Related: Joan Didion's The Last Thing He Wanted Is Coming to Netflix She, herself, becomes so wholly immersed in the counterculture that it seems as though she might become a part of it. Didion is never concerned with objectivity, but only with telling the story of the hippie movement as she sees it. What makes “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” even more fascinating is Didion’s technique-a kind of “new journalism” that creates a sense of menace and immediacy. While shocking, Didion observed these incidents with her signature coolness. In another, she talks about a neglected young boy who nearly sets his house on fire. But their behavior and the “hemorrhaging” Didion describes in her piece can be unsettling: In one passage, she recounts meeting Susan, a tripping 5-year-old girl whose mother frequently dosed her with LSD. These were primarily runaways and drug-users (and often both), who had fled overbearing parents or simply wanted to "stick it to the Man" by marching to the beat of their own drum. On assignment for The Saturday Evening Post, a 32-year-old Didion got up close and personal with the Haight's psychedelic hippies.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |