In the arts, Los Angeles is one of those cities that has transcended physicality and even metaphor, and has become a bonafide literary device. Usually, that device is employed to depict a dystopic lost paradise, the human vermin, decay of the human mind, or the impossibility of harmony. However, one thing I always notice and appreciate in Los Angeles photo threads is the evidence that, for a very long time, a lot of very hard work went into making Los Angeles beautiful. That work was done without irony, without cynicism, and as a gift to the contemporary citizens at the time and to us, the citizens of the future. A great deal of old Los Angeles appears -- to someone who's never been there -- to be utterly lovely. Of course everyone is aware that no place's history is pleasant or clean, but these rich architectural ornaments still surviving, and many newly scrubbed and polished, seem to suggest a boldness to hope and be joyful. It's so easy to give in to the notion that life is a thing without joy, without meaning, without a mooring... but to decorate a building is to put down an anchor, declare beauty and meaning and joy. That used to be a common consideration, but as we as a society have given in to existential nihilism, it's come to be a thing of courage and I love to see it.
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"To sustain the life of a large, modern city in this cloying, clinging heat is an amazing achievement. It is no wonder that the white men and women in Greenville walk with a slow, dragging pride, as if they had taken up a challenge and intended to defy it without end." -- Rebecca West for The New Yorker, 1947
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