Locus

story seems to be about the life of these people and how there burn outs in the Los Angles, and the stereotypes of hollywood. great quote  "overestimating the importance of his crowd, the people who come to California to die" Tod is a painter and paints backdrops on movie sets. While in LA, he dreams of Hollywood failing apart and on fire. 

Tod also seems to be stuck as the go to guy in the relationship drama with Homer and Faye.  Seems like a horror story of low life's and bad problems all around, as well as Tod is on his own journey figuring out his place in this new city. In the end the idea of the locus swarm comes true after homer is caught beating a child up next to a movie premier and the crowd for the premier descends on to Homer. The area is thrown in to chaos and this is were Tods dream of the painting comes true.  and the symbolism of the title of the book takes shape.

I think when we went over this in class, I felt the idea of Hollywood as this place were only the lost go wasn't true. I think you can get the same kind of people any where not just LA county.  Iv seen the same kind of people in many cites from NYC to FL. Florida in my opine is filled with burn out. I feel Sarasota in general seems to attract a lot of gypsies and homeless people.  Same kind of thing that I see in the bigger cities.