Join us for Page83's September meetup as we explore themes of significance, narrative, and paranoia through Joan Didion's 'The White Album'.

About the Reading

First published in 'New West' magazine in 1979, "The White Album" is Joan Didion's fractured, hypnotic account of Los Angeles in the late 1960s - a time she remembers less as a sequence of events than as a kind of static, a signal that never quite resolved into a story.

Moving between the Manson trial, the Doors, Black Panther press conferences, and her own psychiatric evaluation, Didion refuses the comfort of narrative order. What emerges instead is one of the most influential essays ever written about the gap between the stories we tell ourselves and the chaos we're actually living through.

What to Expect

18:30: Intro to the Essay (we'll have both printed copies + a QR download code for digital screens available)

18:40: Silent Reading (20m)

19:00: Group Discussion (40m)

19:45: Close

Your host for the evening

Susanne Devlin

Susanne leads the Emerging Digital Policy practice at Department for Education and recently completed an MSc in Narrative Futures.

She is a lifelong fan of longform journalism, magazine features, and essays, with Dominick Dunne, Hunter S. Thompson, and anything Vanity Fair being amongst her favourite readings.

Susanne set up Page83 as a way to meet others with similar interests for interesting conversations and to introduce longform as an awesome addition to anyone's reading habits!

Description supplied by the event organiser.