Valley of Smoke
Dr. Death“Valley of Smoke” is the name the passage recalls for the basin occupied by Los Angeles, a phrase that places the city’s present-day beauty against a more troubled environmental image.
Meaning and Reference
The November opening says that the Chumash Indians called the basin the Valley of Smoke. The text presents the phrase as a name associated with the place, without explaining its origin or offering a translation beyond the English wording.
Narrative Context and Effect
The phrase arrives after November has been described as a month of considerate temperatures, golden light, and air with the “squeaky, scrubbed flavor of a world without hydrocarbons.” Against that clean, almost idealized present, “Valley of Smoke” recalls a contrasting image of the basin. The narrator’s suggestion that November lets one forget the name makes the contrast pointed: seasonal beauty can soften awareness of the place’s environmental associations, but does not erase them.
