Extract

Dean Keith Simonton I was born and raised in metropolitan Los Angeles, not far from famed Hollywood. I even got my BA from a local liberal arts institution there, namely Occidental College. Although I left for the US East Coast to earn my MA and PhD degrees, and eventually transplanted myself to a college town in northern California, I still have some roots in the ‘Southland’. Besides having family members who continue to live there, I occasionally listen to LA’s classical music station KUSC, which streams its programmes over the internet. On one such occasion, I recently heard the radio announcer refer to my former home city as ‘The Creative Capital of the World’. This appellation was a most refreshing change from the usual nicknames, whether LA’s ‘Lalaland’ or Hollywood’s ‘Tinseltown’. But, also, surprising. After googling the expression, I discovered that this little bit of self-promotion had some factual basis. Purportedly, one out of six denizens of the metropolitan area is employed in some creative field. Of course, the fields are not necessarily the same as those that brought splendour to Periclean Athens, Renaissance Florence or even Paris between the two big wars. LA is more the land of entertainment, fine and performing arts, communication arts, digital media, toys, design, fashion and even art galleries. Still, as an expatriate Angelino, I could not help but feel a little pride. My basking in reflected glory was intensified by the fact that ever since my undergraduate years at Oxy, I have been...