RIP, Nora Ephron
The news that Nora Ephron has died at 71 took me by surprise. I had no idea she was even ill, but it was more than that—she was just so funny (which is a stupid thing to say, I know, because of course the comic can’t cheat death any more than any other human being can).
Ephron’s essays were usually laugh-out-loud funny, and of course her script for “When Harry Met Sally” is justly admired. But my favorite works of hers were I Feel Bad About My Neck and Heartburn, the book in which she transformed the base metal of marital betrayal by husband Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame into the gold of a screamingly funny bestseller (and then a much-inferior movie with Meryl Streep). Bernstein learned, almost certainly to his dismay, that there can be consequences for breaking your marital vows to a writer. And perhaps Ephron got the last laugh on Bernstein’s paramour, Margaret Ann Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington (yes, her real name), when that lady’s husband ended up having an affair and fathering a child with the Jay’s babysitter.
But where was I? Ah, yes, Ephron. Here she is, talking about the process of getting older, and about writing:
Note to self – in the event of ever becoming a TV new interview suject: wear black, with contrasting jewelry. Sit up straight. Be amusing and coherent in one’s answers.
I have Heartburn on my bookshelf -Bernstein always seemed to me like a total d*ck.
A d*ck he was, and she deserved him. Actually, they deserved each other.
Don Carlos:
What a lovely sentiment.
Aside from her liberal politics, what did she ever do to make you say she deserved being cheated on when seven months pregnant? Or do you think all liberals deserve that?
It’s ironic that the guy who exposed a deception was himself a fraud. Well, no one every said, or should say, that an individual’s stature in society is necessarily reflective of their goodness. The same is also true for an individual’s intelligence, skill, etc.
We are all mortal. It’s a lesson inevitably learned. I appreciate individuals who acknowledge and accept that certainty. Consequently, it is necessary to determine what fulfills our life and to focus our attention appropriately.
That said, I am not certain I appreciate my own mortality. I suppose, we all presume ourselves forever young until we are not.
I read her book, I Remember Nothing, shortly after it came out. Found it full of chuckles and laughs. Am a fan of the film, Julie and Julia, as well.
We need to have a sense of humor about aging. Otherwise we’d be depressed.
We have lost a witty lady and an excellent writer. May she RIP.
“she transformed the base metal of martial betrayal”
You mean marital, right?
…I cared not, nor knew of (though …correctly, it appears …assumed) her politics.
But I knew if her name was on it, I knew I’d probably enjoy it.
RIP. My wife and I will miss you.
It’s the subtle, little throw-away lines in the movies that register a second later as having been excrutiatingly funny that got me–of course, I can think of one at 7:42 a.m. and if I could, it wouldn’t be funny out of context.
AMDG
I can’t think of one, I mean. I would love to blame that on the early hour, but I do it constantly, even when I proofread.
AMDG
Roger Simon also wrote about her death- and life.
Call me a barbarian unable to grasp all the subtle nuances of her genius I suppose but I don’t get the worship? Sure she was an “insider” among a certain brand of New York writers so I guess she’s going to get the “full eulogy treatment” from her tribe in all the “correct” magazines and she did have a certain unique style but come on, her two biggest works were rip-offs of earlier films and her frankness was pretty mundane by today’s standards . I guess I just don’t “get” her.
Roger Simon comments on political changes and Nora Ephron:
Roger Simon used Nora Ephron’s death to reflect on their drifting apart politically – and socially- and on finding common bonds among political disagreements.
Apparently she’s still alive but expected to die some time today or tonight.
Neo,
See the comments by Steve Ducharme, and by Gringo, quoting R. Simon. The Left is all too easily seduced by witticisms and clever turns of phrase a la Ephron. They will support abortion and defend, nay encourage, single motherhood, yet villify Bernstein for ‘abandoning’ the prosperous Nora in her 7th month.
The measure of an Ephron is not by her writings, but by knowledge of the whole person.
Don Carlos: and you have knowledge of her whole person? What she was like as a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend? So that you can say that although Bernstein was a dick, she deserved him, and deserved to be betrayed while pregnant with their second child?
Hold on a second there Don Carlos. I was speaking of her celebrity “seduction” (as you put it), not her political “seduction”.
Did you read Nora Ephron’s lists of things she will not miss and things she will miss? The latter list seems perfectly nice and normal (family, friends, etc). The former includes Fox, Joe Lieberman and Clarence Thomas. Who demonizes their political enemies even on their deathbed? Someone who I will not care to remember.
I am not here to tell what I know and how I know it. I offer my opinion, as do the other posters on this matter. There was more to my comment than just the dick matter and his “abandoning” her in her 7th month.
This venue is not a court of law, with feminists prosecuting Bernstein for being a dick guilty of abandonment (it wasn’t only men who came up with no-fault divorce and replacing marriage with “partnerships”, affording even quicker relational dissolution); it is a blog.
Don Carlos: this was your original comment in its entirety:
There was nothing more to that comment of yours, although I’m sure you had more thoughts behind it. But you didn’t offer them, and I was reacting to that.
No one is requiring you to tell what you know and how you know it. But certainly when you make a comment such as the above, and later add in another comment “The measure of an Ephron is not by her writings, but by knowledge of the whole person,” it makes sense to ask you what it is that you know about her “whole person” to have justified your original statement.
You later wrote:
I am well aware that this is a blog. In fact, it is my blog. I have a right to ask a question of you and ask you to defend what you say here. You have a right to refuse, but that does not especially earn my respect.
What’s more, I am not a feminist prosecuting Bernstein for being a dick (not my word, by the way; your word) guilty of abandonment. In fact, what I wrote about Bernstein was this:
And by the way, what makes you think I condone infidelity by either party to a marriage, man or woman? It makes no difference to me which sex is the offended or betrayed person; betrayal is betrayal.
“I am not here to tell what I know and how I know it.”
We agree about that. We agree that you either know jack or sh*t or a combination of both.