Slouching Towards Bethlehem By Joan Didion Essay, Research Paper

In the 1960 s, there were two Americas. The first was the America of Leave it to Beaver, of girls named Kimberly, Sherry, and Debbi who wear “waltz-length white wedding dresses” and get their hair teased. If you are interested in hearing about this America, might I suggest Nick at Nite programming. If, however, you are interested in the America of the hippies, of communist revolutionary generals, of murdresses, and of reculsive musical ideologues, then Slouching Towards Bethlehem is just what you re looking for. Didion s first essay, “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream”, grips the reader from the first with her description of ” a harsher California, haunted by the Mojave just beyond the mountains There has been no rain since April. Every voice seems a scream. (3)” For the next 130 or so pages, the book tells delightful stories of various people in California that contribute to the counterculture of the time. Didion takes many opportunities to treat the reader to her wit, such as on page 102, when ” Tom says. I could write behind STP, but not behind acid. This is the first time I have heard of anything you can t do behind acid, also the first time I have heard that Tom writes.” In order to fully appreciate Didion s writing, it is sometimes necessary for the reader to have an intimate knowledge of western culture. Her writing is replete with refrences to such individuals as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raskolnikov, and Jimmy Hoffa. It is unfortunate that some of her cultural references are period-specific to the point of inscrutability, as I have yet to understand what a “Capri” is, or what use a girl with teased hair would make of one.

After the first section dealing with the lives and worlds of different individuals that compose the counterculture movement, the essays take a turn for the worse. The rest of the essays seem to have been added as an afterthought, including pieces about the author s girlhood, Hawaii, and morality. Perhaps this collection would be more aptly entitled “The Works of Joan Didion”. The superflous essays are not merely irrelevant, they are boring. This is unfortunate, as the first half of the book is quite enjoyable. The reader can tell that Didion is a reporter by reading this collection, and not merely from the fact that she is discussing current events. Didion recycles her favorite idea in no less than four places in this collection, albeit in different essays, of a place where time and/or the past has no meaning. She applies this concept to California in general, Las Vegas, a warehouse in San Francisco, and the Sacramento Valley. Read once, it sounds insightful. Read four times, it sounds, to be generous, like someone who is paid by the word. All that being said, Slouching, is not without its merits. The first section of essays provides an amusing and insightful look at 60 s counterculture.