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Silicon City

Page 22

by Cary McClelland


  Special thanks to family in all things: my parents, Stephanie and Carter, for their shoulders; my brother, Spencer, for his mind; and my in-laws, Jean and Larry, for their instincts and honesty. Also to my grandparents Helen and Mitch Palmer for laying the family’s roots in the city of San Francisco.

  Above all, thanks to my wife, Lisa. For teaching me how to build a home after years of being nomadic. For holding my hand when we walk down the street and seeing the same strange world I see. And for teaching me to love the region that raised her.

  We have a son, his name is Harris, and he taught me what it means to be present: it is to remember that we are led and succeeded by people greater than ourselves.

  See, projected through time,

  For me an audience interminable.

  With firm and regular step they wend, they never stop,

  Successions of men, Americanos, a hundred millions,

  One generation playing its part and passing on,

  Another generation playing its part and passing on in its turn,

  With faces turn’d sideways or backward towards me to listen,

  With eyes retrospective towards me.

  — Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

  This is my fair warning to the hipsters + the yuppies!!

  Get the Fuck Up Out the MISSION!!

  Before this Shit starts getting UGLY!!

  You got 6 Months, Keep it Kickin!!

  If you don’t, It won’t be Funny!

  I Guarantee My Soldiers will GLADLY come out GUNNIN!!

  Kill Hipsters + Yuppies.

  — Graffiti in San Francisco

  Silicon City is a work of nonfiction. Some names and potentially identifying characteristics have been changed.

  Copyright © 2018 by Cary McClelland

  All rights reserved

  First Edition

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to

  Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact

  W. W. Norton Special Sales at specialsales@wwnorton.com or 800-233-4830

  Book design by Chris Welch

  Production manager: Anna Oler

  JACKET DESIGN BY JAYA MICELI

  JACKET ART © INK DROP / SHUTTERSTOCK

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows

  ISBN: 978-0-393-60879-3

  ISBN: 978-0-393-60880-9 (ebk.)

  W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

  www.wwnorton.com

  W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 15 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BS

 

 

 


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