The Getty, Bureaucrats Summary and Analysis

The next two essays in Part Two continue Didion's obsession with the contradictions at the heart of California, as she discusses the art museum of the Getty, and the Caltrans Californian department of Transportation for Los Angeles. Bot of these sections examines the apparent absurdities of state politics and mass opinion alike.

The first essay in this duo, that of 'The Getty' considers the art museum built from private finances by J. Paul Getty, originally an oil businessman, who built this place as a symbol of his wealth and celebration of the history of Art and Culture. Joan Didion finds that the place is intensely disliked by critics, reviewers, but not by the average viewer whom she talks to upon her visits, Didion recounts how even to talk of the Getty in polite society:

"...is to invite...