Notes on the State of California

[Zeno]

Notes on California:


It is the land of perpetual pubescence, where cultural lag is mistaken for renaissance.

- Ashley Montagu


Most people in California come from somewhere else. They move to California so they could name their kinds Rainbow and Mailbox, and purchase tubular Swedish furniture without getting laughed at. It’s a tenet in California that the fiber in your clothing is equivalent to your moral fiber. Your ‘lifestyle’ (as they say) is your ethic. This means that in California you don’t really have to do anything, except look healthy, think good thoughts, and pat yourself on the back about what a good person you are. And waiters in California want to be called by their first name. I don’t know why.

-Ian Shoales



California reminds me of the popular American Protestant concept of Heaven: There is always a reasonable flow of new arrivals; one meets many – not all- of one’s friends; people spend a good deal of time congratulating one another about the fact that they are there; discontent would be unthinkable; and the newcomer is slightly disconcerted to realize that now, the devil having been banished and virtue triumphant, nothing terribly interesting can ever happen again.

- George F. Kennan


Does the above remind anyone of something else?

[scrub]

While visiting California, I've been reading a collection of Jonathan Franzen essays called How To Be Alone .


His hatred of technological mass culture, love of good prose, and ability to pull of a soaringly bombastic sentence all made me think of your posts. You might want to check it out.

scrub

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

I spent a year living in San Diego and can't disagree with any of this. I'm glad I had the opportunity to move back away from California.