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. "South City" is term I heard
a lot in the past as South San Francisco is basically a
totally different place. 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.Hammety's and the Maltese Falcon atmosphere just add
to my image of this place.
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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