Introduction: From Rhyme to Reason

Abstract

I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, above the small town of Volcano, California. Every summer my forested environs are festooned with what is called the “Classic Car Show,” or the “Concours d’Elegance” in the more pretentious neighborhoods. Hotrod enthusiasts traverse sparsely populated corridors of the state, intermittently discharging their trailers at picturesque locations to undertake choreographed formations of glint and horsepower. Comely and attentive consorts of the invariably male operators serve as what appear to be indispensable accessories. The events are unusually popular, and the local economies relish the attention. These often wild and exotic machines are judged according to criteria that account for the complex aspects of their provenance. Their patrons are mesmerized and seduced, in no small part due to the backdrop of incense cedars and granite outcroppings. The woman, the wilderness, and the machine. Although hardly proud of it, and certainly doubtful of its gender neutrality, I detect in this confluence a popular concentration of beauty, American style.