Kevin Burton Smith wrote:
> Such was the force of his writing and the almost
mythological world
> that he created, that had Chandler settled in Newark
or Kansas City
> or Chicago or Vancouver, we may very well be asking
what it is that
> makes those cities inherently
hard-boiled.
Not to under-rate Chandler, but you're not giving LA its due
either. LA is the end of the road mythology and the link to
English roman noir, that is the gothic noir link between evil
and landscape and the American attempt to outrun corruption
by lighting out for the territories in hope of finding a
fresh, clean place to begin again. Didn't work for the
Pilgrims, and didn't work for the early pioneers' but each
time the evils of civilization caught up, the struggle moved
further west. Everywhere people went, corruption soon
followed because as all hb and noir fans know, they brought
it with them. California and LA were the last hope, where the
mythology dies hard, the way it died for Steinbeck's
depression era Okies, and the way it died for Mosley's
post-war industrial migration of southern blacks. For my
generation the sixties California rock mythology of endless
summer, surf, and hot cars is looking more than a little
shabby now. No doubt there'll be another dream, in outer
space maybe. For the dominant culture on earth, there's no
place else to go. California is where Route 66 ended.
> The other factor, of course, is Hollywood. Why set
the film 3000
> miles away when you can film it a few blocks away?
Interestingly,
> radio eyes didn't seem as LA-obsessed. But then
television came along
> and more than made up for it.
Sure, but why did these media end up in LA? Neither started
there. They went west to escape union wages and high real
estate prices. Film makers needed big back lots and
year-round good weather to achieve their dreams. Later, their
big sound stages and trained labour pool provided cheaper
production for television networks based on the east coast.
Remember when My Three Sons and Johnny Carson went to
California? It's still the accepted mythology that if you
don't like where you are now, move. Now that's the corporate
argument for globalization, but at one time people preferred
to relocate to the relatively wide-open spaces of the
American West. Wasn't that the land of opportunity for a
young man fresh from the European wars looking or a fresh
start in a new business? When those dreams for commercial
success crumbled during the world-wide depression of the
30's, Chandler did what the film and television industries
did later. Finally unable to find an incorruptable location
simply by moving further west, they reflected the inevitable
corruption of human societies back on their own nation. They
held up a mirror from the end of the rainbow.
Kerry
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