Letters to the Editor: Mike Davis wrote about dark subjects, but he was full of light

To the editor: Although I appreciate the dark and pessimistic side of Mike Davis’ work, I am glad his obituary in The Times ended with the deep feelings underlying his criticism: “I love Los Angeles. How can you not see that?”

I have a particularly fond and inspiring memory of that side of him. In 1996, after his book “City of Quartz” was published, I was surprised when he wrote this unusually hopeful blurb for “Shades of L.A.: Pictures from Ethnic Family Albums,” a book I co-wrote with Carolyn Kozo Cole:

“At last, without the whitewash, these magnificent family portraits are a rainbow full of laughter and tears to nourish the future. They remind us that the ordinary lives of Los Angeles are its redeeming miracle.”

If L.A. has a redeeming miracle, the life and work of Mike Davis certainly have played a part in it.

Kathy Kobayashi, Altadena

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To the editor: I knew of Mike Davis and I always thought of him as a grim, Marxist tough guy. But one day I found myself walking next to him at UC Irvine.

We struck up a conversation, and I was surprised at how funny, thoughtful and curious he was. He was the opposite of the self-absorbed intellectual. Something came up and he really laughed, and there it was: He still had the spark of that young rebel.

Davis may have written about dark subjects, but I remember him as being full of light. I won’t forget him.

Scott R. Denny, Santa Ana