- the insecurity over providing a "world class"-worthy cultural imprint is so familiar to me as someone who has lived in Chicago almost all my life. As Houston eclipses Chicago as the business brawler of America I think it's a pretty natural reaction and complex to develop
- Houston is missing out on a lot less than other boomtowns did in their heydays when it comes to national intellect. I don't think it has anything to do with oil extraction not having resonant meaning or being gross (Mark Twain once famously described visiting 19th Century Chicago as "Like seeing a human being with its skin removed"). I think as valid and perhaps more damning a question is "Why aren't American intellectuals curious about Houston?"
- to that point, the story of Houston in the 21st Century is very much the American story. Navigating demographic upheaval, charging headlong into climate risk, as pure a distillation as the most popular American form of urbanism as you're going to find, etc. Where is "The Jungle" or the"Nature's Metropolis" on this town?
I'm glad you brought up the comparison with Chicago. While there are cities like Boston that have historic reputations as centers of intellectual production (generally because of age and university connections), and cities like New York that have that reputation because of their size and general preeminence, Chicago stood out as the most interesting counterfactual to Houston - a rough and rapidly growing place with enormous intellectual / cultural output.
Nature's Metropolis is a marvelous book. I don't think there's a Houston analog yet, but this one is a detailed, generally laudatory survey of the place:
Thanks for reading this post. I enjoyed writing it.
Larry McMurtry's novel "Terms of Endearment" is perhaps less known than the Oscar winning movie adaptation, but still probably the best known Houston novel. The Houston material is somewhat incidental to the main story, but if you enjoy it, then you can proceed to the other loosely connected novels all partially set here: https://www.houstoniamag.com/arts-and-culture/2021/03/how-larry-mcmurtry-represented-houston
I enjoy McMurtry's non-fictional writings on Houston more than his novels. His collection "In a Shallow Grave" has a memorable essay on Houston, featuring this memorable description of the Astrodome:
"The white dome poked soothingly above the summer heat haze like the working end of a gigantic roll-on deodorant. Form, I supposed, was following function. We needed a Dome so Houston's sports fans wouldn't get so damp and sweaty."
This is very interesting! Some random thoughts:
- the insecurity over providing a "world class"-worthy cultural imprint is so familiar to me as someone who has lived in Chicago almost all my life. As Houston eclipses Chicago as the business brawler of America I think it's a pretty natural reaction and complex to develop
- Houston is missing out on a lot less than other boomtowns did in their heydays when it comes to national intellect. I don't think it has anything to do with oil extraction not having resonant meaning or being gross (Mark Twain once famously described visiting 19th Century Chicago as "Like seeing a human being with its skin removed"). I think as valid and perhaps more damning a question is "Why aren't American intellectuals curious about Houston?"
- to that point, the story of Houston in the 21st Century is very much the American story. Navigating demographic upheaval, charging headlong into climate risk, as pure a distillation as the most popular American form of urbanism as you're going to find, etc. Where is "The Jungle" or the"Nature's Metropolis" on this town?
I'm glad you brought up the comparison with Chicago. While there are cities like Boston that have historic reputations as centers of intellectual production (generally because of age and university connections), and cities like New York that have that reputation because of their size and general preeminence, Chicago stood out as the most interesting counterfactual to Houston - a rough and rapidly growing place with enormous intellectual / cultural output.
Nature's Metropolis is a marvelous book. I don't think there's a Houston analog yet, but this one is a detailed, generally laudatory survey of the place:
https://www.amazon.com/Prophetic-City-Houston-Changing-America/dp/1501177915
Ah, Killer. Thanks. Just picked it up.
This is great, thoughtful. Are there any good Houston novels? What do you think?
Thanks for reading this post. I enjoyed writing it.
Larry McMurtry's novel "Terms of Endearment" is perhaps less known than the Oscar winning movie adaptation, but still probably the best known Houston novel. The Houston material is somewhat incidental to the main story, but if you enjoy it, then you can proceed to the other loosely connected novels all partially set here: https://www.houstoniamag.com/arts-and-culture/2021/03/how-larry-mcmurtry-represented-houston
I enjoy McMurtry's non-fictional writings on Houston more than his novels. His collection "In a Shallow Grave" has a memorable essay on Houston, featuring this memorable description of the Astrodome:
"The white dome poked soothingly above the summer heat haze like the working end of a gigantic roll-on deodorant. Form, I supposed, was following function. We needed a Dome so Houston's sports fans wouldn't get so damp and sweaty."