Nature's Wrath - the Santa Ana Winds

The Santa Ana Winds are an interesting occurrence, causing massive weather changes within the great state of California. Joan Didion elaborated on the problems associated with this weather phenomenon in one of her essays, "Los Angeles Notebook". Didion explains effectively in an interesting and even eerie manner why she sees the winds as a demonic and apocalyptic event, one of which there is no escape. She achieves this by the usage of various anecdotes, taking sources mainly from odd incidents, similar occurrences around the world, environmental and scientific goings-on.

Didion tells of many odd incidents that happen when the Santa Ana Winds come, all of which seem to indicate the winds are a fiendish force. Right before the winds come, the "baby frets", the "maid sulks", and "[they all] know it" and "feel" the winds are coming. One only feels a feeling of paranoia and anticipation when there is some disturbance nearby. As soon as the winds come, a "husband roam[s]" his house "with a machete", only to say the next day he "heard a trespasser, [then] a rattlesnake". A man does not simply walk around carrying a killing weapon in his hand, only to say he thought he heard something. A man would only do that if he senses that there is a dangerous entity that could threaten his existence physically. Most creepily, Didion quotes another writer, Raymond Chandler, who says "'[even] meek little lives feel the edge of the carving knife, [studying] their husbands' necks". Similar to the way a demon would possess one and cause one to do, or at least think, of doing evil acts, the winds seem to instill demented thoughts in normally non-demented people. As such, the winds are a force that seems to make people act not like themselves, the way a mind-possessing apparition can.

Didion also discusses similar wind patterns throughout the world that also cause unusual happenings, most notably the Swiss foehn. When the foehn blows, people have "headache[s]" and "nausea", as well as "nervousness" and the more serious "depression[s]". Not only are the winds able to medically maim people as if by magic, but they seem to be even able of causing "suicide rate[s]" to go up, and for some Swiss courts to accept the wind as a "mitigating circumstance for

The changes in the environment for the winds are also rather uncanny. The Pacific turns "ominously glossy". Peacocks "scream [while] in the olive trees". There is an "absence of surf". Nature knows quite well that there is something sinister in the air. Something terrible is coming, and it will bring about great catastrophe - just like in an apocalypse. Even scientifically, Didion talks about how a physicist discovered that during the winds, there is an "unusually high ration of positive to negative ions", and that somehow, the "excess of positive ions" cause people to be "unhappy". Clearly, the winds are causing havoc in people's lives and disrupting the environment in enormous ways, much like an almighty demon or an apocalypse could.

Didion draws her sources from three general categories of anecdotes - those from the odd actions of people, those from similar occurrences around the world, and those of events that occur in the environment. Through these, she tells in an efficient and capable manner how the winds seem to resemble malevolent deities or Armageddon, causing great evil and darkness. Certainly, her narration will convince any reader to avoid the usually sunny and wonderful California.