More on the Uniqueness of California

[rich]

of obvious interest to Pynchon and Pynchon readers methinks:

Immigrants from Europe had come to America seeking happiness and a
break with their unhappy pasts. But many Americans--from the '49ers of
the Gold Rush to Mark Twain to a young Ronald Reagan--had gone to
California to find renewal. California was part of the American
frontier, but, as Carey McWilliams points out in California: The Great
Exception, it developed outside the framework of the American
frontier. It was not an extension of the East or Midwest, but became a
state in 1850 before other Western states. It was an island in the sun
without Pilgrim winters or windswept prairies. It nourished its own
dream of wealth and well-being. It was the American dream all over
again, but dreamt within America.

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/end-state