A looming 21-year High School reunion has led me to ponder the past, especially the town I grew up in. I have been reading The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kuntsler, a book which explores the rise of suburbia and automobile culture in America. Kuntsler explores the effects of modernist design philosophy (Le Corbusier, Gropius, Bauhaus etc. ) . Although Kunstler's book is by no means a complete history, his insights are provocative. His basic thesis is that the rise of the automobile has led to the development of a banal and meaningless "geography of nowhere". In other words, since the 1920s, Americans have pursued a single-minded vision when it comes to urban development: namely treating our built surroundings as disposable commodities to be bought and sold.
Growing up in a suburb, I experienced this sort of fake-non-reality-bubble of what a city should be, or what it should do for its residents. There was always nothing to do, nowhere to go. Fortunately, in those days, creative people created their own "scene", no matter how lame it was. Such a naive scene based on our libertine tastes and overbearing ignorance. Of course, conformity was the rule.
And we all nearly shit ourselves when we got behind the wheel of our first car. It was almost like and 5-year-old's first trip to Disneyland. It was like that first sexual experience. It was an epiphany, of sorts.
Little did we realize that our addiction to auto travel would bring such a high cost to our lonely empty souls. Who ever thought that being so cheap would cost us so much?
1 comment:
Thoughtful ideas and ruminations on the Car. Nothing like the first one - or even the power now of a car to free a person, though you are right, we depend upon them. It's just the open spaces and the need to get somewhere. Especially in the desert. Without a car you are stuck.
But, at the same time the car and the need for it and the size and how cars have gotten so big they become grotesque symbols of our own American Cultural Obesity - unchecked, amoral, free market lust and desire for individual satisfaction - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - and a big ass car!
Have you seen this:
http://www.fuh2.com/index.php
I loved my firt, my '60 Oldsmobile, bought from grandma Rudoff for $500, four doors, V8, and large enough to hold an entire rock band. Remember that car?
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