[dfwgator]

Exactly.

[Steely Tom]

I think one of the reasons The Godfather has endured and will continue to endure is because Puzo told the truth about the real world, particularly of Hollywood, "the place where dreams are made."

It's interesting — and fitting, and predictable — that in the city which has for more than one hundred years created the most convincing simulations of "the real world," the grotesque reality of that real world would lurk, just beneath the surface.

I'm reminded of the vision of Pinocchio's "Pleasure Island," as created by Walt Disney in 1940.

In several of Robert Heinlein's novels, the planet Venus has been converted into a gigantic casino world. In one of those stories, the narrator says "Venus is either the most perfect form of capitalism — or the darkest hell — ever created by the hand of man, and I can't decide which."

As I understand it, David Lynch also explored this idea in Mulholland Drive.