/didion.pdf

Comments

  1. allisongrubbsOctober 20, 2011 at 3:04 PM

    Hi Ratna,

    You don't know me, but I'm Kate (Hattemer)'s "BFF". This piece was the first piece of writing I was assigned to read in college! So nice to see it come up again.

    Allison

    ReplyDelete

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