ience the space and size of Los Angeles. NormanÆs character decides to take a bike ride in a former neighborhood, and suddenly realizes how small Los Angeles is. Split up into ôthree-mile chunksö by smog, Los Angeles becomes a series of insular villages where the residents hide away from one another, until the day when the wind sweeps in and blows away the smog (566). Only then, asserts Norman, do Los Angeles residents feel as if they live in a real city (567).
DidionÆs character, Maria, also reacts to the space Los Angeles has become for her by driving on the freeway and sleeping outside on a chaise under beach towels. Although she never mentions it, the necessity she feels at leaving the house quickly, driving for miles on the freeway, and sleeping outside since inside feels ôairless,ö all hint at someone who feels as if the world were closing in on them (17). At the same time, the drives she takes on the freeway can be seen in the same light as an animal who paces the bounds of its cage and is both comforted in knowing the limits, as well as being frustrated at them.
Another writer who examines the space and size of Los Angeles is Reyner Banham in "Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies." In his case, however, it is the physical space, size and dimensions that he is discussing as he examines the buildings that people work, live, and play in. As he points out, some buildings, while very utilitarian in practice, are poor in form, as in the May Company building, at the end of Miracle Mile, which is merely a box with a cylinder stuck on it (539). Ironically, though Banham judges this building poor in form, it is now the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Another "box" that he admires is Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Holl
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