Nathanael West's Hollywood novel takes place mostly at the margins of the movie kingdom, the universe of set painters and extras, frustrated small-timers, hangers-on and oddities. There are prostitutes here, transplanted Eskimos, a failed comic who sells silver polish door to door so that he can force luckless customers to watch his act. No one in this book has found the promise that California was supposed to offer, and at the end their anger and resentments collect into a riot in the streets that is the sum of their individual discontents.
The life cycle of an insect is truly one of nature's most amazing phenomena. Watch as the diving beetle, the locust, and the enchanting swallowtail butterfly metamorphose from an egg to an adult before your eyes. This beautifully photographed program documents the life cycles of various insects, from reproduction to adult, and shows how the insects adapt at each stage. In vivid detail, the reproduction and metamorphosis of the large diving beetle, swallowtail butterfly, fruit fly, locust, and dragondly are shown. The segment on the swallotail butterfly is particularly remarkable.
