Californian Sensibility

[David Kipen]

Hey, who wants to settle an office bet? Can anyone name a work of fiction
about someone moving from California to the East Coast? Or do they all run
the other way around?

All finest,
David Kipen




On 8/23/06, robinlandseadel at comcast.net <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Tom Wolfe
>
>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: "David Kipen" <kipend at gmail.com>
> I could swear I've written somewhere that Pynchon and Didion share one
> distinction with one other and perhaps no one else: They've each written
> well about both Northern *and* Southern California. Though perhaps TC Boyle
> would also qualify. Any other candidates?
>
> All finest,
> David
>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "David Kipen" <kipend at gmail.com>
> To: "robinlandseadel at comcast.net" <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:22:46 +0000
> Subject: Re: Californian Sensibility
> I could swear I've written somewhere that Pynchon and Didion share one
> distinction with one other and perhaps no one else: They've each written
> well about both Northern *and* Southern California. Though perhaps TC
> Boyle would also qualify. Any other candidates?
>
> All finest,
> David
>
>
> On 8/23/06, robinlandseadel at comcast.net <robinlandseadel at comcast.net >
> wrote:
> >
> > "The White Album" is fantastic, and well worth picking up a copy. It's
> > easy to find in used book stores.
> > -------------- Original message ----------------------
> > From: "John Carvill" <JCarvill at algsoftware.com>
> > > Never been to anywhere on the West coast of the US, but loved Vineland
> >
> > > passionately.
> > >
> > > Just finished reading a long profile/interview of Joan Didion in The
> > > Observer, which touches on this. May be of general interest also but
> > as
> > > I say it's quite long so won't post it all.
> > >
> > > Not read anything of Didion's. Might give 'Slouching..' a try soon
> > > though.
> > >
> > > Wish they'd do something of this length and depth on Pynchon. Brief
> > > samples below.
> > >
> > >
> > > 'The years of writing magically'
> > >
> > >
> > > There is the sense in that piece [The White Album], and several others
> > > of hers from that time, of someone looking on with a kind of appalled
> > > fascination at the excesses of late Sixties counterculture. The title
> > > essay of Slouching Towards Bethlehem was actually written in 1967, and
> > > dissects the ascendant hippy scene in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury
> > > area with a mixture of wry observation and mounting unease. 'I didn't
> > > see a lot of peace and love on the Haight in the so-called summer of
> > > love,' she says now. 'It seemed like every kid I talked to there was
> > > desperately unhappy.'
> > >
> > > Was her original point of view essentially generational, though? Might
> >
> > > she have immersed herself in the hippy scene had she been younger? 'I
> > > was from a different generation,' she drawls. 'I grew up in a
> > different
> > > time and my writing was formed by the values of that other time. Had I
> >
> > > been of the generation I was writing about, I don't know if I would
> > have
> > > been swept along.'
> > >
> > > .
> > > .
> > >
> > >
> > > As a Californian now living in New York, I ask her where she feels she
> >
> > > most belongs? 'Oh, California. For sure. I'm not really attuned to
> > here.
> > > At one level, I feel perfectly comfortable in New York, but I really
> > > believe that is because it is one of those cities where people feel
> > > comfortable wherever they are from. The only times I felt a deep
> > > attachment to the city was in my twenties, and again after 9/11. But I
> > > would say for sure that I have a Californian sensibility.'
> > >
> > > And how would she define that sensibility? 'Well. it's an outsider's
> > > sensibility. Definitely. On the edge of things. People don't feel at
> > > home in Los Angeles if they come from somewhere else. It takes a long
> > > time to get it. And people who come from there tend to have an outside
> > > point of view. That's certainly true in my case.'
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/biography/story/0,,1854009,00.ht
> > > ml
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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