The 1906 earthquake precipitated the first such change, when the opium dens and burlesque halls of the Barbary Coast region of the city were destroyed either by the earthquake or by the fire. The central thesis of this book is that San Francisco has repeatedly been the locus of cultural changes that have resulted in miniature “cities” that have not replaced the culture of the previous city but that have sprung up precariously in the midst of the old. It wasn’t until I read Season of the Witch that I was able to put my doubts into words. Natives just aren’t like that, I complained, struggling to find the exact words for what was bothering me. I would never go to the Mission district just to avoid the fog, and I would never voluntarily go to the Tenderloin or Visitacion Valley for any reason, no matter how much these areas have been gentrified, and if the words “Historic Dogpatch” ever escape my lips, you can be sure they will be dripping with sarcasm.Ībout a year ago, when I was helping a friend develop the plot of a screenplay she was writing, I questioned the actions of a character who was supposed to be a San Francisco native. I love the fog, for one thing, and have no interest in commiserating with anyone about it. I have always felt out of sync with my native city, and I’ve always felt uncomfortable and awkward talking about San Francisco with non-natives. I didn’t even know how desperately I was searching for this book until I read it.

However, his book Season of the Witch seems almost designed to explain the combination of people and events that could prompt a three year-old to have such a dream. She’s recovered really well from that terrible fall.Īs far as I know, David Talbot knows nothing about this dream. I still think of this image every time I see Feinstein – now a senator – on TV. Well, in my dream, then-San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein is running down that hill, except that when she falls, she has several compound fractures and all kinds of other horrific injuries. You remember how the sequence ran, right? – first Laura and Mary run down the hill, and then Carrie runs down the hill, but because she’s young and is wearing something that looks like a burlap sack, she falls down and gets back up. When I was very young – about two or three – I had a recurring dream about a hillside that looked exactly like the hillside in the opening credits of the TV series Little House on the Prairie.

Season of the witch talbot