Chapter One: “Sunshine or Noir?”

“Sunshine or Noir?” is the opening chapter of City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (Verso, 1990) by the late communist historian Mike Davis. In what Davis calls his “master dialectic” of L.A., sunshine and noir represent the forces of capitalist interest in Los Angeles and the intellectual community of writers, critics, immigrants, and filmmakers—“a fantastic convergence of American ‘tough-guy’ realism, Weimar expressionism, and existentialized Marxism”—who refuse its seduction. Before he died in 2022, Davis published 19 nonfiction titles, many about Los Angeles, all of which contributed to his nickname “the prophet of doom” for reporting on crises before they hit a boiling point. 

100% heavyweight cotton canvas. Designed by Ella Gold and printed locally at Outter City Arts.