"In the visual arts, I think the distinction was always minor."

Didn't seem so to me: I thought it was obvious. But the power & prestige were all in New York, and artists in the provinces didn 't show up much. Mark Tobey and Morris Graves in Seattle made a bit of a splash though, and the first figurative art that cracked abstract expressionism came from the west in the early sixties.

I don't know about writing; Tom Robbins and Gary Snyder seem definitely West coast, even Northwest Coast -- Gary's actually Left Coast -- and Tom Wolfe is East, and Philip Roth, but would Allan Ginsberg be East coast if I didn't know where he came from? The Jewish New Yorker shows through, though, I think. Kerouac sounds east to me... is this 'serious' literature?

I think I like talking about this dichotomy (?) better than political differences…

clint