Steve Wasserman and Steven Ross

L.A. Intelligentsia: Not an Oxymoron
Humanities Institute brings together intellectual heavyweights of the area

By Karen Newell Young

Discussions of Los Angeles’ intellectual community always seem to beg comparisons to New York’s scene: the Algonquin, the Bohemian bookstores, the Dorothy Parkers. But where is Los Angeles’ intelligentsia?

Despite Woody Allen’s contention that the only cultural advantage to living on the West Coast is right turn on red, Los Angeles has intellectual heavyweights—they’re just spread out a bit more and, like cats, harder to herd. How could an area that boasts UCLA, USC, Caltech, the Huntington Library, the J. Paul Getty Museum, MOCA, LACMA and countless film studios not have high wattage?

Among several new groups proving that Los Angeles intellectual life is not an oxymoron is the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, which meets the first and third Friday of each month at the Faculty Center. Four years ago, USC College history professor Steven J. Ross and Los Angeles Times Book Review editor Steve Wasserman attended a book awards reception. As Wasserman looked around the room, he said to Ross: “Wouldn’t it be great to bring these kinds of people together for conversations? All of these people are intellectuals who have interesting things to say but never get together because they have been Balkanized by geography.”

That day, they decided to do something about it.

Ross and Wasserman formed the idea of launching bimonthly discussions with people from a diverse background to create an intellectual center for the Los Angeles area. In 1998, they brought the notion to Provost Lloyd Armstrong Jr., who recognized the idea’s value to the university: bringing great minds to campus makes sense.

“About 20 minutes into the conversation, Lloyd said, ‘OK, I get it, good idea,’ and ended up paying for the whole thing. We couldn’t have done this without Lloyd,” Ross says.

“We wanted to create a physical place where the usual suspects could meet with other usual suspects in other fields who they would not run into in the course of everyday life. We wanted to create a cross-fertilization of people who were accomplished and interested in learning about other fields,” he adds. “It’s this eclectic array of people who inspire one another.”

The two founders invited musicians, dancers, curators, critics, journalists, artists, novelists, academics and poets to join the institute, which has grown to nearly 100 members. Fellows include book critic Michael Silverblatt, UCLA historians Lynn Hunt and Joyce Appleby, syndicated columnists Robert Scheer and Arianna Huffington, USC College Dean Joseph Aoun, USC University Professor Kevin Starr, artists Alexis Smith and Peter Alexander, and authors Susan Faludi, Mona Simpson and Carolyn See—your basic galaxy of Los Angeles cultural and literary stars.

Lunches last fall ranged from controversial to cutting-edge: Douglas Greenberg’s talk on the Shoah Visual History Foundation prompted some sharp reactions while J. Paul Getty Museum Director Emeritus John Walsh’s talk on video artist Bill Viola raised the visibility of a new art form.

“I approached this [institute] with a certain amount of skepticism,” says Marc Cooper, a writer for various publications including the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly and The Nation. “I was afraid it might be an academic exercise in hot air. But I’ve come to relish the company of the fellows. It’s kind of an oasis during the workweek ... doing what is counterintuitive because everyone runs at such a speed. It’s kind of a treat to take a couple hours out of the week and engage with people with ideas.”

The group plans a yearly event that reflects cultural, artistic or academic issues involving Los Angeles. Last year’s conference, dubbed “Los Angeles at the Millennium: Identity and Community in the 21st Century,” attracted the media and a crowd of more than 500 to its opening night. The next day drew an equal number to hear speakers James Ellroy, Walter Mosely, D.J. Waldie, Harold Meyerson and George Sanchez.

Los Angeles Times writer Reed Johnson commented that the conference was hardly the first symposium dedicated to a metropolis whose civic motto could be: “We introspect, therefore we are.” But the event was praised for its eclectic guests and diverse perspectives.

This year’s conference, set for March 28-29, is titled “From Sunset Boulevard to Mulholland Drive: Los Angeles and the Cinematic Imagination.” The theme is how movies—and moviemaking—reflect and shape our very imagination of ourselves and the city around us, says Ross. “It’s about a tale of two cities, both called Los Angeles. The first is a real city, a megalopolis of millions.

“The second is a mythic city, so rich in memory and association and sense of place that to people everywhere it has come to seem real.”