Project Gutenberg 2019-11-11 Public domain in the USA. 131 Smith, George H. (George Henry) 1922 1996 Smith, George Henry Smith, Jan Orban, Paul 1896 1974 The Last Days of L.A. Produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, February 1959 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "The Last Days of L.A." by George H. Smith is a science fiction short story written in the late 1950s. The narrative explores the psychological and social ramifications of living under the impending threat of nuclear annihilation, focusing on a protagonist grappling with dread and existential despair in a decaying Los Angeles. The story serves as a reflection on the dark undercurrents of human nature amidst the backdrop of a world on the brink of destruction. The plot centers on an unnamed narrator who is haunted by nightmarish visions of nuclear devastation, exacerbated by his daily encounters with a group of disillusioned friends. As tensions rise in the world around them, their conversations shift between irony and cynicism about life and death. In the face of a chaotic society fueled by violence and fear, the protagonist oscillates between a desire to engage with the world and a longing to escape its horrors. Ultimately, he attempts to awaken the populace to the imminent threat they all face, only to be violently rebuffed, highlighting the futility of individual efforts in a collective state of denial. The work encapsulates the psychological weight of living during a nuclear age, filled with dark humor and bleak insight into human existence. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 91.7 (5th grade). Very easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Alcoholics -- Fiction Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Fiction Nightmares -- Fiction Cold War -- Fiction Nuclear weapons -- Psychological aspects -- Fiction PS Text Category: Short Stories Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: American Literature 68812 2025-06-24T07:43:18.070074 text/html 44921 2024-10-17T14:33:05 text/html 251486 2025-06-24T07:43:20.185036 application/epub+zip 250327 2025-06-24T07:43:18.537078 application/epub+zip 82871 2025-06-24T07:43:18.271063 application/epub+zip 289310 2025-06-24T07:43:21.618090 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 281680 2025-06-24T07:43:19.943076 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 114458 2022-09-27T12:12:15.507572 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 61166 2023-09-26T06:20:19.964798 text/plain 41241 2024-10-17T14:33:05 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 17880 2025-06-24T07:43:23.915038 application/rdf+xml 28855 2025-06-24T07:43:18.366059 image/jpeg 4785 2025-06-24T07:43:18.317072 image/jpeg 535635 2025-06-24T07:43:18.089169 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia