RIP Mike Davis

[padraig (u.s.)]

Rest in power to a real one

Read City of Quartz in high school and got to see him speak at a local college, a defining memory. Suburbanization, how power functions in the American city, how public space is captured/recaptured etc. He was so incisive and focused, unlike many of the more famous aging leftist types (Bill Ayers, Angela Davis, etc) I saw around the same time, who were often quite disappointing.

Later on Ecology of Fear, Dead Cities, etc. Always interesting. An unapologetic rabblerouser. Him and David Graeber, both early formative influences on me.

He will be missed.

 

[DannyL]

I've been meaning to read City of Quartz for probably 20 years now. Time to finally get round to it. Damn. RIP.

 

[vershy versh]

He was a good interview,

Sexy and dangerous, or brilliant and kind?
My wife is all of the above.

 

[luka]

another powerful member of the davis clan alongside steve, miles and me. you can see why william gibsons imagination was sparked

Mike Davis, Fear and Money in Dubai, NLR 41, September–October 2006

On the rim of the war zone, a new Mecca of conspicuous consumption and economic crime, under the iron rule of Sheikh al-Maktoum. Skyscrapers half a mile high, artificial archipelagoes, fantasy theme parks—and the indentured Asian labour force that sustains them.

newleftreview.org

 

[vershy versh]

I've been meaning to read City of Quartz for probably 20 years now. Time to finally get round to it. Damn. RIP.

Have you started it? I picked it up the other day and I'm surprised at how entertaining it is. Thought it'd be a bit dry for some reason, but it isn't at all.

 

[DannyL]

Have you started it? I picked it up the other day and I'm surprised at how entertaining it is. Thought it'd be a bit dry for some reason, but it isn't at all.

No not yet. Like all of us, I've got a massive reading pile so easy to not get to stuff. I don't own a copy either might give it a go soon though.

 

[vershy versh]

T.J. Clark · On Mike Davis

Marx, Mike Davis says near the beginning of Old Gods, New Enigmas: Marx’s Lost Theory, ‘never wrote a single word...

www.lrb.co.uk

 

[luka]

Search results for query: Planet of slums

 

[vershy versh]

He published in LRB himself a few times.

Mike Davis

The LRB is Europe’s leading magazine of books and ideas. Published twice a month, it provides a space for some of the...

www.lrb.co.uk

 

[vershy versh]

The housing association stuff in City of Quartz is wild, so much discord sown by NIMBYs and anxiety over property values. Everyone desperate to be included themselves whilst pulling up the ladder behind them.

The section's pretty dry and he says in the intro he felt he may have overdone it a bit, but it's fairly interesting and a bit of an eyeopener.

I agree with some of the reasons for NIMBYism - who wants dodgy developers building on everything in sight and trashing the environment? - but, as he says in the book, it often gets folded in with more unpleasant motivations.

 

[vershy versh]

Just read about a former Bloods member who ended up researching and making a film about the birth of LA gang culture after reading City of Quartz in jail, cool to hear about a book having an impact like that.

 

[chava]

Oh this was new to me. Remember reading Planet of Slums going through the urban sprawl in Mexico City. RIP

 

[vershy versh]

Almost done with Planet of Slums. I knew things were bad, but having it set out like this is something else. The stats he chucks at you are eye watering; 28,000 people sharing two public toilets.

 

[vershy versh]

Almost done with Planet of Slums. I knew things were bad, but having it set out like this is something else. The stats he chucks at you are eye watering; 28,000 people sharing two public toilets.

The stuff at the end about organ harvesting, child slavery and children being accused of witchcraft is really rough. A crescendo of stats and horror stories capped off with the very worst, then you get the knockout blow of the epilogue where he says the only people taking the slums seriously and being honest about them are western militaries looking for the best way to fight in them...

I might go straight into another of his, but they're incredibly bleak.

 

[vershy versh]

Couldn't help but think of him seeing these fires raging across California.

Mike Davis · Diary: California Burns

www.lrb.co.uk

Mike Davis · El Diablo in Wine Country

Californians are notoriously solipsistic about their disasters and tend to save their sympathy for themselves. Yet even...

www.lrb.co.uk

 

[Clinamenic]

Yeah its bad here, never seen winds like this in LA before. We have three separate 500+ acre fires within 10 miles of us, all of which are 0% contained, and 45 mph winds all around, after the driest start to a winter in like a decade or something.

The Pasadena fire is now 10,000+ acres

 

[yyaldrin]

Yeah its bad here, never seen winds like this in LA before. We have three separate 500+ acre fires within 10 miles of us, all of which are 0% contained, and 45 mph winds all around, after the driest start to a winter in like a decade or something.

The Pasadena fire is now 10,000+ acres

do you think you'll be safe?

 

[0bleak]

I feel like the U.S. would be unrecognizable without all of the constant disasters.

 

[yyaldrin]

even when it is actually burning, hollywood looks cinematic

 

[Clinamenic]

do you think you'll be safe?

So far yes, we had to evacuate my grandmother from laurel canyon last night, and my aunt and her family did as well. They all spent the night at our place, but thankfully that particular fire has seemingly been contained. There are still two raging 10,000+ acre fires active though, both about 10-15 miles from where we live.