Claire Donald

It didn't really interest her.

I think it was in this time, too, where it was like.

She almost felt, I feel like, too cool for it.

Totally.

But then it's like the 70s and it's like, we got to talk about it.

And then the 80s.

Yeah.

Where Reagan starts coming in.

And she saw through Reagan immediately.

She also clocked that thesis on Dick Cheney very early on, which I think is iconic.

This is what she said about Dick Cheney.

He reached public life with every reason to believe that he would continue to both court failure and overcome it.

Take the lemons he seemed determined to pick for himself and make the lemonade, then spill it and let someone else clean it up.

I mean, say no more, Joan.

And this was revolutionary in her writing style because as a woman looking at men and not looking away, Joan Didion reversed the standard male-female deal while developing the Didion gaze.

It's – that's so – I mean, so powerful.

Like, no words.

Just to have a woman, like, out in the field reporting on, like, what men were doing instead of women, like, being interpreted and defined.

She's like, I'm actually going to go see what these men are doing and write about it and tell the truth about it.

But also saying, like, holding the gaze of being like, no, I'm still looking at you and what you're doing.