“Dawn, and the little flocks of silver-enameled tanks on every hill and the fifty-five thousand barrel tanks in the valley made you think of diamonds in a dime-store brooch—so much wealth in such an outlandish place.

The purple ribbons of oil splashed down every hill and turned brown and gold in the sun. Up the valley the lights on the drilling rig winked out.”

—Jim Thompson, from Character at Iraan, 1930; Fireworks: The Lost Writings of Jim Thompson, 1988.