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Mike Davis
The Ecology of Fear
Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt and Company
US Hardcover First Edition
ISBN 0-8050-5106-6
Publication Date: 09-01-1998
$27.50 ; 484 pages
Date Reviewed: 01-19-1999 ; 11-17-2012
Reviewed by: Rick Kleffel © 2012
Index:
Non-Fiction
We've been in this world long enough to feel as if we've made it our own. This is not just a matter of building up civilizations and cityscapes over the long haul; it's also a function of our relatively short lives. We just don't live long enough to experience everything the environment has to throw at us. We call events "storm of the century" or "once-in-a-lifetime" earthquakes with accuracy because we kick the bucket before Mother Nature has time to toss another our way. Our urban centers seem to us to be impermeable fortresses. But that's just not the case.
In 'Ecology of Fear', Mike Davis examines the landscape of Southern California as a setting for disasters both real and imagined. With powerful prose that gets a grip and doesn't let up, Davis shakes us awake and pulls back the focus from the hurly-burly of traffic jams and daily life to examine all the reasons that what we take for granted is not rock solid, but instead, incredibly fragile. Los Angeles, seemingly built to last forever, or at least, until we tear it down, is built in a region of violent change that we might just have missed. And if we have not missed them, we're working on making them. Davis is writing a non-fiction work of horror, meant to put the frighteners on those whoa re living in the soft world of suburbia.
Davis starts out with an examination of the myths of Southern California's safety. He describes the urban tornados, the floods that have turned Hollywood into an inland sea, and the constant rebuilding of the rich over landscapes that should have no inhabitants. He includes a generous number of excellent black and white photos in the text that liven up the material considerably. Charred rabbits and federal agents killing mice with sticks are amongst the subjects. His histories of fires, floods and tornadoes are frightening and gripping. They're also informative for the horror writer, as they can give insight into the effect of natural disasters on highly urbanized areas. There are anecdotes that cry for expansion into short stories or novels.
Once he's done with the actual mayhem, Davis moves on to the virtual mayhem, that is, "The Literary Destruction of Los Angeles." From rancid, racist survivalist novels to 'Blade Runner', Davis gives an incisive look at what creators have put Los Angeles through and what is implied by the fiction we've seen thus far. He returns to many of the themes in his earlier work 'City of Quartz', which was the first salvo he fired at his native city, that is that Los Angeles is designed to corral the poor and support the rich. There's nothing tremendously new here, but it's certainly well written and clearly explained. Davis does not just recite dry facts, but leads the reader through entertaining travelogues in fear, crime and disaster.
Davis writes with a carefully controlled academic fury. He's like an angry knife-thrower whose knives are facts that suggest the capitalist overlords of LA are slovenly pigs just waiting to be gutted. His background in Marxist theory informs his work, and it livens up the prose in the best of all possible ways. This book is truly provocative, in the sense that it will provoke anger in some readers and fear in others. Davis is perfectly willing to write about matters that will make many readers uncomfortable. Here is the book that has sections titled "Low Intensity Race War" and "Ozzie and Harriet in Hell."
The first edition I have of 'Ecology of Fear' hails from 1998, and in retrospect, it feels like a good investment. Davis is still writing, thankfully; his latest non-fiction book is 'Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism,' presumably about the places where Big Money gets a tan. He has a recent piece in The Rag Blog about "The Reds Under Romney's Bed." One hopes that they will remain there! One hopes as well, that readers seeking an alternative perspective on the Platonic ideal of the American metropolis will pick up 'Ecology of Fear.' Books outlive us. This one may last long enough to see the fears it describes come to life — or save lives.
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