
The Antidote to the Trope State
To a greater extent than most other states, California has always been a trope state. Since the Gold Rush, and arguably before, its residents have imbued the place with unreasonable expectations.

Subduction Zone
In Lawrence Levine’s essay “The Folklore of Industrial Society,” he explains that magazines, music, and movies are a form of popular culture that functions in ways similar to folk culture and even acts ”as a form of folklore for people living in urban industrial societies.”