ROCK MUSIC
John Callaway 17:30
I think that's true at the end. But Charlotte is a very depressing character in terms of the kind of chaos that she's gone through. And there's nothing in the book that is particularly instructive. I mean, you're it's not a manual on how to survive that sort of thing. I mean, I agree with your impression at the end. But it is such there is such chaos, that I didn't feel an uplifted sense. I
Joan Didion 18:01
didn't you think some of it was funny?
John Callaway 18:04
Yes,
Joan Didion 18:05
I have been troubled by some of the reviews in which not troubled, but I've been puzzled because I thought quite a lot of it was funny. I mean, it was It struck me funny while I was writing it, but it was it's not uplifting. No. But it is. It's just an attempt to see what's there. And how impossible it is to really see what's there. I mean, the colors keep changing.
John Callaway 18:39
Do you? Do you care about things like awards and prizes?
Joan Didion 18:46
Well, I've never gotten one that I can Oh, I mean
John Callaway 18:50
Are they important to writers?
Joan Didion 18:55
I don't think so. I mean, I wouldn't say I've never gotten one or missed one comment. What I mean is I've never
John Callaway 19:02
You've lost a Pulitzer Prize several years in a row.
Joan Didion 19:05
I don't think I will ever get a Pulitzer Prize or be even considered for pulitzer prize because my books are not I think there's a specific thing about the pulitzer which is they are to in some way, glorify America is that isn't there?
John Callaway 19:27
They're very well made.
Joan Didion 19:28
Yeah. I think there's an aspect in which they're supposed to be nationally redeeming.
John Callaway 19:36
Do you have a fear of snakes?
Joan Didion 19:38
Yeah, I don't like them at all.
John Callaway 19:41
Snakes keep coming back through a lot of your work.
Joan Didion 19:44
I tried to keep them out of Common Prayer. Johnson, my husband said to me, keep the snakes out of that book. And I really tried to
John Callaway 19:53
Are there any I can't
Joan Didion 19:54
There maybe one, or two. yeah
John Callaway 19:57
And even in your essays, I mean, snakes keep snakes edge their way back into your fiction and nonfiction.
Joan Didion 20:04
Yeah, we've got one around the house now actually
John Callaway 20:06
really
Joan Didion 20:07
yeah, it's, I mean, it's outside the house on the house. It's a wild snake, but it's king snake and it is supposed to keep rattlesnakes away. So we keep it there. I mean, we don't kill it. It sits on the hood of my car quite a lot
John Callaway 20:21
Do you still keep notebooks,
Joan Didion 20:23
I throw things in a box instead of keeping notebooks now because the notebooks got too unwieldy, because since quite a lot of what I wanted to put in them were newspaper clips. So it started just going in a box. And I go through it once in a while and could never find what I'm looking for.
John Callaway 20:45
If somebody gave you a camera crew, and say a budget of $200,000 a year or half a million or whatever, and said, Joan Didion, I want you to be a big time television police reporter in Southern California, I want you to take your eye and your ear and your nose and all of that go out with the camera crew, and you can go on the air when you want to go on the air. You don't have to worry about being a big deal. Actor, you know, deep voice and all that stuff. But you can you can show us homicide, loss, fear Southern California, would you do it?
Joan Didion 21:24
I'm not sure I would. I'm really not sure I would simply because I would rather for two years be sitting at the typewriter. I mean, I have I feel impelled to write some more books. And I don't want to I would rather do it in a book. I would rather in certain ways I'd rather be alone than going out with a crew.
John Callaway 21:58
I always thought I always thought it was part of your writing. It was great police reporting. Yeah, I had an all star cast to police reporters.
Joan Didion 22:06
I'm terrible at it. I never know what
John Callaway 22:08
No, you're not terrible at it. The slouch slou stuff and Slouching Towards Bethlehem that, that you got it you get it exactly right. Every police were anybody doing any urban reporting to be required to read your pieces?