Jack Foley documents the heated debate that surrounds literary California. When Dana Gioia, the author of "Can Poetry Matter?," published his provocative essay, "Fallen Western Star: The Decline of San Francisco as a Literary Region," he knew that certain quarters would be up in arms. Prominent California literati were quick to defend the San Francisco Scene and wrote articles attacking Gioia. Others attacked the attackers. The entire exhilarating, sometimes hilarious exchange appears in this book.