Writer Dennis Cooper: "Paris is not hot anymore."

In the paper yesterday there was an article about a Los Angeles writer, Dennis Cooper (whose blog is seriously weird and interesting), who has settled in Paris because his Russian boyfriend cannot get a U.S. visa.

The article begins with Cooper saying, "wistfully," "I can imagine what Paris was like when it was hot. It's not hot anymore."

This strikes me every day I spend in Los Angeles, which now bills itself as "the creative capital of the world." It feels like that. It's hot.

And Paris, much as I love it, and even need it, feels more and more like... Vienna. The capital of a dead empire.

Comments

[LA Frog]

Ditto. Boy, do I miss Paris! Yet, I could no longer live there. The buzz and energy of L.A. is just too appealing (despite the inevitable drawbacks.) Whenever I go back "home," I feel like I am visiting a museum with great food.

[maitresse]

sad but true. some of us new media folk are doing what we can to get things moving, but certainly there isn't much else in the realm of the progressive going on.

so what's going on in LA these days? aside from the churning out of television programs to numb and pacify whatever remains of american intellect? or have I got it all wrong?

[Anna]

So, what's there that makes it hot? And is being hot a good thing? What about slow - I love slow. Join the Slow Movement! Is it possible to be slow *and* hot - or even cool? Sedulia - I thought you adored Paris?

[Sedulia]

It's so easy to forget about the rest of the world here... I do love Paris and I feel I belong there, but-- "out of sight, out of mind." (Les absents ont toujours tort.)

There's a Slow Food Movement here in L.A., but I've heard it's slow going.

[Anna]

Ha-ha!

[Ken B.]

Do people in LA really live in their cars, selon le stéréotype? If they do, LA might not be hot for long. Oil is over, don't you think? Arnold seems to realize it.

[Sedulia]

They do actually live in their cars. People eat, drink, talk on the phone, put on their makeup, send text messages and read newspapers in the car here. You see "front-seat offices" for sale in stores-- these include a stand for your laptop so you can tap away while you're in traffic jams!