City of Angels
Nearly a year ago, at the Los Angeles Festival of Books, I picked up an interesting looking title called City of Quartz. Since I just finished Maya (review forthcoming) I thought I'd pick it up.
Right now I'm disliking the perspecitve to which the author, Mike Davis, seems predisposed. I do appreciate the thoughts that the book is inspiring and that makes how far I've gotten worth it.
Davis starts off describing the first attempted Socialist experiment of scale being birthed just outside of Los Angeles, somewhere in the Mojave Desert. He then continues on with a very political history emphasizing the falsely intellectual Los Angeles and the perpetual divide between rich and poor here.
His claims of "class warfare" are a bit far fetched in my book. The story of Los Angeles is, I agree, that it is not a true city but I think to accurately describe the unending suburban sprawl and cultural climate one need only pick a long, well travelled road and describe a journey from the soul-less tract homes with concocted estate names like "Cambridge" to the third world style apartment complexes and markets that are closer to the city. How about a photo essay of Imperial Highway? Start in Yorba Linda and make your way west- through the nouveau riche cultural void of Brea to the bland La Mirada continuing to the steadily rougher Norwalk and finally to the ghettos to the west, near the airport?
Class warfare? How about class anesthesia?
10:17:30 PM 
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