I had not encountered this Salon essay, “Didion as Diva”–It is from 1997! When the internet was written on cave walls with sticks and a paste of crushed berries and ash, or so I’ve been told!–until I came across it researching something else. But I think some of the points still have merit. (Perhaps I’m viewing it through the oversize, dark sunglasses of an Didion admirer?)
Though, if the idea of a literary diva still holds up, and since the word and its embodying attitude has not left the lexicon yet in relation to pop icons adored by the gays, however troubling (see: Gaga, Lady) then who might be our reigning divas of letters in a slight update of this premise? Remember: “The opera diva’s performance is immediate — and immediately gratifying — but the literary diva must create in solitude, then wait many agonizing months, sometimes years, for her voice to reach its audience through publication. This time lag places her at still greater remove from her followers, which only adds to her mystery.”
So then: Mary Gaitskill? Mary Karr? Lydia Davis? Or does it now fall on the likes of a Candace Bushnell or even an Amy Sohn? Before you answer, maybe refer back to author Bill Hayes’ conclusion upon seeing Ms. Didion speak in the flesh: “the literary diva exists only on the page. In person, this diva is unremarkable, forgetful of her lines, absent of herself. She is the antithesis of the legendary showbiz or opera divas, like Monroe or Callas or Garland, who had to be seen in the flesh or on-screen to be experienced, and who are reduced to ordinary humanity with the written word.”
Posted by ephemerist 
Posted by ephemerist 
Posted by ephemerist 



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