Professor's book to be examined

By Jeff Dusing
Daily Forty-Niner

A panel discussion is planned for Friday at 7 p.m. to examine the book "Imagining Los Angeles: A City In Fiction," written by Cal State Long Beach English professor Dr. David Fine.

"The book is a history of novels about Los Angeles, so the book is a history about the way Los Angeles has been imagined from 1888 to present," Fine said.

With as many novels coming out of Los Angeles as there are out of New York, there have been numerous books written on our city through many different perspectives, Fine said.

The panel for the discussion will include Dr. Stephen Cooper, associate professor of English and of Film and Electronic Arts; Dr. Kevin Starr, state librarian of California; Carolyn See, novelist; and David L. Ulin, a literary critic.

The discussion will begin with a 10 to 15 minute introduction by Fine, in which he will discuss the book itself and his motivation for writing it.

"No one has really written much about the literature of L.A. and Hollywood," Fine said. "The book was done on the cultural, historical, and sociological contexts of the novels. Novels about L.A. have helped shape our perceptions about how we see it."

Fine's previous works include two collections of essays, one on Los Angeles and one on San Francisco. The subjects of those essays were specific pieces of literature written on or about the city.

Several years ago, Fine completed his first book titled "The City, the Immigrant, and American Fiction," which examined how immigrants who came to New York and Boston at the turn of the century have been depicted in literature.

The discussion on Fine's latest book will be held at the Faculty-Staff Conference Center, located on the first floor of the East Library in room 112.