The "Cover" Up

Our first novel for the new year in Literature of California is Chester Himes' If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945), which follows four days in the life of a black, Ohio-transplant who has come to California to work in the booming World War II shipyard industry. Whereas the cover of the edition that we are using in class is fairly subdued (Caucasian and black fingers intertwined with one another), we can see from the above images of previous covers of the novel, that the artwork was more provocative. For this week's blog post, I want students to take a hard look at these book covers and write a short reflection on what they think these covers say about the themes of the novel that they have encountered so far in their reading. Are these covers accurate? Problematic? Which one really stands out to you and why? 

The Influence of Noir

This week, in Literature of California, we are wrapping up our literary and film noir experience. In many ways, we see 1930's and 1940's detective fiction and film noir serve as inspiration to this day in all aspects of pop culture, from film and television to music videos and video games.

The comic above is from the fantastic Calvin and Hobbes and features a recurring character, Tracer Bullet, that Calvin habitually uses as escapism fiction when he has gotten into trouble. In just a few frames, we can see Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Patterson utilizes many of the tropes associated with hard-boiled fiction and noir.

Both genres have also been used to great satirical effect. Below are two clips from Steve Martin's early 1980's film Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, in which Martin actually wove original film noir scenes into his parody film about a hard-boiled detective.

Hard-boiled detective novels and film noir are not just for adults, either. Below are clips from the Disney film Who Framed Roger Rabbit and an old Muppets cartoon, both of which use the two genres for inspiration.

For this week's blog post, I want you to write a short paragraph about why you think hard-boiled detective fiction and film noir are still so influential in pop culture today. What about both genres still speaks to modern audiences? What stylistic choices, both in the literature and in film, make it so compelling to honor and make fun of, artistically? Finally, pick two or three tropes that your film group is planning on including in the noir film you are creating. 

Hollywood Crime

(Jewelry Store Hold Up, Los Angeles, July 23, 1932. Foteka.com)

In Literature of California, having wrapped up The Day of the Locust, we have moved into our Hollywood noir unit, having recently watched the classic film noir, Double Indemnity (1944) and students are currently reading Raymond Chandler's short story "The Lady in the Lake".

Chandler is quoted as saying, "Hollywood is wonderful. Anyone who doesn't like it is crazy or sober." In this, he perfectly captures the paradox of Los Angeles (and Hollywood) post-World War II. In her critical piece "The Dark Side of the Dream: The Image of Los Angeles in Film Noir", Tina Olsin Lent notes that, after the Depression and World War II, people could not ignore that the world they saw in Hollywood pictures was not really the world that they were living in and that "in the collective consciousness of the media, Los Angeles remains the contemporary icon for the dark side of American culture."

For many years, the image of California had been sunshine and beaches, warm Santa Ana winds and flowers in bloom all year round. With the advent of literary and film noir, authors and filmmakers began to explore those shadows in the sunshine that we have been concerning ourselves with all year. Additionally, as filmmaking became more popular and photography more available to the masses, a more realistic picture of what Los Angeles was really like came into view.

For this week's blog post, I want students to step back in time a bit and see the Los Angeles that Raymond Chandler and his literary noir counterparts saw. In recent years, photographers have gone through the LAPD photo archives and published photos from the time period in which "The Lady in the Lake" takes place. Please visit the Foteka website, which has an amazing archive of these photos (warning, some photos can be disturbing). Browse through the archive and then choose one picture that stands out to you. I want you to copy that image and paste it into your own blog entry and then write a paragraph on why you chose that particular image. What stands out about it for you? How does it affirm or challenge your understanding of Los Angeles during this time period? Please also note any connections you see between what is displayed in the photo and what you have read or watched so far related to literary and film noir.

Images of Loss

(image link here.)

As we continue our work with Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust, we have spent some time in class furthering our understanding of the Great Depression of the 1930's in order to better contextualize some of the themes of the novel. The glitz and glamour projected by Hollywood during this time, known as the Golden Age of Film, was vastly different from the fear, uncertainty, and poverty that most Americans were experiencing in reality. Did Hollywood serve a specific purpose by offering escapism through the films that were produced, or did they numb Americans, offering a quick relief from the pain of the Great Depression that only ached more once the shine of the film-going experience wore off? These are things West is thinking about in the novel.

For this week's blog entry, I want students to better understand the reality of America at this time as it will help them balance the typical Depression experience against both the fantasy and reality presented by Hollywood that West is examining. Students should spend some time looking through the photos on this website, which features over forty fascinating color images from around America during the Great Depression. Once you have looked through them all, copy and paste the image that impacted you the most into your own blog post and write about why you chose it. Also address how the image fits into our ongoing discussion about fantasy versus reality in The Day of the Locust. 

Into the Great Wide Open

This week, in Literature of California, we began Nathanel West's seminal Hollywood takedown novel, The Day of the Locust. Set in Depression-era Los Angeles, the novel follows Tod Hackett, an artist, and various fringe members of Hollywood society, all trying to make it on their own. Since its publication in 1939, there have been countless other similar stories told of the broken dreams and seedy underside of the Hollywood scene. As we move through this novel, we will discuss why Hollywood is such a perfect symbol for this theme of the fracture that happens when reality does not quite lives up to fantasy. It still holds truth and proves a draw for audiences today as Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga's A Star is Born is currently raking it in at the box office.

For this week's blog post, I want students to watch a classic early 1990s music video by the artist Tom Petty for his song "Into the Great Wide Open". In many ways, Petty is offering a musical update on the classic themes of The Day of the Locust. After you watch the video (putting aside the obvious dated aspects of the video itself), write a short paragraph in which you make some connections between what you have read so far of The Day of the Locust and the story told in the video. How does this song/video further expand our understanding of the Hollywood Dream Factory and expose some of the shadows in the sunlight of Tinseltown?

Here is the video:

The Tide Pool of Life

As we have been reading John Steinbeck's Cannery Row in Literature of California this past week, I've been thinking a lot about the idea of community and, specifically, how there seems to be a natural human impulse for each of us to take on certain roles within the different micro-communities we find ourselves in on a day-to-day basis. With my friends from college, for example, I'm often considered "the connector" because I tend to be the one who keeps us all in touch with one another and organizes events to get us all together from time to time. I've also been called "the diplomat" by others because I'm the person who usually tries to mitigate conflicts between friends by having them communicate in better, more thoughtful ways with one another. In high school, my senior class voted me "Most Socially Aware", but I think people were confused by this category and some people put my name down because I was pretty vocal about politics and world affairs, while others figured I always knew where the parties were that upcoming weekend. Needless to say, I've played different roles in different communities that I have found myself in over the course of my life.

In Cannery Row, Steinbeck uses the tide pools of Monterey as a symbol for the symbiotic relationships we see developing between the residents of the neighborhood. For this week's blog post, I want students to consider the Sage Hill School community in a similar way. Every high school community has groups, cliques, and stereotypes. For this week, you can take one of two approaches to your post:

1. Apply the tide pool metaphor to Sage Hill School. Who are the hermit crabs? Who are the barnacles? Are there predators and prey? Which groups work together, which are trying to gain power and who is just trying to stay afloat? Write 1-2 paragraphs where you analyze the social organizations that exist within our community.
2. Identify one of the social organizations in our community of which you are a member. This could be a friendship group, a sports team, an arts ensemble, an extracurricular club, etc. Who are the "players" in this organization and what is your social role in the group? Write 1-2 paragraphs where you describe the social structure of this organization and your role in it.

The Ocean in Seventeen Syllables

This week, in Literature of California, we have begun reading John Steinbeck's literary classic, Cannery Row. Set in Monterey during the great depression, Cannery Row is as much about the ocean as it is about the people that reside on Steinbeck's fictional street. You cannot talk about California, it seems, without mentioning the ocean. With over 1,100 miles of coastline, California is literally defined by the sea.

For this week's blog post, I want students to take a creative approach to their relationship with California's beaches. Please write a haiku (your standard 5/7/5 approach) that you feel captures your relationship to California's coastline. Once you write your haiku, choose an image to go along with it and then write a short paragraph explaining the meaning of your haiku.

Here's mine:

the smell hits you first

PCH, my windows down

the heart swells, i breathe

While I've been visiting the beaches of California my whole life, I never truly lived "at the beach" until I started working for Sage Hill over a decade ago and immediately moved to Belmont Shore, directly across the street from the ocean. Every day, when I would come home from work, no matter what sort of day I had, I would be struck by the smell of the beach whenever I opened my car door. In that moment, my shoulders would relax, my worries would lift a little, and I would simply breathe. The smell of the beach is a sensory connection to my past; some of my happiest memories take place in and around the ocean, so each time I opened that car door or lowered my windows, I was transported back to a time of fun and relaxation. This is my California beach experience.