Help me with this quotation...

March 10, 2011 12:46 PM

Can someone help me with the origin of the quote?

A few months ago, I heard some quote along the lines that, "to see the future, go to California..."

I like to believe I am so smart as to conjure it up(during sleep??), but I think I heard it while watching MadMen.

Can someone help me with the origin of the quote?

Thanks! :)

posted by jchaw to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: "As one went to Europe to see the living past, so one must visit Southern California to observe the future." - Alison Lurie
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 1:41 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Google turns up hundreds of references to the above quote, but none that provide anything more than a basic attribution - one gives the year 2006, but that's about it.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 1:50 PM on March 10, 2011

Best answer: It's from The Nowhere City: "Los Angeles expressed everything toward which our civilization was tending. As one went to Europe to see the living past, so one must visit southern California to observe the future. He liked to think of this city as the last American frontier."
posted by Paragon at 3:01 PM on March 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sorry, that might be three separate quotations from the book - Google Books' restricted view is rather annoying. But it's certainly from The Nowhere City, published in 1965.
posted by Paragon at 3:17 PM on March 10, 2011