Palm Trees Are In (and Not Out)
In the past week, a recurring topic of discussion has been palm trees and their connection to Los Angeles. Despite being a foreign plant, palm trees have quickly emerged as a major staple for the city of Los Angeles, but only one (the Washingtonia filifera (California fan palm)) is native to Los Angeles. The stereotypical palm tree of Los Angeles is actually the Mexican fan palm. Palm trees began their LA story when the Franciscans missionaries used them purely for ornamental purposes, most likely a reference to the tree’s biblical connections. Later, at the turn-of-the-century, palm trees became part of the popular garden trend. However, palm trees provide little shade and no fruit, leaving them to once again be used for ornamental purposes. Although they are a pretty sight to see driving down Sunset Boulevard, palm trees have no other purpose than to look simply pretty. Buzzworm, however, thinks differently when he discusses palm trees in-depth and expresses his disappointment in people who only see palm trees as simply a marker for their home. He talks about palm trees in such depth while others can only see them as a Los Angeles trademark.
People have latched on to palm trees as a symbol of paradise. We have often discussed the idea that Los Angeles should not exist due to its environmental, geological, and meteorological circumstances. Nevertheless, in the midst of a dry, hot, windy, and dusty climate, Los Angeles has become an oasis. The staple of Los Angeles and the staple of this oasis is the palm tree. However, while you may believe that you are safe in an oasis, you must remember that you are surrounded by a deadly desert. Palm trees resemble the lotus flower that draws desperate consumers and unsuspecting dreamers, only to trap them in this so-called oasis surrounded by an unending desert. Is it worth the risk to leave Los Angeles and trek across the deadly desert? Is it worth the risk to stay in the city that is destroying you? Perhaps this exotic and distant oasis full of palm trees is actually a reason people desire to come to Los Angeles and ultimately stay.
Questions:
1. Why has Los Angeles become such a consumer-driven city with barely any exports? What connection is there between Los Angeles being consumer-driven and the palm trees that do not provide shade or fruit.
2. Why do people latch onto certain things (specifically material items) as symbols? Why do we feel the need to assign roles to specific commodities?
3. Are palm trees more than a simple marker for a home or a fast-food chain logo like Buzzworm believes? Or are they simply another commodity Los Angeles has adopted as its own?
4. What are some other ways that Los Angeles draws in unsuspecting consumers and entraps them?
5. Despite their size, palm trees are known to have shallow roots. Do the shallow roots of palm trees have a deeper meaning in the context of a person's connection to the city of Los Angeles?
6. Does having a stark symbol of Los Angeles such as the palm trees affect your perception of the city, especially after knowing the truth about their origin? Or are there other symbols that have had an impact on you?
Los Angeles is an attractive city with its main export being its image. People come here because of the expectation of what the city has to offer and the dreams they can achieve while in the city. Much like the palm tree, LA bares little fruit and provides virtually no shade, but it is attractive, so people will continue to flock. Once they are here, they become consumers who provide for the city and buy from the city. I think symbols allow people to create association between the known and unknown. Because every object has the potential to act as a symbol for an abstract idea or concrete matter, the palm tree can act as the complex symbol Buzzworm conjures up, a simple commodity of Los Angeles, or anything in between. After discussing palm trees in class and learning more about their history in the context of Los Angeles, I see them more as a symbol for the commercialization of and image oriented nature of LA (but this "symbol" is based off of my personal perspective). Unlike the roots of palm trees, I think people make deep roots in LA. It is hard to get established here, but much like the Land of the Lotus Eaters it is even harder to leave.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question about Los Angeles becoming such a consumer-driven city with barely exports, I think that goes back to the theme of Los Angeles being not a producer of talent and skill but rather a consumer. The palm trees of Los Angeles could be a symbol of Los Angeles’s consumer-driven characteristic; the palm trees to not provide shade nor fruit just like Los Angeles does not produce inventiveness. I don’t know why people latch onto certain things as symbols. I believe things can exist as its own entity. I think the palm trees are able to be a marker for a home or a fast-food chain logo. I think everyone’s perspectives are different, so Buzzworm can believe whatever he wishes about palm trees. Buzzworm’s point about marking a home reminded me of how small one person’s life is to the whole human population in the world. Your life is very significant to you, but to others, it is a side piece. The movie industry is another way that Los Angeles draws in unsuspecting consumers and entraps them. All these play-writers, actors, etc. come to Los Angeles, specifically Hollywood, and expect that they are going to “make it.” However, the movie industry is tough, and Hollywood is a difficult place to leave once you arrive. Shallow roots could maybe relate to how a lot of people aren’t initially born in Los Angeles, but they are attracted to the city due to its industry, diversity, etc. Having a stark symbol of Los Angeles such as the palm trees does not affect my perception of the city.
ReplyDeleteI believe Los Angeles is so consumer driven because its wealth and celebrity influence. So many famous people, and rich people in general, flock to Los Angeles and often show off their wealth in forms such as their clothes or cars. I do think Los Angeles exports a lot of social media presence and entertainment presence to the rest of the world, I just don’t think it exports many tangible items due to the lack of resources in LA. Just as LA, palm trees are pretty and look desirable, however they don’t provide that many tangible resources. I think people latch onto material items because society has told them that their value as a person is related to the things they own. This false ideology leads us to assign roles to specific commodities in order to feel accepted and valued in society. I think palm trees just serve as a prominent symbol LA has adopted as its own. When people think palm tree, I feel like they usually associate it with LA, nice weather, and paradise. One way LA draws in unsuspecting consumers and entraps them is with our amazing weather. The weather can entice people and lead them to believe that it benefits their health. I think one can see the shallow roots of palm trees as having a deeper meaning. Just as LA appears grand and amazing, underneath, some people view LA as an artificial city. The fact that palm trees were imported to LA to make LA appear more glamorous shows how LA has to import a lot of different commodities, whether it be art or entertainment, to advertise the city as a major world city.
ReplyDeleteAs we read in City of Quartz, Mike Davis claims that nothing has ever been produced in Los Angeles; all culture has simply been imported. Palm trees are the same. They were imported to Los Angeles to make a dessert appear like a habitable plot of land. They were utilized in the marketing and selling of Los Angeles as an exotic commodity to dream seekers. They don’t serve any functional purpose, yet play a critical role in the aethstetic and mood of Los Angeles. I think palm tree’s shallow root also plays into the idea of imported exoticism. If Davis’ assumption are correct, nothing starts here, things are only brought here. Metaphorically, that would mean that nobody has deep roots in this city; they are imported and nobody ever reaches beyond the surface.
ReplyDeleteI also think palm trees play into our conversation of exoticism and multiculturalism. People are obsessed with the idea of exoticism. They engage with communities and individuals whom they identify as foreign or “other”. But much like the roots of a palm tree, this is a very shallow interaction. In that way, palm trees act as a symbol for the facade of interculturalism that plagues Los Angeles. People are drawn to what they consider “exotic”, yet never gain enough knowledge or experience to truly understand a community in depth.
In response to your second question, I had an interesting thought relating to something I'm learning about in Psych right now. I'm doing a project on the psychology behind naming things, and I've learned that humans tend to arbitrarily assign names and characteristics because we are very self-concerned and self-focused. Giving names and qualities to things helps us figure out how they fit into our world and help us then decide how we will feel about and act around them. This is, of course, different than symbols, but the concept of assigning characteristics to things seemed similar. I think there is a connection between assigning roles to different things and why we feel the need to name everything around us, and I think that is that we want to provide a sense of clarity about the world around us to as much of an extent as we can. The fact about the shallow roots interested me, and I think it does speak to the stories of people in LA to a certain extent. The majority of people currently living in LA don't have strong, deep familial ties to the city. As we learned in hearing about everyone's LA story at the beginning of the year, the majority of us have only been in LA for a few generations max, with a few exceptions. It's interesting to think of people's relationships with LA compared to people who are from much older cities in different countries. Yes, many people consider themselves to be "from LA", which is valid, but to any extent, are we still newcomers? Thinking in a historical, time-line-y sense, the amount of time LA has existed as an established city is close to nothing compared to many other civilizations across the world. I think the shallow roots really do speak to relationships with the city - yes, we are connected, but not necessarily as deeply as we may think / want to believe.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing, and this is just a story about my experience with the palm tree motif, so somewhat relevant but not necessarily answering any of the questions: Over the summer, I met a bunch of people from all over the country at a college program, most of them being from the east coast, midwest, and south. When we started talking about where we were from and all the things you do when you meet someone, someone asked me and another girl, who lives in Santa Clarita, if we had palm trees outside our houses. I thought that was such a weirdly specific question because I don't, I don't live near the beach, I'm at the bottom of the actual foothills, but of course these people didn't know the geography of Monrovia, California, so I just said no. My friend, however, does have palm trees outside of her house, and so she told everyone she did, and people started freaking out - they thought that was the coolest thing. I remember landing at LAX after I got home and seeing palm trees and sending pictures to all of my non-california friends. I knew that palm trees were a relatively universal symbol of the beach and of LA in a way, but it was so shocking to me that everyone both a) expected everyone in the general LA area to have palm trees at their house and b) were amazed and also impressed when their expectation was met. I'm not totally sure why I wrote this all out, but basically: Palm trees as a universal symbol, I forgot that things so common to us are merely observable and consumable by others.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteReading Keara’s blog post was an incredibly interesting experience. Living in LA for 16 years now, it was surprising to me that I had never heard/learned the majority of the facts about palm trees that Keara included in her post. To me, this brief experience of stopping what I was doing to learn about the city I live in is representative of this course as a whole, and unfortunately, I don’t think many Angelenos experience the same things that our 20-something class of Angelenos have experienced/will experience. LA, at least in my experience, is such a “hustle and bustle” city; you don’t get much of a break from the heat, the dryness, the sirens, the traffic, etc. We Angelenos become so involved in and focused on our own lives (and not necessarily in a narcissistic/self-centered way) that we rarely ever — if not never at all — stop, look up, take in our surroundings, think, reflect, and discuss (all things that we do almost everyday in City of Angels). I doubt that any Angeleno knows the significance/meaning of the palm tree symbol off the top of their head, and I’m curious as to what this all means about LA and about Angelenos. What does it mean for us Angelenos if we don’t even understand one of our main city icons/symbols (the palm tree)? I want to emphasize that all of the opinions/statements/assumptions might only be true for me, coming from my perspective and my perspective alone. I think it’s really interesting though how little I thought about palm trees — probably the one thing you will see the most in LA — before our discussions in City of Angels.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePalm trees are ugly. Yet, the city planners brought these palm trees in and planted them all over the city. Presumably, they first cropped up in the front yards of the wealthy, but eventually, they spread their over-analyzed seed. Icons, symbols, marketing accessories for Los Angeles' advertising agent, the stalks made their way into working class neighborhoods. The wealthy could plant easygoing, check-out-that-surf palm trees for their aesthetic value because they could simultaneously afford the upkeep and enjoy the shade of more demanding, more plush foliage (Oaks, Pines, whatever). Poor communities, and I'll make this generalization, don't have gardeners nor the time to tend to Eucalyptus. But this is still Los Angeles, where everyone lives luxe, remember? So, low-water trees, the kind Los Angeles can naturally and reasonably support, are planted in working class neighborhoods. They don't lose their cultural symbolism; the only difference is that palm trees alone can't provide shade because Los Angeles alone cannot provide shade (LA must be tended to, bolstered by the working class, watered to the detriment of another state's supply). And the rich, the city planners, the marketing team, never have to see the effects of a neighborhood without shade; they can all just look out onto the horizon, see the towering palm trees, whose meaning they defined, and assume Los Angeles continues, as they know it, for miles and miles as long as the beige bean stocks are around. Also, how did this marketing team convince anyone to look at a phallic palm tree, and "Behold the Beauty of Los Angeles!"
ReplyDeleteI mean Los Angeles isn't a city that produces a lot because there is no room to create a large amount of produce. Almost every foot of land in Los Angeles has been consumed for highrises, houses, or apartment buildings. The central valley can export so many things because the land is dedicated to growing produce, which is not the case in LA. Also as many of the reading we have done points out, land in LA is expensive. Why would a company move to or stay in LA to export things if it is more expensive? I think people latch on to one thing as a symbol because what they latch onto is what reminds them of the certain thing. Everyone has a different symbol of LA their head because everyone has different experiences and/or thoughts about LA. I think palm trees are just simply a tree that LA city planners adopted so they could advertise the city as exotic. The movie industry is another way that LA draws in unsuspecting consumers and entraps them. I honestly do not think the roots of palm trees serve as deeper meaning, but I also think that you can find a deeper meaning in almost everything if you wish. Having a stark symbol of Los Angeles such as the palm trees does not affect my perception of the city, but I think it does affect the perception that people that have never been to LA have.
ReplyDeleteI think the “exoticness” of palm trees is a fascinating way to look at Los Angeles, especially now that we have more background knowledge about how LA came to be and what exactly went into its making. The very fact that the palm trees that are a representation aren’t something that LA’s land was able to produce for itself pretty much sums up how LA came to be. I’m not surprised that such an entity has become such a symbol for this city. (I don’t think those sentences even answered any of the questions.) I think people “latch onto” material items as symbols simply because it helps them better orient themselves in the world. There’s a lot of abstraction that happens, so physical symbols are a quick and easy way to better understand the surrounding world. The fact that palm trees, in essence, provide no benefits to us but are literally everywhere you turn is a bit ironic in that it is highly representative of LA only existing to please/fulfill/serve consumers. We have only kept the trees around because we have somehow decided that they are an important aspect of our lives, despite not actually adding any material value. From a completely survivalist standpoint, they are useless. But you wouldn’t survive in LA with simply a survivalist point of view—you have to give into the fantasy, the mirage, in order to stay alive in the city. To address the shallow roots question, I think it is worth mentioning that although the palms have shallow roots, they are extremely strong and are able to withstand wind and rain. I think this could represent that while it may appear that Angelenos have a shallow connection to the city, they actually have fortified and lasting ties to LA.
ReplyDeleteLos Angeles does not have many exports that you would typically expect from a prosperous city, yet it would be amiss to not acknowledge Los Angeles as one of the largest media producing cities in the world. Many people knowingly take the risk of making the trek to Los Angeles due to the potential reward of the fame and wealth it has to offer.
ReplyDeleteI think people latch onto certain objects as symbols due it having the ability to making the little things in life easier. As a society, we can’t get enough of products that make our lives “easier.” “Alexa turn off the lights.” I think symbols have the same abilities as these products.
I think palm trees were originally here just for show, but have become a staple of Los Angles that does not really serve a purpose.
Los Angeles projects a false narrative that when you come here you will automatically being rich and famous. Often times this narrative takes away from the demanding work that Angelons have gone through to avoid state poverty.
I think the short roots of Palm trees perfectly encapsulate most people’s connections to Los Angles. You won’t find many places where nearly everyone has a recent and distinct story of how they or their family arrived in Los Angeles. Nonetheless, I think Angelenos are proud to call Los Angeles home.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn many ways, Los Angeles and a casino are extremely similar. In my eyes, the most captivating thing about this city is how synonymous it has become with sacrifice and luck. For decades, Los Angeles has been known to be a city where you come to become a star. However, as the wise Mr. Tom said, you have to be able to survive 10 years in the city if you want to have a chance. Every artist starving for popularity knows they’ll have to give up almost everything for fame in Los Angeles. This is an effect of the LA’s lotus flower: although life is miserable, countless people constantly convince themselves that the struggle will pay off one day and it’ll all be worth it. Another enticing aspect of Los Angeles is the amount of luck that many people credit for their fame. This makes fame seem less related to skill and more related to being in the right place at the right time, something no one can ever know how to do consistently. The combination of luck and struggle is why it our city is a casino: come for the reward of fame, and when you’re losing out, just tell yourself it’ll pay off eventually.
ReplyDeletePalm trees are an incredible example of a perfect real life metaphor for Los Angeles. Almost everything about them seems to represent some aspect of Los Angeles, even, as Buzzworm describes, the fact that their long thin trunks resemble the telephone poles that symbolize Los Angeles’s progression and advancement. Palm trees are a great representation of another idea Mike Davis talked about in City of Quartz, that Los Angeles consumes and takes but doesn’t give. The fact that palm trees were imported solely for the purpose of being displayed is also amazingly representative of an undeniable culture of materialism in Los Angeles. Mike Davis talked about the idea that Los Angeles is attractive solely because people think the city will save them in one (material) way or another. Los Angeles presents extremely attractive assets; we have food, culture, sunshine, beaches, and exotic palm trees lining close to every street, but these ideas fall short in fulfilling people in deeper ways.
ReplyDeleteI view the symbol of palm trees in Los Angeles as something that Los Angeles has taken and adopted. Palm trees were merely a practicality due to being very cheap to purchase and because of this, were easier and more appealing to plant in the city. Along with the practicality behind the planting of palm trees in Los Angeles, the image of a palm tree insights a portrayal and replication of a tropical getaway; furthering Los Angeles’s tourist appeal and attraction. This false image is exactly what attracts unsuspecting individuals to Los Angeles. Los Angeles is in essence a set from a Hollywood production; put together and constructed to appeal to everyone’s wishes and dreams on the planet. It is marketed as a paradise with celebrities, luxuries, and everything you could imagine, leaving out the other factors of Los Angeles which includes numerous problems.
ReplyDelete