Saturday, 10 August 2013

The Great Wrong Place


         LA bids pundits to spin epigrams. W.H Auden called L.A 'The Great Wrong Place'. I'll ascribe intent. Auden saw L.A as a lodestone for opportunists and physically maimed misfits. I sense this because i fall into both categories. Auden couched L.A in a film noir construction. Losers migrated here to start over and become someone else. L.A was a magnet for lives in desperate duress. The sheer indifference of the place consumed the migrants and drove them mad. They succumbed to madness in a sexy locale. The place itself provided solace and recompense. They had the comfort of other arriviste losers. They entered the L.A spiritus mundi. They handed out their head shots. They joined that unique L.A casting call.

James Ellroy
from
The Great Right Place ; James Ellroy Comes Home
Los Angeles Times - July 30th 2006

reblogged from Venetianvase

image
Esther Bubley

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