|
Las Vegas is one of a kind. It's proof of the old (paraphrased) adage
"Nothing succeeds like excess." You will encounter 18 of the world's 21
largest hotels here, several of which cost more than a billion bucks to
build. The tallest building west of the Mississippi is here, along with a
2,500-room pyramid, a mini-skyline of New York, a half-size Eiffel Tower,
the world's largest electric sign, thousands of miles of neon, $6 buffets
that are veritable mini food cities, free booze, and more pounds of exposed
showgirl flesh than anywhere. And it's all lighted by a spotlight so bright
it can be seen from everywhere in the world.
Las Vegas, which means "the meadows," was the site of a desert oasis
known to the Anasazi (12th century), Southern Paiute (17th--19th centuries),
and the Salt Lake--Los Angeles Railroad Company, which founded the town in
1905 to serve as a watering stop for its steam-powered trains. Gambling was
legalized in 1931; Hoover Dam was built 40 mi away between 1931 and 1935,
and tens of thousands of soldiers were trained at the Las Vegas Aerial
Gunnery School during World War II. The mob built the original Strip resorts
after the war. Howard Hughes bought out the mob in the 1960s, and the big
hotel corporations have been opening bigger and better mousetraps ever
since, culminating in the $1.8 billion Bellagio, the most expensive hotel
ever built.
And that's all you need to know about Las Vegas through the ages. Las
Vegas isn't about history. It's possible that no other city in the world is
less devoted to its past and less mindful of its future. To Las Vegas,
history is something that might've happened, written by someone who wasn't
there. And to Las Vegas, the future spirals outward into an infinity of
alternative possibilities.
What Las Vegas is really about is the present, the now. Las Vegas's
now, in fact, is the consummate now. All its life, Las Vegas has pursued the
perfection of the present, the moment, that twitch in time when the card
turns, the ball falls, the dice stop, the reels freeze, and fate itself
hangs in the balance. The next moment materializes, and existence is reduced
to the simple result of win or lose: life is kind or life is cruel. An
instant later the cards fly, the ball spins, the dice roll, the reels whir,
and the previous moment is in the past, forgotten, as fate again is on the
line and life reverts to either/or. String enough of these moments together
and each twitch elongates endlessly, transcending time and according an
intimation of eternity.
|
