The official slogan for the city of Los Angeles (L.A.) is "Los Angeles brings it all together." Its unofficial name is "The City of Angels." In the first instance, reality belies the motto in that Los Angeles' most salient feature is its diffuse layout. In the second, it is difficult to think of someone saying "The City of Angels" without a Raymond Chandler-esque sneer. But that, too, is L.A.; duplicitous, narcissistic, and paradoxical. Perhaps no city has been loved or abhorred with such equal vigor, or typified by so many contradictions. For postmodern philosophers (especially Europeans) who study the city as they would a text, the city fascinates with its sheer modernity—a tabula rasa over which the thick impasto of America's aspirations and proclivities has been smeared. Viewed from the air, the city terrifies with its enormity, but one...