A great book about the birth of Los Angeles based around the intertwining portraits of engineer William Mulholland, director DW Griffith, and evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. It presents the city as founded upon myth, greed, and man’s desire to conquer nature- which I think fits into the narrative of just about any metropolis in the USA. In New York City, we have a tendency to write off LA as some kind of self-indulgent city of cars and convenience, but there’s a part of me that thinks that LA’s image is far more honest than NYC’s: it more nakedly illustrates our innate desire as humans to exploit the Earth and each other to claim what we think we deserve as individuals. It’s a true illustration of the “every man for himself” brand of American ambition, and, in my opinion, New York is exactly the same, but we’re just a bit better at hiding it.
