California and the end of the American frontier

[Corbeau Castrum]

Hi folks,

I recently came across an interesting comment on the Thomas Pynchon subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/ThomasPynchon/s/XlKedAUQ0b), which interpreted the end of Shadow Ticket (in particular, Skeet's letter to Higgs) as an implicit commentary about the position of California as the end of the American frontier:

“I keep thinking about how Skeet sees California is the place to "try next." The history of the US is one where the first solution to many problems has been to simply go west. California (and the West Coast by extension) is the place where that stops, and people have to come up with other solutions. I believe this explains a lot of California for better of for worse: the technological developments, the social movements, many of the things explored by Pynchon in other books. Perhaps the final message is somewhat optimistic? We're at the end of the experiment, it's all California now, we better find a way to make it work.”

Do you folks know of anything in Pynchon's work that understands California as a unique place vis-a-vis the geographical end of the American colonial project, in which going west is no longer a solution to solving its intrinsic social contradictions? And beyond Pynchon in particular, is there any social theory, historical work, or other fiction that tries to handle California, and its counterculture, in this way?

Thanks much,Cormac Chester