“Something essential, however hard to define, had been lost en route [to suburbia]; some aspect of innocence, perhaps, that at least to a romantic imagination, once existed in our towns,” according to Rod Serling apparently. “Casting a seductive smile, Serling alone continued to convey on TV what every other serious writer wanted to say but wasn’t allowed to”–that message being the dangers of commercialism and fear of current events.
Thanks for Delanceyplace.com for this excerpt.
I dunno. I’ve always thought of hatred for the suburbs as being mostly elitist snobbery. The Wall Street Journal has a great article about Revolutionary Road called “Why Does Hollywood Hate the Suburbs?”
I was thinking of that article too, but I don’t know that Serling was hating the suburbs as much as observing and creating from his observations. I don’t know why cities should be glamorized at all, but then I’ve lived my whole life in the suburbs.
I grew up in the suburbs. I lived in the city for a short time, then moved to the country. Since then, except for three years in grad school, I haven’t lived in a town of more than a thousand people in twenty years. Currently I drive 15 miles into a town of 1200 or 40 miles into a town of 10,000. My road has 9 mailboxes in 8 miles. There’s not a single paved crossroad in that entire stretch. I love it. I’m not sure I’d want to go back to either suburb or city but I would if I had to.
Long before the media elite dissed the suburbs, they trashed rural America. Take Upton Sinclair’s work for example. But I learned long ago that geography is irrelevant. Who you are with and what you are doing is far more important.
But I learned long ago that geography is irrelevant. Who you are with and what you are doing is far more important.
True. I always find it funny when people try to escape the corrupting influence of the world. Some place are more difficult to live in, true. But I find that I carry the world around in my chest.
One other thought about the suburbs. Suburbs don’t cater themselves to really sinking family roots. In the rural areas where I’ve lived the past 20 years, most of the people who are there grew up there. Great numbers leave for the big city after high school but most of those still call the small town home.
On the other hand, I attended my 30 year high school reunion last fall. Out of a class of 430 students, only a handful still live in that suburb. A few more still have family in that city. Many of them settled in outer ring suburbs where the new developments were being built 25 years ago. Many followed the same path as me, moving away and never looking back. My parents moved away too, along with all my siblings. So I go back there now and feel no connection at all.
True. I always find it funny when people try to escape the corrupting influence of the world. Some place are more difficult to live in, true. But I find that I carry the world around in my chest.
I’ve always looked at a geographic move not as an escape but as a new opportunity.