6/25/20 Exploring the Golden State A Readers’ Journey Through California History Thank You Team Fromm! v Derek v Carla v Scott v Dawa v Herbert v Alfredo 1
6/25/20 Thank You Fromm Students! Rough Course Schedule v June 3: Discoveries v June 10: Gilded Age Writers v June 17: Progressive Era v June 24: War and Postwar 2
6/25/20 Rough Class Schedule: v Intro and Questions (1:00-1:10) v Steinbeck (1:10 to 1:20) v John Fante (1:20 to 1:30) v Hammett & Chandler (1:30-1:55) v Break (1:55 to 2:00) v The Exiles (2:00-2:05) v The Seekers (2:10 to 2:20) v Science Fiction (2:20 to 2:25) v Wallace Stegner (2:25 to 2:30) v Charles Bukowski (2:30 to 2:35) 3
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6/25/20 Peak Steinbeck, 1935-1939 v Tortilla Flat , 1935 v In Dubious Battle , 1936 v Of Mice and Men , 1937 v Grapes of Wrath , 1939 (Pulitzer Prize) 7
6/25/20 Derailed by Life v Demoralized by politically-charged readings of his work v Reactionaries called him a Marxist v Many on the left called him bourgeois, sentimental John and Carol Split (1941) John Leaves California (1942) Divorce from Gwyn (1948) Carol and John Gwyn Conger and John 8
6/25/20 Ed’s Shocking Death, May 11, 1948 He was never again the writer he had once been in the 1930s v He got off track v Years of false starts, distractions v Paid considerable alimony and child support by writing for magazines 9
6/25/20 “To Carol, who willed it” v Many years later, on the eve of Steinbeck’s 1962 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he received a telegram from Carol v “Congratulations,” she wrote. “I always knew that it would come to you someday.” 10
6/25/20 John wrote back to Carol, telling her he had expected her note. He always knew she was still in his camp in the way that mattered most. 11
6/25/20 Why John Fante Matters v Struggling writer in Depression-era Los Angeles v Gifted novelist, short story writer v Best known for Ask the Dust (1939) Fante’s books reveal a forgotten Los Angeles, from Angel’s Flight to the vanished downtown scene. 12
6/25/20 The Struggles of John Fante v Scraped by on a series of menial jobs v Most notable in a tuna cannery v Grew obsessed with tuna canning Fante’s Struggles v Wrote an unpublished story, “Fish Cannery” v Featured extensive tuna cannery scenes v A script: Miracle of the Fishes , a “melodrama of the tuna fishing industry” 13
6/25/20 The outline of his unpublished “epic” changed over the years. Then, nothing happened. Fante warned his editor: “DON’T tell Steinbeck!” The So-Cal Steinbeck, 1938-1940 v Published three well received works v Novels Wait until Spring (1938) & Ask the Dust (1939) v Short stories Dago Red (1940) 14
6/25/20 Fante’s Best: Ask the Dust (1939) Ask the Dust A California classic. But, because it’s about Los Angeles, and not New York, it’s too often overlooked 15
6/25/20 Then, Once Again, Nothing Happened v Hack screenwriting to support family, cover gambling & bar debts v Obsessions with golf, pinball, wasted productive years The Struggles of John Fante v Compounding woes, he had an anti-talent for book titles v Proposed calling one “Ah, Poor America!” v Wanted to title another “Odyssey of a Wop” 16
6/25/20 As a serious writer, he was forgotten for four decades. Fante is Enjoying a Renaissance 17
6/25/20 Los Angeles Poet Charles Bukowski put Fante back on the map 18
6/25/20 Why “Dash” Matters v Author of iconic “hard-boiled” detective novels and short stories v Screenwriter & political activist “Dash” and Film v Significant influence on films v Genres of private- eye/detective fiction, mystery thrillers, and film- noir 19
6/25/20 Many of his novels were set in San Francisco 891 Post Street Sam Spade’s Apartment 20
6/25/20 Timing is Everything v Warner released the “talkie” The Jazz Singer (Oct. 1927) v Henceforth, few silent films would be made 21
6/25/20 Fiction & Hollywood v Producers grew desperate for crackling dialogue v He sent everything to Hollywood, 1928- v Henceforth crafted filmable plots Lived in “the real world” v Suffered decades of debilitating illness, obscurity, poverty v Went to Hollywood & stopped writing v Chose to go to prison rather than testify 22
6/25/20 Raymond Chandler, 1888-1959 v Began writing at 44 v Mostly set in Los Angeles v The Big Sleep , 1939 v Farewell, My Lovely , 1940 v The Lady in the Lake , 1943 v The Long Goodbye , 1954 Chandler Becomes a Writer v Like many writers, Chandler seems to have been unsuited for any other career v He tried, and failed, at bookkeeping v For one, he drank far too much 23
6/25/20 Chandler’s Work v If Chandler doesn’t make you love LA, no novelist can v Critics disparaged him; readers loved him v Chandler immerses the reader in a vivid, evocative Los Angeles 24
6/25/20 Chandler Redefined Los Angeles as a Noir Place v Prided himself as the “first to write about Southern California in a realistic way” v “To write about a place you have to love it or hate it or do both by turns.” Questions About Hammett and Chandler? 25
6/25/20 Eugene O’Neill and Carla Monterey at Tao House, Danville, 1937-1943 1. Touch of the Poet, 1939 2. More Stately Mansions , 1939 3. Iceman Cometh , 1939 4. Hughie , 1941 5. Long Day’s Journey Into Night , 1941 6. Moon for the Misbegotten , 1943 Tao House Today, Danville 26
6/25/20 Theodor Adorno at Berkeley The Authoritarian Personalilty (1950) 27
6/25/20 Aldous Huxley in Los Angeles v Left England, 1937, for Los Angeles v In LA for 26 years from 1937 (age 43) until his death in 1963 (age 69) Aldous Huxley v The Doors of Perception (1954) v Interprets his own psychedelic experience with hallucinogens 28
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6/25/20 Henry Miller at Big Sur, 1944-1963 v Creative new phase; artistic rebirth v Stayed for 20 years! v “I get an idea a day here” v Older, if reluctant, influence on Beats 30
6/25/20 Productive Big Sur Years v Air-Conditioned Nightmare , 1945 v Remember to Remember , 1947 v 3-part autobiography Rosy Crucifixion : Sexus , 1945; Plexus , 1949; Nexus , 1960 The Outside World Suddenly Intruded, 1961-1963 v Tropic of Cancer , 1934 (US release, 1961) v Tropic of Capricorn , 1939 (US release, 1962) v Notoriety meant intrusions, sleeplessness v Left Big Sur in 1963, moved to Los Angeles 31
6/25/20 Jack Kerouac: Complicated Iconoclast v A gentle soul, French Catholic, reclusive v Literary pioneer of spontaneous prose 32
6/25/20 Jack’s “Comeback Novel” Big Sur (1962) v Unsparingly depicted self-destruction v Torn between desire for solitude & fellowship v Protagonist divides time between Big Sur and North Beach Big Sur (1962) v Harrowing account of alcoholism v His character seeks salvation v The real Jack, too v He died of, at 47, of alcoholism 33
6/25/20 Why Ray Bradbury Matters v California’s foremost science fiction writer v A Los Angeles upbringing v A Los Angeles fixture Ray Bradbury v Characters from marginalized groups v Mexican Americans v African Americans v Gays and lesbians 34
6/25/20 Why Bradbury Matters v Concerned about technology and dehumanization v Staunch defender & advocate of reading v Technology undermining democratic society Fahrenheit 451 v Today things are more bleak than he could ever have imagined v Not necessary to burn books because no one wants to read them anyway 35
6/25/20 Why Philip K. Dick Matters Astonishing output: 44 novels! 120 short stories Largely posthumous fame Blade Runner (1982) Total Recall (1990) Minority Report (2002) Scanner Darkly (2006) Adjustment Bureau (2011) Man in the High Castle (2015) Recurrent elements: v Alternate realities v Predatory corporations v Authoritarianism v Perceptions v Human nature v Consciousness v Doppelgängers 36
6/25/20 Posthumous Fame v Devoted much of his creative energy in the 1950s to a series of realist novels v None of them published in his time v Later characterized as equal to Updike & Roth Why Wallace Stegner Matters v Novelist, historian, short story writer, environmentalist v Often called “The Dean of Western Writers” 37
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6/25/20 Wallace Stegner v Pulitzer Prize, 1972, for Angle of Repose v Controversy requires an explanation 39
6/25/20 Why Charles Bukowski Matters v We can no longer just call him up at his home in LA v But, before his death in 1994, you could v He welcomed the interruptions His poem “462-0614” read like an open invitation: v “I don’t write out of knowledge. When the phone rings I too would like to hear words that might ease some of this. That’s why my number’s listed.” 40
6/25/20 An Impish, Self-Effacing Charm v “I get many letters. They often say: ‘Bukowski, you are so f___ed up and you still survive. I decided not to kill myself.’ . . . So in a way I save people.” Why Bukowski Matters v “So these are my readers, you see? The defeated, the demented and the damned—and I am proud of it.” 41
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