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Why we share the same quotes about wildfires and Santa Anas – Jobsmaa.com

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Terrible winds blow across Southern California. Forest fires can break out at any time. The The Pacific Palisades and Eden fires continue to burn. Citations about how wind and fire threaten and define the region spread rapidly.

Raymond Chandler has one, of course: “It's one of those hot, dry Santa Anas that come down the mountain passes, curl your hair, jump on your nerves, and make your skin itch. Nights like that every drinking party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife for their husbands' necks.” are studying

And Joan Didion: “Los Angeles weather is disaster, disaster weather.”

Nerds especially love it Nathaniel WestA novel of broken L.A. dreams, “The Day of the Locust” is best known for its final scenes of the city burning, bringing to life a sketch of the protagonist: “He's going to show the city burning at high noon, so that the flames have to compete with the desert sun, and thereby the roofs and windows rather than the terrible carnage.” Appear less fearfully like bright flags flying from

and of course, Mike DavisSince appearing in LA Weekly in 1995, the essay “The Case for Letting Malibu Burn” has been hailed as prophetic literature by progressive Angelenos — and reviled by conservatives and suburbanites alike.

For decades, I have seen journalists And other people share those four creations and every time a fire starts or it's Santa Ana season – “heat gathers from the far desert, it invades the city, creating a season of heat and fire” (John Recchi), “the mountains are filled with fire” (Doors classic ” Jim Morrison in LA Woman). And then there's “Beverly Hills 90210” — you can find the infamous Santa Anas episode on YouTube.

I never tire of reading them because they are well-crafted thoughts that few writers can hope to ever come out on top. This time, however, many people have posted the same quotes saying that smart is mediocre.

In the face of so much adversity, why do so many recover?

I called the historian William DeverellDirector of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and one of the smartest people I know on Southern California heritage and culture. Many of his friends and co-workers lost their homes in the Eaton fire, leaving the Pasadena resident “surrounded by smoke and sadness.”

A friend recently sent her a Titian quote with the snarky byline “Joan of Titian.”

“We allowed it [Didion and the usual suspects] For good reasons to be latter-day Jeremiahs,” he said. “They have that power to string together phrases that make us think, 'I wanted to say something like that, but I can't really do it.'”

The problem, he feels, is that “we've given them the right to be in power, and instead also know a lot.”

He quoted Fire historian Stephen Pine And UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain As writers on Southern California weather, they should be better known, but never will be, because most of their work is in academia.

“Perhaps part of our challenge,” Deverell said, “is that when we have quotes that are alive and every bit German, we reach back a bit.”

Author Mike Davis at his San Diego home

Author Mike Davis at his San Diego home in 2022. His essay, “The Case for Letting Malibu Burn,” is one of the most frequently cited pieces of literature on Southern California's wildfire disasters.

(Adam Perez/The Times)

That's why he hopes the words of the survivors of the Pacific Palisades and Eaton disasters will be read and passed on by future generations, just like the well-known voices.

“When it's appropriate, we need to get their oral histories so that some of the good can come from the worst,” he said.

Lisa Alvarez She is an English professor at Irvine Valley College who teaches students about literature about Southern California wind and wildfires, “so they know where they are now, who was here in the past and who will be here in the future.”

She doesn't mind seeing the canonical quote “I'm a Californian” every time Santa Anas and bonfires are lit. “There's a comfort in sharing what we know. You want to be part of a moment. Fire is an old story. The fires in California are a very old story.

But reading them reminds her to challenge friends and students to read more widely.

“They were published [in prominent publications] And they study,” Alvarez said of the likes of Davis and Titian. “You have to try to find others. It speaks to the nature of our literacy.

The Modjeska Canyon resident volunteers for her community's fire watch and has had to evacuate her home several times during fires, but never lost her home. The spring semester at Irvine Valley College has begun, and she plans to share lesser-known writers about wildfires and wind, such as poets Ray Young Bear and Liz Gonzalez. Another area he makes his students study An excellent 1993 Times article by longtime LA historian Michael Ventura I had never heard of Alvarez until I saw it on his Facebook timeline.

“We need more prophets,” Alvarez concluded. “We need a better prophecy.”

There's one writer whose work is now most cited and deserves to be shared more: the black science fiction writer Octavia E. ButlerA Pasadena native who was buried in Altadena Cemetery, partially burned last week.

The 2020 Racial Enumeration brought his work to a wider audience, particularly “Parable of the SowerThe 1993 novel is set in the dystopian Southern California of 2024, which is similar to where we live today.

In Butler's book, climate change has wreaked havoc on what was once a paradise. Social inequality is obscene. Crime is out of control. Suffering is guaranteed for almost everyone. Butler argued that whatever faith we have, we must be tempered by the reality that we must first suffer.

“To rise from its own ashes,” he wrote in the phrase “I see so much,” “A phoenix must first burn.”

With respect to Titian, Davies, and other literary giants who wrote about our devil wind and fire, this is the quote Southern Californians should take to heart right now.

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