Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
    AH>  [...]  I imagine the narrator is referring to someplace   
    AH>  like Las Vegas, where there is an air of unreality about   
    AH>  everything.  When I visited this city years ago there was   
    AH>  a hotel with a neon sign cowboy who tipped his hat & said   
    AH>  "Hi, Pardner!" at all hours of the day & night, and there   
    AH>  were many "wedding chapels" where folks could get married   
    AH>  after a quickie divorce in Reno.  But I wouldn't expect   
    AH>  other folks to draw such conclusions if they live eighteen   
    AH>  hours away by air....  :-)   
      
      
             I wasn't forgetting you there, BTW.  At a rough estimate I think you   
   would be +/- the same distance away as Paul... in the opposite direction.  ;-)   
      
      
      
    AK>  Yes, the heroes of the novel were in Los Angeles, in the   
    AK>  area where film stars live.   
      
      
             Ah... that explains a lot.  In your original citation there was a bus   
    chugging westward, presumably carrying at least one of these heroes.  Las   
   Vegas is four hours by road east of Los Angeles.  And I can well imagine how   
   somebody from further east who is hoping to obtain a job in the film industry   
   might pass through Las Vegas en route to Los Angeles.   
      
             I suppose the bus might have been carrying actors from one scene in a   
    movie set to another, but in that case the direction of travel would be of   
   very little significance to the reader.  From what I remember of Los Angeles   
   there's nothing particularly unusual about the architecture.  OTOH the economy   
   seems to depend quite a bit less on entertainment & tourism than that of Las   
   Vegas.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)