The city as ¨simulacrum¨

Hollywood Blvd., many years ago. From topbesttraveldestinations.com

¨in the German version of his Hollywood book, Shadows in Paradise, Erich Maria Remarque perfectly anticipated Eco and Baudrillard´s idea of the city as ¨simulacrum¨:

Real and false were fused here so perfectly that they became a new substance, just as copper and zinc become brass that looks like gold. It meant nothing that Hollywood was filled with great musicians, poets and philosophers. It was also filled with spiritualists, religious nuts and swindlers. It devoured everyone, and whoever was unable to save himself in time, would lose his identity, whether he thought so himself or not¨. 

Quoted by Mike Davis in City of Quartz, page 50, New York, 1992.