![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/https-dev.lareviewofbooks.org-wp-content-uploads-2018-11-EveBabitz.png-e1652371824406.jpg\")
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\n\u201cWhat I wanted, although at the time I didn\u2019t understand what the thing was because no one ever tells you anything until you already know it, was everything. Or as much as I could get with what I had to work with. I wanted, mainly, a certain kind of song. It’s her birthday today. <\/p>\n Eve Babitz, nobody else like her. Discovering her writing was like discovering a part of myself. Or at least seeing it in print written by someone else… and written so beautifully … was a revelation. Outlaw is the word I use. She was a swashbuckling romantic It-Girl outlaw. I wrote about her a lot, but here’s a big piece I wrote on my Substack<\/a>.<\/p>\n I will leave you with this. In 1963, 18-year-old Eve Babitz was looking for a publisher for a novel she wrote. (It would take her 10 more years to get a book published). So she wrote to Joseph Heller, looking for help. All fine, all ambitious, good for teenage Eve. But here is how she introduced herself: <\/p>\n Dear Joseph Heller,<\/p>\n I am a stacked eighteen-year-old blonde on Sunset Boulevard. <\/p>\n I am also a writer. <\/p>\n Eve Babitz<\/big><\/p>\n Unbelievable. I just have to observe: If those two sentences were reversed, the note wouldn’t have nearly the same effect. She knew. <\/p>\n
\nLike scents, certain songs just throw me. And I wanted to be thrown into that moment of perfume when everything was gone except for the dazzle. It doesn\u2019t last long, but in order to have everything you must have those moments of such unrelated importance that time ripples away like a frame of water. Without those moments, your own heaven party can die of thirst. They\u2019re like booster shots, they make you stronger. You know it\u2019s worth the twinge of envy when you\u2019ve recovered from the dazzle because the mystery of life fades when death, people having fun without you, is forgotten. Time escapes unnoticed and time is all you get.
\nIf you live in L.A., to reckon time is a trick since there are no winters. There are just earthquakes, parties and certain people. And songs.\u201d
\n\u2014 Eve Babitz, Eve\u2019s Hollywood<\/em><\/big><\/p>\n
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\nThank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account<\/a>. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0<\/a>, if you’d like to subscribe.<\/em> <\/small><\/p>\n