Re: RARA-AVIS: Boston-City Topics

From: Mark Sullivan ( DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net)
Date: 28 Nov 2001


Doug wrote:

"I'd be curious if there are crime novels that make strong use of a city's geography to guide plot (maybe it can't work--urban planning as crime novel)."

Not hardboiled, not even a mystery, but JG Ballard's Highrise kinda does this, as it explores class war in a Le Corbusier-esque highrise/planned community.

"I suppose the arid landscape of Southern California plays a role in
"Chinatown.""

More than that, the entire plot revolves around city planning and the political conspiracy to get water for LA. I'm sure a similar thing could be done (has it been done?) dealing with transportation politics in LA, replacing mass transit with freeways.

John Shannon deals with the psycho- and political-geography of contemporary LA.

Mark

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