joan didion is dead; long live, joan didion!
hey friend - i actually wished to write a merrier letter in time for christmas, but here we are. it's what it says on the tin. hope something is useful here. -k
I suppose my first Joan Didion essay came to me the way it does for most people, pre-social media: via a bunch of photocopied readings for class. In my case, it was a Creative Writing elective (non-fiction) under the late Charlene Fernandez. At the time I was barely twenty, so I was kind of in awe about all these new adult feelings that essay, Goodbye to All That, evoked. I mean, have you ever been that young? That you can say things like, I mean that I was in love with [New York] city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you, and never love anyone quite that way again?
I mean, I was, and now I'm not, and now Joan Didion is dead. She was 87. The update came to me just as we crossed midnight, meaning that in this portion of the world, she shares a death anniversary with our former editor-in-chief LJM, who passed on Christmas Eve in 2015.
I have been putting off writing my newsletter for the past couple of weeks - basically because I was tired of writing news-y stuff, owing to the fact that I had to write a shit-ton of yearenders over the first two weeks of December. It was exhausting. But now, given Ms Didion's passing, I thought it was time to come back to the Blank Page.
I've been looking for my review of The Year of Magical Thinking, which is among my go-to grief books, but only found this one from 2009 and not much else. I suppose I wrote sparingly about her, given how in awe I was of her writing. Suppose now is a good time as any to revisit that book.
Obituaries and other reads
What we get wrong about Joan Didion from the New Yorker
Joan Didion was our bard of disenchantement via The Atlantic
Joan Didion, the Art of Fiction no 71 via The Paris Review
This has certainly overshadowed my recently accumulated joy from 1) recent TWICE content and 2) the fact that Blacklist International won the M3 Championships, and it's such a disservice to both our girls and the team to not mention our heartfelt excitement about them, so here.
If I could muster enough energy in the days moving forward, I'd like to make a Filipino of the Year-ish tribute to Blacklist International for being such fine esports athletes this year: back-to-back MPL-PH S7 and S8 champs, runner-up finishes at international tilts MPLI and MSC, and the championship at the M3 championships earlier this month. If this were any local basketball team, it'd have scored a Grand Slam--and endless praises. Blacklist's youngest athletes are 18! Just a note.
We're also excited about TWICE's comeback concert this weekend, and we're really looking forward to joining virtually! It's been an insane Q4 to say the least, and I'm thankful to be joining the fun at this time when there's a lot of things going on, and there are drops every few days.
In view of that, no favorite meme for this issue, just a favorite piece of TWICE content (this has been the hardest to shortlist) -- here's MINATOZAKI SANA for Cosmopolitan Korea.
https://twitter.com/ChunghaTwice/status/1473083892232069120
I mean, look how gorgeous! ♥
Have a good Christmas, friends. Wishing you safe celebrations, good food and warm company ♥
XO,
K.