Los Angeles is among the favorite setting of several novels, feature articles and motion pictures. Different authors, feature writers, novelists, and directors present their varied representation of California’s largest city. Through their literary works, they create different images of Los Angeles and present varied perception towards the city. Among these literature that provide diverse portrayal of Los Angeles are “The Pedestrian” written by Ray Bradbury, “LA Glows” by Lawrence Weschler and the movie “Crash” directed by Paul Haggins.
Bradbury originally came from Illinois and moved to California during the year 1934. His impression of his new home city had urged him to craft a short story where he incorporates sci-fi elements with his fascination of pop culture and his explicit take on Los Angeles. “The Pedestrian” is set in the future year of 2053 where the world has developed the frenzy of watching television. It focuses on the story of a man named Leonard Mead who unlike the rest of the three million citizens of Los Angeles have not been overpowered by television addiction. Bradbury creates a shocking image of Los Angeles where roads have decayed because the people never left their homes because of their uncontrollable passion of watching television. “In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not once in all that time.” (Bradbury, p.1) “The Pedestrian mirrors a television-centered society where everyone does not care about books and the normal act of walking in the streets was considered as a sign of madness. Bradbury’s short story describes Los Angeles as a lonely, dark city where only the faintest light of fireflies can be seen outside and only the silent glimmer of gray phantoms inside every home.
Unlike Bradburry who pictures Los Angeles as a dark, lonely, silent and decaying city, the New Yorker correspondent, Lawrence Weschler describes Los Angeles from a positive perspective. While Bradburry demonstrates the negative side of Los Angeles (which is a mere prediction as the story is set in 2053), Lawrence points out the magical side of the city. He creates a lovely image of Los Angeles where the lights radiats deep and genuine beauty. He pictures a vibrant and special city with billions of “tiny moons.” Weschler reiterates that Los Angeles has thousands of suns which provide utter inspiration for writers and composers. The title of his article summarizes the image of Los Angeles that he is trying to create. Los Angeles admirably glows that “if you’re an astronomer you want your star — or for that matter, your sun — to be distortion-free: solid as a rock. And that’s what you get here.” (Weshler)
While Bradbury and Weschler focus on the physical darkness and brightness of Los Angeles, Haggins illustrates a deeper perception of the city through his film “Crash.” The film does not talk about television or the glowing lights of Los Angeles, but it describes the dark realities that challenge the ethnic groups living in the city. In the movie, Los Angeles is presented as a multicultural city with people of different colors, ethnicities and ideals. Haggins pictures Los Angeles as home of utter prejudice and racism that victimize immigrants. The title “crash” is an imagery which is a symbol of the rough and tough contact between the city’s natives and the people who belong to different races. Like Bradburry and Weschler, the film director talks about colors that envelop Los Angeles. However, instead of using adjectives to distinguish between glowing and dark, he uses characters that represent different colors. This is evident in his line up of characters-a white district attorney, a black detective, a Hispanic man, an African-American Hollywood director, a Persian immigrant and a native policeman who despises his Latina girlfriend. Haggins portrays Los Angeles as a city of conflicting ideals where every conversation between two people of different races are filled with racist insults. He describes the city as a setting of violent interpersonal collisions, racist sentiments and hateful dialogues. One scene in the movie reflects this disturbing image where a gunstore owner calls the immigrant form Persia as “Arab” and “Osama”. “Crash” presents Los Angeles as a city suffering from a crisis of racial conflicts, episodes of humiliation and little ethical consciousness.
The works of Bradbury, Weschler and Haggins present different images of one city by presenting different realities. Bradbury cites the loneliness of Los Angeles because of the devolpment of a television-centered society, Weschler notes on the city’s bright lights that make it magical and Haggins tackles the racial segragation and collision that is still prevalent in modern Los Angeles.
Works Cited
Bradbury Ray. “The Pedestrian. 1951. Web. 18 Jul. 2015. <http://mikejmoran.typepad.com/files/pedestrian-by-bradbury-1.pdf>
Crash. Dir. Paul Haggins. Perf. Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle and Thandie Newton. Lions Gate Films, 2005. DVD.
Weschler, Lawrence. “LA Glows.” The New Yorker. 23 Feb. 1998. Web. 18 Jul. 2015. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/02/23/l-a-glows>
