Now that the Literary Blog Hop is every two weeks, I find myself pacing, more often than not, waiting for the next subject to come up. This week's question is off-beat. It required me at least a full day of reflection:
What setting (time or place) from a book or story would you most like to visit? Eudora Welty said that, "Being shown how to locate, to place, any account is what does most toward making us believe it...," so in what location would you most like to hang out?
My answer is James Ellroy's Los Angeles. The surviving king of noir has transformed a polluted cloud of dellusional people into what L.A always wished to be. An ethereal metropolis, a shapeless monster that swallows and corrupts the innocent. Where the thugs are wearing suits and attend social events.
There are no poor or downtrodden in Ellroy's Los Angeles quartet. If they make an appearance, it's a short cameo. No, it's more complex than than. The quartet is about the lawlessness of L.A, its role as a breeding ground for those with the darkest impulses. There's no rules in James Ellroy's Los Angeles, except maybe not to be caught. His villains are rich, decadent and pushing the boundaries of amoral behavior.
The Black Dahlia might be the novel where it's most evident, but I have a weak spot for L.A Confidential, which is an epic confrontation of values within the police force. Bud White, Jack Vincennes and Ed Exley have all radically different outputs on life and how they should apply the "law", which is "their law". In James Ellroy's Los Angeles, you cannot systematically apply anything, you have to watch your back.
It might seem strange I want to visit this place, but I do. I'd love to pound the streets of L.A in perpetual sunset and see defiant men wearing suits and hopeless girls in evening gowns, rather than a peroxyded hair metal singer driving a UPS truck, gang members and woman Siliconed beyond recognition. That's it. It's a bit short, but I would love to visit James Ellroy's imaginary rendition of Los Angeles. It's a place where the mystique lives on.
There are no poor or downtrodden in Ellroy's Los Angeles quartet. If they make an appearance, it's a short cameo. No, it's more complex than than. The quartet is about the lawlessness of L.A, its role as a breeding ground for those with the darkest impulses. There's no rules in James Ellroy's Los Angeles, except maybe not to be caught. His villains are rich, decadent and pushing the boundaries of amoral behavior.
The Black Dahlia might be the novel where it's most evident, but I have a weak spot for L.A Confidential, which is an epic confrontation of values within the police force. Bud White, Jack Vincennes and Ed Exley have all radically different outputs on life and how they should apply the "law", which is "their law". In James Ellroy's Los Angeles, you cannot systematically apply anything, you have to watch your back.
It might seem strange I want to visit this place, but I do. I'd love to pound the streets of L.A in perpetual sunset and see defiant men wearing suits and hopeless girls in evening gowns, rather than a peroxyded hair metal singer driving a UPS truck, gang members and woman Siliconed beyond recognition. That's it. It's a bit short, but I would love to visit James Ellroy's imaginary rendition of Los Angeles. It's a place where the mystique lives on.
