Utopia in Fante’s “Ask the Dust” and “LA Confidential” Film

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The novel by the classic of American literature, John Fante, is a story about a young Italian Arturo Bandini who comes to Los Angeles to start a new, “American” life and gain fame as a famous writer. The harmonious interplay of conflict episodes with the surrounding external reality confirms the literary genius’ talent and skill. The primary attention is paid to the complexity of relationships, but a slight irony smooths out rough edges and relieves tension from the reader. However, one of the main themes in the book is the description and reflection of the city of Los Angeles.

The book deals with many issues on which the author focuses the attention of the reader. The author uses the theory of the grotesque as a prism through which to show the problems associated with “assimilation and ethnicity” (Pascu 153). Thus, the author presents to the reader the West American way of life, the main criterion of which is suffering, and this image manifests itself in the grotesque depiction of the city and its inhabitants. A California mystery dating back to the nineteenth-century gold rush and the quest for Clear Destiny made the state famous as a place full of success and wealth. However, the charm of California is artificial and based on illusion, especially when you consider its development in harsh physical conditions. California, specifically Los Angeles, imagined themselves and then embodied that vision through sheer willpower stemming from the Platonic concept of self, The Great Gatsby of American Cities.

The novel’s portrayal of Los Angeles is characterized by the constant mix of ethnic, racial, and cultural differences, as well as fear of them. This distinguishes the novel Ask the Dust as a work with a grotesque and painful depiction of life in the West and “class oppression” (Pascu 157). Older people and their neighbors live on the edge of the continent. Nevertheless, sultry Los Angeles, seized by the Great Depression and polluted palm trees, is inhabited by both Californian Malaysians and girls, as well as representatives of different peoples.

However, the irony of Los Angeles’ description lies in the landscape’s depressing, intimidating, grotesque nature. Los Angeles is described as being nestled in an empty city, dry and sultry. The terrain is not conducive to growth, and what grows there, namely palm trees, will turn black from smog. The city is permeated with an image of dust that awakens biblical sentiments. The people inhabiting the city live mechanically and consider themselves successful; nevertheless, they do not feel alive (Fante 113). As a result, Los Angeles becomes a sinister and ominous place where hope dies. This leads to the fact that the city is a kind of symbol of death, despite its external attractiveness and utopianism.

Despite the fact that the city is the personification of civilization, there is always a desert next to people, awaiting death. Therefore, the whole life of people seeking happiness in Los Angeles turns into darkness. In the novel, the city is described as a perfect idyll, and the main grotesque is that people understand the city as a hopeful illusion where happiness and rich life can be found. Therefore, in Ask the Dust, the city is seen as a place where people come to die. No ideal perspective of this city can save people from bitter disappointment in their dreams of wealth. This is the basic meaning of the city’s utopia depicted in the novel. The catastrophe is reflected in the fact that people see Los Angeles as a sunny city where they can be happy. However, in his novel, Fante says that people become aware of the hardships of life in Los Angeles when people arrive there (Fante 178). Everyone understands that the utopian city they dreamed about does not exist.

The movie LA Confidential also debunks the myth of utopia that every visitor dreams of. It is an outstanding and original film that is well-shot and staged in every sense. It is a very entertaining contemporary film noir with meticulous attention to detail, where destruction is rampant as many layers are peeled off. The success and wealth that people count on are replaced by realizing that this is a city where money can buy everything. Los Angeles of the 50s is a filthy, stinking swamp where corrupt police officers are friends with bandits, where anyone can be purchased for a certain amount.

This story in the film takes place in Los Angeles, but it’s a part of the city that most people don’t see. Behind all the Hollywood glamor, Los Angeles has an underside that unfolds more and more vividly throughout the film. In the 1950s in Los Angeles, a group of cops – good, bad, and everyone in between – solve crimes against a backdrop of show business and political meanness. The main problem in the movie is the iniquity of the city and “dead bodies left by the side of the road in post-war Los Angeles” (Harris 97). The only prominent gangster – the head of organized crime in Los Angeles – was imprisoned for a long time, so that crime ceased to be organized and slipped to a completely artisanal level. However, there are problems. Problems cannot but be because as long as there are people who use heroin and other drugs, there will always be people who supply these drugs and earn huge money from them.

In the rugged Los Angeles of the 1950s, fame is a booming industry, and it all comes down to looks and visuals. At first glance, however, drug use is widespread, prostitution is rampant, and police are violent thugs. This is the city where everything looks perfect, where everyone goes to become a movie star. However, this is not as good as it sounds: “City of Angels” is run by the clones of Al Capone and the police (LA Confidential 29:45–32:37). It happens that many of the LAPD are among the unofficial mafia officers.

This film gracefully but aggressively and sophisticatedly fights corruption, loyalty, and treason. LA Confidential covers many topics, making it a suitable choice for a vast audience as it navigates the world of the LAPD and the oddities of its members and some outsiders (Harris 98). Tabloid writer Sid Hudgens loves to advertise the City of Angels as a heaven on earth, where people can raise an entirely American family, meet a movie star, or even become one. Nevertheless, the film soon shows the other side of the city.

As in Ask the Dust, LA Confidential raises the problem of the destruction of the city-painting utopia that leads to disaster and dashed hopes. In both works, the catastrophe is inevitable, as people initially hope for utopian dreams. Thus, behind the curtain of the prosperity and wealth that people seek in the West, they face an act of moral degradation based on the disintegration of dreams and ideals of life in Los Angeles. Both in the book and the film, instead of a city of dreams, people are presented with a city plagued with poverty, corruption, and lust.

Works Cited

Fante, John. Ask the Dust. HarperCollins, 2006.

Harris, Oliver. “LA confidential: The violent and venal world of Hollywood, home of the ‘has been who never was’.”TLS. Times Literary Supplement, no. 5967, 11 Aug. 2017, p. 26. Gale Literature Resource Center, Web.

LA Confidential. Directed by Curtis Hanson, performances by Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe, Regency Enterprises, The Wolper Organization, 1997.

Pascu, Nicoleta Teodora. “Border notes on Arturo Bandini’s ethnic identity in the incipit of John Fante’s Ask the Dust”. Annales Universitatis Apulensis Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, 2020. pp. 151-171.

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Utopia in Fante’s “Ask the Dust” and “LA Confidential” Film

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