Re: RARA-AVIS: bleak and broken cities

MARIO TABOADA (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Wed, 08 Oct 1997 14:57:20 +0000 Myshmysh@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 97-10-07 10:15:27 EDT, kvnsmith@total.net writes:
>
> << it's a wonder that Chandler, Macdonald, et al. could make sunny
> California so bleak. >>
>
> Decloaking to riposte with the rather obvoius:
>
> It is clear, then, that you don't live there. ;-j

California does indeed have a bleak side - it's wonderfully bleak...As
someone who live there for a long time, I both love and hate Los
Angeles. The crime, the grift, the predominance of appearance over
reality (e.g., people who can't pay the rent drive (rented) Mercedes),
the absurdity of the city are all there, as described by masters like
Chandler, Macdonald, Gault, Ellroy, and others. The charm (for charm it
is) of the city is harder to put into words. It hits you at unexpected
moments and unexpected places. Overall, I would describe it as a
wonderful pit...

> Neither do I, for that matter, and Cali has never seemed bleak to me on my
> occasional sojourns to that state. However, Atlanta, where I currently
> reside, is a nasty little town (I am encouraged by the recent citations of
> books set here; I am in pursuit . . .).

California as a whole has a lot of wonderful places, such as Santa Cruz,
San Luis Obispo, the entire Mendocino County (my second-favorite area of
the country after the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginny, where I now
live). Not all of California is like L.A., fortunately.

> The finest HB fiction uses locale as another character (hellfire, the finest
> fiction does). Corruption exists wherever human desire does. But serious
> rot only sets in when either all desires are fulfilled or all desires will be
> forever unfulfilled.

The locale can be anywhere, not just sordid big cities. The wonderful
(and enigmatic) K.C. Constantine sets his mysteries in a small town in
Pennsylvania, where completely ordinary people commit a surprisingly
wide variety of crimes.

By the way, you can sign your name. We don't bite....

Regards,

Mario Taboada
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