Prologue

It is no longer a question of false representation of reality (ideology) but of concealing the fact that the real is no longer real.

The original idea for this essay came after readying Mark Davis’s book, “City of Quartz”. Before readying the book, I though, I knew enough about the Los Angeles. Despite I never visited the city; I watched all its fairy productions. For me Los Angeles was resemblance of giant film set with a content consistency. But my premature judgment started falling apart after the south central incident. For the first time I could see the city naked with all of its dirt. At first the main question was why it happened, and later how we should deal with it. Since then for two decades tones of materials have been written from left and right. Hence it appears that the result was nothing except another blaming show and still the main problems are unsolved.

Or, Are we sure that there was a problem?

This is perhaps my main hypothesis: Instead of criticizing the same old argument about the spectacle and Disneyland, or trying to construct the notion of the morality of simulation, I will discuss the duality within the process of simulation especially in case of Los Angeles.

But instead of conventional approach, I will examine my Los Angeles through the lens of Blade Runner.

This is the city of Los Angeles: dim but simultaneously luminous.