FROM THE PRL / originally written in English / C20TH / North America / US
“A rotating cast of big-time movie producers, directors, modelling agents and actors alike… self-destruct, have meaningless sex, drink and take drugs in excess amounts. Nothing applies and any questioning for a motive is countered by the same nihilistic sentiment— “Why not?”
Juna Kim, writing for Strand in 2022
Introduction
Maria (rhymes with ‘pariah’) Wyeth is a 31-year-old model and actress who lives in the famous uptown Hollywood suburb of Beverly Hills. The novel opens a month after her friend BZ’s suicide and Maria has been in a psychiatric hospital ever since. We read Maria’s account of events that the doctors have asked for so they can help her recover from an emotional breakdown. She tells us of her childhood in Nevada, and her leaving home at the age of 18 to become an actress.
It’s in New York that she met Carter Lang, a famous director who casts her in a film that made both their careers. Soon after, Maria and Carter marry… and since then everything seems to be going wrong. Maria’s mother dies in a car accident, Maria and Carter’s daughter is born with a rare neurological disorder, and – even while Carter’s fame and reputation as an auteur director grows – Maria’s career stalls. Finding it hard to get more work, she’s often left alone in their expensive-but-empty mansion while Carter’s off filming in the desert. With nothing to do and no one to turn to, Maria spends her days driving aimlessly and abusing drugs and alcohol to numb the loneliness.
Play It As It Lays is Joan Didion’s second novel and one of her most famous. Named in TIME’s 100 Best Books (1923 – 2005) it was adapted into a film by Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne. The book itself is brisk, 200 pages long but divided into 80 short chapters, some of which are only a few sentences each. Her energetic style, and focus on using dialogue to tell the story, creates an episodic, fast-paced narrative that is the perfect framing for the quintessential Hollywood novel.
IB Student Learner Profile: Reflective
We thoughtfully consider the world and our own ideas and
experience. We work to understand our strengths and weaknesses
in order to support our learning and personal development.
Famous for her literary style and incredible observational talent, Joan Didion is arguably one of America’s preeminent writers. Born in 1934 and living until 2021, there’s no shortage of material written about and in collaboration with Didion, such as this interview reflecting on the art of writing, her literary influences, and more, published in the Paris Review of Books. Or this interview posted by Manufacturing Intellect on the release of her collected essays After Henry. I’m sure you can find many more!
IB Lang and Lit Concept: Identity
An actress in 1960s Hollywood, Maria Wyeth is part of a sexist, patriarchal, and unequal world. She is objectified, devalued, demeaned, and dehumanised to the point where she loses any sense of her own identity. Throughout the novel, people refuse to use her real name, referring to her as Mrs Lang or Carter Lang’s wife – even after her divorce! Didion shows how denying women the right to determine their own identity is the first step towards dehumanisation and depression, with tragic results for Maria.
Three Voices
“I am not sure what year it was because I have this problem with as it was, but after a while I had a bad time.”
Prologue (Maria)
Play It As It Lays begins with three short sections narrated from the point of view of three different characters: Maria, her ‘friend’ Helene, and her ex-husband Carter. Setting up the flashback structure of the novel, we discover that Maria has had a breakdown following the death of her friend BZ and is recovering in a psychiatric hospital. However, Maria is not interested in psychoanalysing herself. She’s playing along so that she can get close to Kate, her daughter, who’s been institutionalised in this same hospital by Carter.
The opening establishes the question: who can we trust? Maria mentions Iago, a Shakespearean villain who lied and manipulated his friend into murdering his own wife. Maria speaks directly, but leaves out the important fact of her friend’s suicide and the role she played. Helene blames Maria for everything that happened – but fails to mention that she was having an affair with Carter at the time. And Carter makes out he’s the perfect husband who only has his wife and daughter’s best interests in mind, never admitting to the physical and emotional abuse he’s dished out to Maria. It seems that, in Hollywood, what you don’t say is as important as what you do say, and everyone is playing a role.
Supporting Cast: Harry Wyeth (Maria’s father)
Maria’s father was optimistic about the ‘game’ of life. He gambled away their house in Reno, moving his family to Silver Wells, a small town in Nevada. Many plans ‘came and went’ during Maria’s childhood: a cattle ranch, a ski resort, a zinc mine, a motel and petrol station, even a reptile zoo. Now Silver Wells has been demolished and replaced by a missile testing range. Her father’s plans never amounted to anything, and the turmoil of her childhood has led Maria to be much more cynical, disillusioned and fatalistic than her father ever was.
Learner Portfolio: How do you solve a problem like Maria?
Work on Maria’s character: create a character profile, write a description of her personality, map her journey through the novel; silver bullet (make a list of ten key quotations) with explainers, create a graphic organiser… Come up with an idea for a piece of work that presents your understanding and analysis of Maria Wyeth.
A Fading Starlet
“There was always someone Maria tried not to hear at BZ and Helene’s.”
Chapter 10
Across the first ten chapters, the reader gets to know Maria, discovering antisocial tendencies that put her at odds with Hollywood society. As Carter’s career progresses, hers is on a downward spiral. Ironically, Maria’s youthful beauty helped skyrocket the success of his first films, one of which was filmed without her consent, but now he’s famous he doesn’t want to cast her any more. To the rest of Hollywood, she’s simply Carter Lang’s wife. Her agent and friends, in particular BZ, try to help her but she’s stuck in a rut that she can’t seem to pull herself out of.
Not that BZ is doing much better, he’s just good at hiding his true feelings. Unlike Maria, who’s disgusted by the excesses of Hollywood, BZ throws himself into parties, promiscuous sex, and socialising with famous actors, producers, and directors. Secretly, though, he’s as disillusioned as Maria, something he admits when she asks him ‘don’t you ever get tired of doing favors for people?’ BZ and Maria seem like kindred spirits, but broaching this serous topic is the exception rather than the norm. Usually, Maria and he talk at cross purposes; he tries to get her to go to parties she doesn’t want to attend while she uses homophobic language that probably bothers him. Instead of dealing with their emotional issues, the two retreat into small talk and inane gossip. Maria doesn’t even tell him that she’s pregnant – a revelation she’s hiding from her husband as well.
Supporting Cast: The Masseur
Maria spends time sunbathing at BZ and Helene’s house. One day, they have a masseur over who Maria recognises from three years ago, although he doesn’t recognise her. She thinks he is ‘untouched’ by the passage of time, compared to herself, he looks ‘exactly the same’. It seems Maria suffers the fear of ageing that all the Hollywood starlets feel. Moreover, the masseur is ‘untouched’ by the dissatisfaction Maria has begun to feel: he spends the chapter arguing about lemon juice and engaging in superficial gossip that is the Hollywood norm.
Learner Portfolio: Hollywood in Decay
In 2024, writing for the LA Times, Matt Brennan said of Play It As It Lays: ‘Stasis, implacability, mark Joan Didion‘s 1970 novel as surely as change. She paints a picture of an industry in decay, saturated with copycat movies, predatory men, hacks and hangers-on.’
Create a piece of work for your Learner Portfolio that depicts Didion’s ‘Hollywood in decay.’ How does she condemn Hollywood and celebrity culture of the 1970s? What aspects of the opening chapters provide the vivid backdrop for her condemnation? You could write a mini-essay, mind-map or spider diagram the setting, or even create a piece of your own artwork as a response to this prompt.
Arranging an Abortion
‘”How advanced is the problem, Maria,” the voice said finally.’
Chapter 14
This section of the novel narrates the action leading up to Maria’s abortion. Each chapter is short, increasing tension and highlighting Maria’s fragmented thoughts and feelings as she tries to process her decision and deal with arranging a procedure that was illegal in California in the 1960s. This forces her to go to ‘fixers’, mysterious men who communicate on the phone, giving her disembodied instructions to schedule the time and place and cost.
All the while, she plays the usual part of Hollywood socialite, spending time with BZ, Helene and her mother, Carlotta, who – perhaps sensing something going on – jibes Maria with cruel barbs. Didion develops the juxtaposition between her life-changing decision and the inanity of meaningless gossip and chatter that surrounds her. Even amongst her friends, because superficial communication is the norm, she finds no relief.
Supporting Cast: The Man in White
Because in 1960s California abortion was illegal, Maria arranges to go to Mexico to fix her ‘problem’, a word that euphemises her pregnancy into something inconvenient to others. Arriving in Mexico, she is driven to the doctor by a man dressed in white duck pants. Along the way, he keeps up an inane stream of small talk about his car and other inconsequential things. Here, his small talk has a peculiar effect on Maria: it allows her to dissociate from the emotionally difficult and physically painful procedure she’s about to undergo. Unlike the cruelty of Hollywood gossip, this man’s airy nonsense is a different kind of chatter that is a relief to Maria and lets her simply be. In her words: ‘there’s no more to it than that.’
Learner Portfolio: Practice for Paper 1 (Literature students only)
If you are a Language A: Literature student, at the end of your course you will sit Paper 1: Guided Literary Analysis. This paper contains two previously unseen literary passages. SL students write a guided analysis of one of these passages; HL students write about both passages. The passages could be taken from any of four literary forms: prose, poetry, drama or literary non-fiction. Each of the passages will be from a different literary form. For more help with Paper 1, visit the 20/20 page and find the literary form you would like to study.
Here is a small pack of resources using Play It As It Lays to help you work on your Paper 1 textual analysis skills. The pack contains three passages from this prose fiction novel, and one sample answer for you to read and discuss. No answer is perfect, so you might find ways you could improve or change this sample. All the passages are accompanied by a guiding question, so you can practice for yourself by choosing a different passage and completing this Learner Portfolio entry in the style of Paper 1: Guided Literary Analysis.
Plumbing
“A few days later the dreams began.”
Chapter 33
After Maria’s abortion, the pace of the novel shifts into high gear and months pass in the space of a few short, disconnected chapters. Increasingly, Maria finds it difficult to come to terms with what she has done. She fixates on her abortion, recalling encounters with other women who have had the procedure, and begins to suffer nightmares about pieces of hacked flesh in the drains and dead babies floating in the river. Typically, Maria finds it hard to deal with her emotions and suppresses or avoids emotional difficulty. Instead, she retreats more and more into a fantasy world, imagining living happily with Kate and Les Goodwin, or playing out imaginary conversations with Carter that might heal the rift that has grown between them.
Despite her pretences at normalcy, her circle of friends sense that something is wrong and begin to comment on her deterioration. As if surrounded by sharks who taste blood in the water, Maria seems more and more vulnerable. Any attempt at compassion or connection ends in failure and Maria’s breakdown accelerates.
Supporting Cast: Ceci Delano
A long time ago in New York, Maria did a photoshoot with Ceci Delano and remembers she had an abortion too. Her story bears many similarities to Maria’s: the abortion was difficult to obtain legally; the procedure was painful and dangerous (called a ‘D&C’; dilation and curettage, an early form of abortion procedure); both women had to negotiate with men to get what they wanted (Ceci was forced to lie in court in exchange for permission to have her abortion). The only difference is Ceci was able to see the funny side while Maria’s in no state to laugh.
Learner Portfolio: Abortion Rights
The Global Justice Center defines access to abortion as a fundamental human right that must be accessible to all pregnant people. Research proves that access to abortion does not simply improve women’s well-being, physical and mental health, but is an important factor in economic and educational equality. Access to abortion decreases the number of children living in poverty and increases educational and professional attainment. Research the issue of abortion rights and the impact of denying reproductive care to women and add your findings to your Learner Portfolio.
If you want to take your research further, consider watching the powerful 2014 documentary Vessel (directed by Diana Whitten) about the work of Women on Waves, an organization founded by Dutch doctor Rebecca Gomperts. Whitten’s film crew follows Gomperts as she sails around the world providing abortions for women who have no legal alternative. (If you are a LangLit student, this documentary would make a perfect Body of Work to use in combination with Play It As It Lays should you want to speak about the Global Issue of ‘safe abortion access’ in your Individual Oral.)
The Center Cannot Hold
‘”I guess I drank too much last night,” Maria said carefully… “I just don’t remember getting here.”‘
Chapter 63
Maria’s downward plummet continues as she repeatedly fails to make emotional connections with men. She meets Les, but their conversation is unfulfilling; she tries to talk to Carter before he goes to Paris, but the attempt is spoiled; in desperation she reaches out to Ivan Costello, an ex-boyfriend, but his thoughts are primarily for himself. Eventually, Maria has an awful one-night stand with an actor who doesn’t even know her name before stealing his car and getting herself arrested. Her personal struggles are mirrored in her professional struggles. She is downgraded in a TV role to a minor part and her usual agent, Freddy, has moved on to more promising clients leaving her talking to a subordinate who barely acknowledges her existence. Professionally and personally, Maria is fading from the scene.
Eventually, Maria goes to Las Vegas, a sordid place symbolising debasement and immorality. This is the most desperate and extreme time in Maria’s story and where her behaviour spirals to its lowest point. She spends two weeks in a fog, stumbling around and consorting with whoever will give her the tiniest bit of attention, such as a casino bellboy. Her invisibility is confirmed when Freddy invites her to a party, but she can’t get in. Despite the abuse she constantly receives, Maria continues to turn to an assorted cast of unpleasant men for help and direction, something akin to an act of self harm.
Resources
- Chapters 51 – 65 Questions and Activities
Supporting Cast: Benny Austin
A friend of her father and mother, Benny is a connection to Maria’s past – which is why she runs from encounters with him on two occasions. Benny has a whimsical, folksy way of speaking, which gives him an optimism that Maria simply can’t relate to now. He’s always supportive of her father and believed in his plans to transform Silver Wells. When he failed, Benny makes the excuse: ‘he was a man always twenty years ahead of his time.’ Even after all these years, Benny still sees Maria as Francine and Harry’s little girl, making her feel ashamed of all that has happened to her since leaving home.
Learner Portfolio: Rogues’ Gallery
Historically, a rogues’ gallery was a collection of photographs of known criminals used by the police to identify suspects. Nowadays, the traditional rogues’ gallery has been replaced by modern computer databases. However, a second meaning of the word has become more prevalent: ‘a collection of people notable for their disreputable qualities or characteristics.’
Create a ‘Rogues’ Gallery’ of different men from Play It As It Lays, revealing the grotesquery of male characters throughout the novel. Sketch ‘mugshots’ of different characters with notes about who they are, how they treat women, and key quotations that represent their toxicity. This is a perfect assignment to complete in pairs or small groups. Display your work or add it to your Learner Portfolio.
Sleeping Pills
“Some day you’ll wake up and you just won’t feel like playing any more.”
Chapter 83
Things come to a head in the desert. Tension grows between Carter, Maria, his now ex-wife, and Susannah Wood, the lead actress in Carter’s new film. Carter’s star actor assaults Susannah who has to cover up the bruises on her face for the last few days of the shoot. BZ reveals that Helene and Carter are having an affair, reaching out to Maria for comfort. But, consumed by her own physical and mental deterioration, all she can tell him is “nothing” matters. As the story moves into its final stage, the narrative structure changes and Maria speaks directly to the reader from the psychiatric hospital, admitting that she has lost her sense of humor – but not her mind.
Supporting Cast: Harrison Porter
Another in a line of male characters who demean women, Harrison is the star of Carter’s new film. For reasons that are never made clear, Harrison assaults Susannah Wood, his leading lady, leaving her with bruises on her face (what upsets Carter most about this is the disruption to his shooting schedule rather than the violence itself). Notable double standards in the way men and women are treated; throughout the shoot Carter spends extra time and attention on Harrison, ensuring his whims are indulged, and covers up the assault through a hastily arranged charity telethon.
Learner Portfolio: Practise for Paper 2
Write this Learner Portfolio in the style of a practice Paper 2 response. You can use one of the prompts below, or another prompt given to you by your teacher. Although Paper 2 requires you to compare-and-contrast two literary works, for the sake of this exercise you could focus only on your response to Play It As It Lays. Choose one of the following prompts, talk with your teacher about how to approach and structure your writing, then complete your portfolio entry (visit this post for more help with Paper 2):
- Explore the importance of trust in literary works you have studied.
- Consider why writers create characters who do not conform to norms in works you have studied.
- Discuss the ways in which philosophical or aesthetic ideas are represented in works of literature you have studied.
- Referring to works you have studied, discuss how the writers portray the significance of a journey.
Towards Assessment: Higher Level Essay
Students submit an essay on one non-literary text or a collection of non-literary texts by one same author, or a literary text or work studied during the course. The essay must be 1,200-1,500 words in length. (20 marks).
Once you’ve finished studying Play It As It Lays, and if you are an HL student, you might consider using this text to write your HL Essay. Here are one or two examples of lines of inquiry suitable for this text – but remember to follow your own interests and the direction of your own class discussion to generate your own line of inquiry. It is not appropriate for students to submit responses to an essay question that has been assigned:
- How does Joan Didion use Maria’s interactions with supporting characters to reveal the empty superficiality of 1960s Hollywood culture in Play It As It Lays?
- How does Joan Didion use Maria’s point of view to reflect her psychological state and explore her search for meaning in Play It As It Lays?
Towards Assessment: Individual Oral
Supported by an extract from one non-literary text and one from a literary work (or two literary works if you are following the Literature-only course)students will offer a prepared response of 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of questions by the teacher, to the following prompt: Examine the ways in which the global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of two of the texts that you have studied. (40 marks)
Play It As It Lays is a text you could consider using for your Individual Oral. The novel deals with issues in Fields of Inquiry such as identity, power, culture, values, beliefs, and more. Once you have finished reading and studying these poems, spend a lesson working with the IB Fields of Inquiry: mind-map the novel, come up with ideas for Global Issues, make connections with other Literary Works or Body of Works that you have studied on your course. See if you can make a proposal you might use to write your Individual Oral.
Here are one or two suggestions to get you started, but consider your own programme of study before you make any firm decisions about your own Global Issue that you want to talk about. Whatever you choose, remember a Global Issue must have local relevance, wide impact and be trans-national:
- Field of Inquiry: Culture, Community and Identity
- Global Issue: the importance of support networks for vulnerable individuals
- Possible Pairings (Lit course: if you are following the Literature-only course, you must pair a text originally written in English with a translated work): Broken April by Ismail Kadare; The Vegetarian by Han Kang; No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai.
- Possible Pairings (Lang and Lit): I, Daniel Blake (dir. by Ken Loach); The Waldo Moment (by Charlie Brooker); Patton Oswalt’s Annhilation;
Forced by her husband to get an abortion she doesn’t want, Maria finds out the hard way how hard it is to go through physical and emotional trauma alone. Firstly, there’s no legal framework for abortion, so she has to go through an underground network of unsympathetic fixers. Then, her female friends lack the capacity to be sympathetic. Helene is the only consistent female presence in Maria’s life, but she doesn’t support Maria emotionally. This is even more isolating after an abortion, when Maria is ‘in a realm of miseries particular to women’. You could pair this text effectively with another in which vulnerable people are isolated without support networks.
- Field of Inquiry: Power, Politics and Justice
- Global Issue: toxic masculinity
- Possible Pairings (Lit course: if you are following the Literature-only course, you must pair a text originally written in English with a translated work): Balzac and the Little Chinese Princess by Dai Sijie; No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai; Broken April by Ismail Kadare; The Vegetarian by Han Kang.
- Possible Pairings (Lang and Lit): Joshua Rashaad Macfadden’s Come To Selfhood portraits; Handsaway This Is Not Consent ad campaign; James Bond film posters.
Play It As It Lays is full of examples of men who exhibit toxic behaviour towards women. Whether it’s Carter who gaslights and manipulates Maria, Larry Kulik who tries to coerce her into sex, Ivan who uses sex to control her, Harrison Porter who assaults Susannah Wood. Even unnamed minor characters dehumanise women, using them as sex objects, accessories, or gleefully gossiping about their misfortunes. To talk about this issue effectively you could pair the novel with another text revealing the toxic aspects of male behaviour – or contrast it with a text that shows an alternative way for men to relate to women in the world.
Wider Reading
Categories:Prose
IB Language and Literature 2.0 