The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory (Haymarket) [Paperback]

Norman M. Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1997 | ISBN-10: 1859841759 | ISBN-13: 978-1859841754 | Edition: First Edition

Los Angeles is a city which has long thrived on the continual re-creation of own myth. In this highly original work, Norman Klein examines the process of memory erasure in the city. Using a distinctive mixture of fact and fiction, Klein takes us on an "anti-tour" of downtown LA. He investigates the life for Vietnamese immigrants in the City of Dreams, playfully imagines Walter Benjamin as a Los Angeleno, and looks at the way information technology has recreated the city, turning cyberspace into the last suburb. We observe the close up demolition of neighbourhoods by urban planners, TV's misrepresentation of the Rodney King uprising in1992, the effect on public consciousness of earthquakes, fires and racial panic, and the way in which crime novels make LA slums seem like abandoned cities in the Central American jungle.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Klein specifically asks us to imagine L.A. as the nation's largest, most expensive consumer product: a controlled, domesticated and anti-urban experience whose structures of politics and law enforcement, like the "backstage" tunnels under Disneyland, were kept out of the view of middle-class buyers. Klein provides a vocabulary for talking about the successively erased landscapes and lives the commodification of the Los Angeles experience required. -- Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, D. J. Waldie

Norman Klein is full of ideas, brilliant and beautifully expressed. -- Journal of American History

About the Author

Norman M. Klein is a critic and historian of mass culture, the author of Seven Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon published by Verso and the editor of Fragile Moments: A History of Media-Induced Experience. He teaches at the California Institute of the Arts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: Verso; First Edition edition (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859841759
• ISBN-13: 978-1859841754
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #933,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One I won't forget, November 8, 2002

By 

saliero (NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory (Haymarket) (Paperback)

I read this book while waiting for delivery of the more well-known book `City of Quartz' by Mike Davis. I am glad I read this one first. It is a well-documented and scholarly book, yet full of passion and feeling about the City of the Angels. It focuses almost exclusively on `Downtown', whereas Davis's book ranges more widely.

I was left in no doubt about Klein's feeling for that part of LA - he lives in Anegelino Heights - the first suburb just north of Downtown. Klein brings to life through personal anecdote the vitality and multiculturalism (and problems) of his, and other neighbourhoods.

You get to boo and hiss at the villains who have alienated greater LA from its Downtown, but you also get a sense of Klein's affection, and sense of hope for the city.Davis's view is much bleaker and perhaps nihilistic - he rails against the racism upon which LA is foundered, and upon which the powerful thrive, but I note in passing that he lives in the uppermiddle class enclave of Pasadena. Klein, on the other hand (at least at the time of writing) remains part of the inner urban fabric of the city. I get the feeling that Klein is a supporter of urban renewal, whereas Davis views it as another alienating con on the part of City Hall.

I agree with a previous reviewer that the novella within the book doesn't quite work. I think it contains the seeds of a good story in another genre, but is misplaced here. One problem may be the attempt to speak in a voice for which he has respect, but which is not his.

If you are interested in all things LA, film and fictive noir, the great upheavals and crises of a city such as the Rodney King affair and the LAPD, apocalyptic LA, and more - all of which penetrate the consciousness of many way way beyond the city (through globalised media, which is part of the fabric of LA) , then you will be enthralled by this book. Read it alongside Davis, by all means, but don't neglect it in favour of Davis!

If you like discussion of film and fiction set in LA, there is lots in this book to ponder.

Note: Klein cites Davis in his work. I have not seen Klein cited in any work of Davis (understandable in City of Quartz, which predates Klein's work, but he also does not appear in the index for Davis's later work Ecology of Fear - which at the time of writing this I have not yet read)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost City of Quartz, March 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory (Haymarket) (Paperback)

The History of Forgetting is among the best of the newly bourgeoning genre of LA urban history and theory. Much of the information within is presented in an engaging, if leftist style. This book fits well alongside Mike Davis' landmark City of Quartz, though it's rather self indulgent chapter of fiction (written from the point of view of a Vietnamese immigrant), is tiresome and ultimately incongruous with Klein's apparent desire to expose the rewriting of LA's various histories. A strong, if flawed book.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Klein provides an essential vocabulary for understanding LA., April 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory (Haymarket) (Paperback)

The the text is full of concepts that put LA into historical and theoretical perspective. The only part of this book that doesn't shine is the middle chapter, seven, where Klein attempts a novel set in LA. This should have stayed in his notebook.

Academic yet accessible, The History of Forgetting gives readers an essential vocabulary through which they can filter their understanding of LA.

"Social imaginary," "trace," "simultaneous distraction," and other ideas help reinforce the central idea that LA exists as a series of what the subtitle calls "erasure(s)."

I'm using this book with my college class, and while they occasionally struggle, they've gained a sense of power in their ability to take the ideas Klein puts forth and use them to interpret fiction set in LA.

The text is more compelling that Mike Davis's latest, book, and certainly of interest to anyone who studies popular culture or contemporary literature.