From: Rob Preston:
> Having lived in the Bay Area for 10 years (in the
suburbs, Fremont), San
> Francisco is basically just known as "The City". If
you say that, everyone
> knows what you are talking about, there is no other
City, and no
possibility
> of their being another one to bay area inhabitants.
If you say "San Fran"
> and you sound like a dork. ...
> I've been to a lot of cities but I have never
encountered a place like
S.F.
> It is really a very small place geographically with
a very diverse
> culture.
Rob, Natives of NYC also don't consider there is any city
than their own.I'm a native of Boston. It too is very small
in area.. It has been hemmed in by political barriers as
opposed to San Francisco's geographic ones. Because its area
schools attract students from all over the world it also has
many people of differing origins, though many of them live
across the Charles River in Cambridge where Harvard and
M.I.T. are located.
To keep on topic the area also has seen an explosion of hard
boiled and medium boiled writers in the last thirty or forty
years probably inspired first by George Higgins and a little
later Robert Parker. We'll get to that next month. Mark
>
> Rob
>
> > Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 00:40:22 -0500
> > From: "M Blumenthal" <
blumenidiot@21stcentury.net>
> > Subject: RARA-AVIS: Theme of the month - San
Francisco
> >
> > We are moving a little north this month. I was
thinking about books
> written
> > about the two cities. Except for books with the
LAPD being an important
> > element, books about LA rarely seem to be about
an urban area. Chandler
> and
> > Ross MacDonald wrote about southern California
but mainly their favorite
> > suburb. Most books set in San Francisco seems
to have the gritty feel
of
> > the city. I am always struck by Bogart in John
Houston's version of The
> > Maltese Falcon when he is mailing the package
holding the falcon Captain
> > Jacoby gave his life to deliver. All Bogart
writes is his address and
> 'City'
> > There is no possibility of there being any
other city.
> >
> > I have to confess the only time I ever was in
San Francisco was when I
was
> > picked up at the airport, driven
> > driven through it to Berkely and then driven
back a few days later. My
> image
> > of the city has been formed by movies like
Bullitt and the Dirty Harry
> > series. I have also read Hamett, but that's a
view of a city two
> generations
> > past. Greenleaf's Tanner and Prozini's Nameless
have written many books
> set
> > in the city, but they are marginally hb. Joe
Gores' DKA series which are
> > almost PI procedurals have their foundation in
his having worked for
> twelve
> > years as a private investigator/skip tracer. .
He has written a lot of
> stand
> > alones as well. They are often set in San
Francisco such as HAMMETT and
> > INTERFACE. I guess we can discuss Hammett's San
Francisco of the late
> 20's
> > and the 30's or these modern
writers.
> >
> > Anyone who lives in the city or knows its
relevance to hb fiction is
> welcome
> > to contribute.
> > Mark
>
>
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