Brechin's Symbols

  In Imperial San Francisco Gray Brechin examines the relationship between metal and nature and how they contributed to the development of San Francisco into an imperial power.  Both cole mining and agriculture are necessary for the birth of an imperial city, Brechin explained.  But the two are psychic opposites.  Cole mining, as an archetype, symbolizes industry, metal, artificiality and Brechin even goes as far as to associate it with death.  He uses many examples of how cole mining emulates death, like how the cole mining industry destroyed central valley.  Agriculture, on the other hand, also represents the creation of industry and commerce, but unlike cole mining, it emulates life and beauty and art wherever it goes.

  To me this dichotomy he laid out was very interesting.  He used cole mining and metal to represent the 'dark' half of the picture, as cole mines were described as 'hell on earth.'  And he used agriculture and nature to represent the 'light' half of things.  He also showed how cole mining laid the foundation for sky-scrapers and more forms of development.

  This dichotomy seems to be a recurring theme for the artists of san Francisco.  It is the same dichotomy as Ferlingetti, Ginsberg and Brautigan described.  It is the opposition between the organic and the artificial, the wild and the controlled, the artist and the industry.