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hmholmes19's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
guuran62's review against another edition
4.0
https://boklaadan.wordpress.com/2017/01/09/politiska-fiktioner/
katrinky's review against another edition
4.0
In which Didion eviscerates the political process, and expresses her frustration and disdain for the way the political system is its own self-sustaining ecosystem, further and further removed from the people it is meant to serve.
"That this crude personalization [seeking "the human story" instead of the accurate or productive one] works to narrow the focus, to circumnavigate the range of possible discussion or speculation, is, for the people who find it useful to talk to Mr. Woodward, the point. What they have in Mr. Woodward is a widely trusted eporter...who can be relied upon to present a Washington in which problematic or questionable matters will be definitively resolved by the discovery, or by the demonstration that there can be no discovery, of "the smoking gun," "the evidence." Should such narrowly defined "evidence" be found, he can then be relied upon to demonstrate, "fairly," that the only fingerprints on the smoking gun are those of the one bad apple in the barrel, the single rogue agent in the tapestry of good intention... To commit such Rosebud moments to paper is what it means to tell "the human story at the core," and it is also what it means to write political pornography." (214)
Newt Gingrich as geeky, self-appointed revolutionary who hero-worships numbered lists and sci-fi, and who is actually desperately lonely but lacks social grace and keeps boxes full of quotes so that he can sound smart. Books instead of friends. A pipsqueak.
The Reagan administration as a movie set, in which the president thrived because he was good at taking direction and following a script. The importance of a scene, a quest, a lonely hero, a happy ending.
The gradual chipping away of democracy, of Washington operatives playing on apathy to turn the machinations of the system inward, keep more power and access inside the Beltway, which causes a larger sense of apathy and powerlessness. Of the Reagan-->Bush years as two leaders who were exceptionally good at narrowing focus, pushing very specific stories that painted them successfully (Iran Contra; Texas, respectively), and outright dismissing much else (ie failing finance systems) that affected any given person in America as less important, not worthy of thought. The force of the echo chamber is so great that pursuing avenues to change, or even pushing the real story, either seem insurmountable (for the public), or get one labeled a bad egg, exactly the single adversary Washington is so adept at dispatching (the American writer who covered the Mozote massacre; NB the Mexican writer did not experience the same blacklisting).
A good book to have on a shelf in one's home in Washington, DC. A good reminder.
"That this crude personalization [seeking "the human story" instead of the accurate or productive one] works to narrow the focus, to circumnavigate the range of possible discussion or speculation, is, for the people who find it useful to talk to Mr. Woodward, the point. What they have in Mr. Woodward is a widely trusted eporter...who can be relied upon to present a Washington in which problematic or questionable matters will be definitively resolved by the discovery, or by the demonstration that there can be no discovery, of "the smoking gun," "the evidence." Should such narrowly defined "evidence" be found, he can then be relied upon to demonstrate, "fairly," that the only fingerprints on the smoking gun are those of the one bad apple in the barrel, the single rogue agent in the tapestry of good intention... To commit such Rosebud moments to paper is what it means to tell "the human story at the core," and it is also what it means to write political pornography." (214)
Newt Gingrich as geeky, self-appointed revolutionary who hero-worships numbered lists and sci-fi, and who is actually desperately lonely but lacks social grace and keeps boxes full of quotes so that he can sound smart. Books instead of friends. A pipsqueak.
The Reagan administration as a movie set, in which the president thrived because he was good at taking direction and following a script. The importance of a scene, a quest, a lonely hero, a happy ending.
The gradual chipping away of democracy, of Washington operatives playing on apathy to turn the machinations of the system inward, keep more power and access inside the Beltway, which causes a larger sense of apathy and powerlessness. Of the Reagan-->Bush years as two leaders who were exceptionally good at narrowing focus, pushing very specific stories that painted them successfully (Iran Contra; Texas, respectively), and outright dismissing much else (ie failing finance systems) that affected any given person in America as less important, not worthy of thought. The force of the echo chamber is so great that pursuing avenues to change, or even pushing the real story, either seem insurmountable (for the public), or get one labeled a bad egg, exactly the single adversary Washington is so adept at dispatching (the American writer who covered the Mozote massacre; NB the Mexican writer did not experience the same blacklisting).
A good book to have on a shelf in one's home in Washington, DC. A good reminder.