As a refugee from my native Los Angeles, I strongly recommend City of Quartz to any Penners who want a very insightful analysis of the history and politics of L.A. I learned more from reading the book than I knew from having been raised there. Sid Shniad > > Following coffee-sipping Louis P's suggestion, I checkout out _Lingua > Franca_. The latest issue (September 1997) has a longish piece on > Mike Davis, author of _City of Quartz_, by Adam Shatz. Shatz > concludes a bit sadly, along with Tariq Ali, that Davis has started an > unfortunate slide toward "millennial catastrophism"---anomic partner > to the healthy "grassroots reporting" in _City of Quartz_. I have yet > to read through _City of Quartz_, but I've now had my appetite > re-whetted. > > There's also a blurb on Foucault that Doug (and others) might find > interesting. I'm too busy at the moment to summarize it, so you'll > have to steal a read at the nearest coffee shop/bookstore. > > > Bill >