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A review by whitneysederberg
Political Fictions by Joan Didion
3.5
3.5
Had to pick this one up considering the current political climate/election… I was inspired to read it after Trump got shot and a lot of my friends were speculating that this event would help his campaign.
Most of this book is definitely not timeless. I liked the first two essays in particular because they touched on important historical moments and trends that are very relevant today (politcal theater and US involvement with Latin America). But much of this book I didn’t find to be particularly interesting or relevant to myself.
Didion’s commentary on the pageantry of conventions and campaigning in her essay “Insider Baseball” was fascinating. On Dukakis trying to seem more relatable:
“Kara Dukakis had tossed the ball to her father. Her father had caught the ball and tossed it back to her.
‘OK,’ one of the cameramen had said. ‘We got the daughter. Nice. That’s enough. Nice.’
The CNN producer then on the campaign told me, later in the day, that the first recorded ball tossing on the Dukakis campaign had been outside a bowling alley somewhere in Ohio. CNN had shot it. When the campaign realized that only one camera had it, they restaged it.
‘We have a lot of things like the ball tossing,’ the producer said. ‘We have the Greek dancing, for example.’”
In “Eyes on the Prize,” Clinton employing the car salesman skills he learned from his father into politics:
“Instead of talking about Democrats lifting someone out of poverty, describe the party’s goal as helping average Americans live the good life.
Instead of saying the Democrats want to provide healthcare for the poor, focus on making sure all working Americans have coverage…”
The idea I found most interesting was Didion’s condemnation on the two party system. It prevents dialogue, keeps us focused on “carefully chosen/symbolic issues, American elections are necessarily debated on “character,” or “values…””
Had to pick this one up considering the current political climate/election… I was inspired to read it after Trump got shot and a lot of my friends were speculating that this event would help his campaign.
Most of this book is definitely not timeless. I liked the first two essays in particular because they touched on important historical moments and trends that are very relevant today (politcal theater and US involvement with Latin America). But much of this book I didn’t find to be particularly interesting or relevant to myself.
Didion’s commentary on the pageantry of conventions and campaigning in her essay “Insider Baseball” was fascinating. On Dukakis trying to seem more relatable:
“Kara Dukakis had tossed the ball to her father. Her father had caught the ball and tossed it back to her.
‘OK,’ one of the cameramen had said. ‘We got the daughter. Nice. That’s enough. Nice.’
The CNN producer then on the campaign told me, later in the day, that the first recorded ball tossing on the Dukakis campaign had been outside a bowling alley somewhere in Ohio. CNN had shot it. When the campaign realized that only one camera had it, they restaged it.
‘We have a lot of things like the ball tossing,’ the producer said. ‘We have the Greek dancing, for example.’”
In “Eyes on the Prize,” Clinton employing the car salesman skills he learned from his father into politics:
“Instead of talking about Democrats lifting someone out of poverty, describe the party’s goal as helping average Americans live the good life.
Instead of saying the Democrats want to provide healthcare for the poor, focus on making sure all working Americans have coverage…”
The idea I found most interesting was Didion’s condemnation on the two party system. It prevents dialogue, keeps us focused on “carefully chosen/symbolic issues, American elections are necessarily debated on “character,” or “values…””