“i spent what seemed to many people i knew an eccentric amount of time in Honolulu, the particular aspect of which lent me the illusion that i could at any moment order from room service a revisionist theory of my own history, garnished with a vanda orchid”
“sinistral inertia”
“That the time would come I never doubted, at least not in the inaccessible places of the mind where I seemed more and more to be living. So many encounters in those years were devoid of any logic save that of the dreamwork.”
i don’t understand her terms. they sound nice and edgy but they seem like contradictions that don’t mean anything. what does revisionist theory have to do with room service? google says sinistral means left handed. how do you live in a part of your mind that’s inaccessible? how is dreamwork logical if truth is unconsciously concealed? id really appreciate if someone could explain it, i can’t find any explanations online.
by notcoolkid01
9 Comments
In the first quote, she’s saying that Honolulu gives her the illusion that she can effortlessly have a perfect version of her life. “Order from room service” is just her joking way of putting “effortless”.
In the third, she’s saying it’s not logical at all, or as logical as a dream (i.e. not very).
“i spent what seemed to many people i knew an eccentric amount of time in Honolulu, the particular aspect of which lent me the illusion that i could at any moment order from room service a revisionist theory of my own history, garnished with a vanda orchid”
i think she’s referring here to how so much of hawaii cater to the temporary residents, the tourists, people who leave their real selves and real lives at home to go to hawaii to re-invent themselves if only temporarily.
“how do you live in a part of your mind that’s inaccessible?”
it’s a contradiction but i think it actually works very well at evoking a sense of alienation. i don’t think she’s being silly here.
“sinistral inertia”
yeah i give up lol
So didion does not like to write in plain English. at her worst, she takes what seems to be simple universal concepts, and puts them in the most convoluted way possible. i hated her essay on the california water system. at her best, she makes good observations about americans and america, especially the suburbs. though i find her insights (or lack thereof) on the 60s civil rights and counter-culture movement to be narrow minded and uninformative.
i like her essays, but i get frustrated with her sometimes too.
She writes a lot about feelings/emotions and sometimes it doesn’t make perfect sense. The more of her I read, the more I enjoyed it.
Didion is a ruminator. I don’t know that I’d have the patience for her reflections right now.
I think she is saying about Honolulu that her time there lent itself to her reimagining her own history akin to that place, I’m not sure what the orchid is referring to. Perhaps akin to saying sugar sprinkled.
The passage about time, could describe her experience of being in the now. Not worrying about logistics, just creating and being.
Her writing style is very fluid and emotive.
Left handed means sinister/demonic. /u/quantcompandthings was pretty spot on about the other two things you asked about. But to add to the first quote, if I remember correctly, they’re in the islands “in lieu of filing for divorce” — like /u/quantcompandthings said – the tourists can leave their real lives behind and reinvent themselves, and in Didion’s case, she is specifically mentally revising the recent history of her marriage.
Reading Didion is like reading cormac McCarthy: they choose words and structure to get you out of your normal, everyday usage of language to make you think about something basic, but in a new way. People tend to love or hate her.
Didion (and Mcarthy) can be a bit like reading Shakespeare: it’s the same language, but only sort of, and it can take a bit for your mind to click over into understanding.
That there are places you can go in your world, in your mind, to escape your world and your mind. And you can tell yourself whatever story you want about it.
I think she’s being hard on herself. It’s okay to set up shop in Wonderland. Every once and a while.
My guesses for “sinistral inertia” is her writing a lot, her right hand writing and the left staying still, or could be saying something is at peace that usually isn’t (going off one of these comments mentioning sinistral could also mean on the left side, unfavorable, sinister). I don’t know the context of these because I have yet to read this book, but hope that might help.