“How close to the edge we are”: Ecologically reading the frontiers of Joan Didion’s early nonfiction

Joan Didion’s work is heavily regional and rooted in place, whether that be the place about which she writes or, by contrast, the place she leaves in order to do her writing. This place-based context takes root in many American ideologies and mythos, like that of the frontier mentality and golden dream. For this reason, exploring Didion’s use of natural metaphor and description as she discusses various cultural phenomena is essential to understanding the layers of her social critiques of 1960’s and 1970’s American culture, especially as they reflect on the failures of the frontier ideology. Further, looking at her implementation of ecological imagery and metaphor in her nonfiction writing provides readers with another lens through which to interpret Didion’s nonfiction reporting. The natural details she layers into her places and people in place reinforce her representation of social order and disorder, and with this, her representation of American culture, and thus her criticism of it is made ever powerful and prevalent.