This contribution considers the way in which Los Angeles and its environs can be organized around two different French philosophical visions:  the reflection on the self in its relation to history, and the archive addressed de novo to the future.  While Jean Baudrillard’s views California as a synecdoche for fast movement through vast space that does not think, the above two dimensions of Derrida’s work, in dialogue with that of Cixous, allow for a nuancing of Baudrillard’s rather caricatured formulations, especially when Baudrillard’s other work is taken into consideration.