
Why Does Hollywood Hate the Suburbs? - danw
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123033369595836301.html
======
jbarciauskas
This is a fun contrarian rant, but really I think the author is confused about
what Yates, and Mendes, by extension, are critiquing. The suburbs, as such,
aren't under indictment here, but rather the culture of conformity that was
endemic in the suburbs in this time period in particular.

To say that this suffocating culture of conformity as merely a mirage invented
by the artistic and intellectual elite out of jealousy is absurd. Women in the
suburbs were actually ostracized and turned to alcoholism to escape their
mundane lives, people actually bought bigger and better lawnmowers and TVs to
"keep up with the Joneses", etc.

It's not that the suburbs are the "physical correlative to spiritual and
mental death", but merely that the suburbs were the actual place where
cultural and individual diversity were discouraged and the spiritual and
mental death actually occurred.

~~~
mynameishere
_turned to alcoholism to escape their mundane lives_

Women in prior years (and I mean, stretching back for 100s of thousands of
years) had rough lives of childbearing and scrubbing and not much access to
booze or Diazepam, and those changing factors led to (a number of) problem
women, rather than...mundanity. I mean, do you know many women? They seem
comfortable with mundanity.

The author was correct (and unoriginal) when he pointed out that class and
geography combined to give the reds a new focal point of hatred against the
bourgeoisie.

~~~
demallien
No. Firstly, I doubt very much scrubbing was going on more than about 3-4
thousand years back.

Secondly, women have had access to alcohol from around about the time alcohol
was discovered, which I suspect was before the creation of scrubbing brushes.

Thirdly, I very much doubt that 'women' are comfortable with mundanity - we
have our needs for intellectual stimulation every bit as much as men - novels
written by women cry out for this need from the moment novels started to be
written, and letters between noblewomen from even before this time show the
same need. And you can verify that the need still exists today by talking to a
few of us.

And finally, the mundanity of a suburban housewife's life is an historic
abnormality - for nearly the entire existence of the human race, women have
had to work, just as men have. Tending shops, working in the fields, making
clothing and so on, not just doing the housework. This aberration created by
the extraordinary wealth of the western world in the period dating from the
end of World War II through to the 70s made it possible for women to stay at
home and raise children. Of course, the women from the generation that
followed this generation saw what it had done to their mothers, and had no
desire to follow in their footsteps, leading to the social revolution
witnessed at the end of the 1960s. Women have since that time rapidly re-
integrated into the workforce, this time by choice, rather than financial
necessity. And that fact, more than any other that I have outlined here, makes
your statement that '(women) seem comfortable with mundanity' a lie, pure and
simple.

~~~
mynameishere
_which I suspect was before the creation of scrubbing brushes._

You suspected wrong, as I was using "scrubbing" as a metaphor for household
work in general.

 _the mundanity of a suburban housewife's life is an historic abnormality_

As is the widespread availability of alcohol and other chemicals, which I
suspect is a more important factor in the conduct of life.

 _we have our needs for intellectual stimulation every bit as much as men_

If by "we" you mean "we women who read hacker news", sure. I'm looking at the
aggregate. It's not a men vs. women thing, as men are also not driven to abuse
by "mundanity" or other silly things.

~~~
demallien
_You suspected wrong, as I was using "scrubbing" as a metaphor for household
work in general._

No kidding. But I suggest that in a society not yet capable of making
scrubbing brushes, there probably isn't much housework going on.

 _As is the widespread availability of alcohol and other chemicals, which I
suspect is a more important factor in the conduct of life._

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_alcohol> Alcohol was discovered very
early on in the civilisation game. I doubt that women of the Stone Age had
much in common with the ladies of Wisteria Lane...

 _If by "we" you mean "we women who read hacker news", sure. I'm looking at
the aggregate. It's not a men vs. women thing, as men are also not driven to
abuse by "mundanity" or other silly things._

Now you're just trolling. Or perhaps you have some evidence to justify such a
ridiculous statement?

------
nihilocrat
_Art and intellect are solitary vocations, and their practitioners often
require a common enemy to sustain the lonely effort. The suburbs continued to
serve that purpose, but the type of antipathy toward them changed in the late
'60s and '70s._

Some of the stuff this guy decided to put on paper is just truly idiotic.
There are a few bits of insight in the article, but it seems to mainly just be
some poorly aimed anti-intellectual, anti-urban diatribe.

------
ryanwaggoner
_Veterans of the Second World War and then the Korean War sought inexpensive
homes of their own, far from the urban scrimmage that must have been, for
some, a cramped extension of real combat._

The author has clearly never seen real combat.

------
zach
"There's a long history of being able to caricature the suburbs and get away
with the idea that you're doing something that's deep and profound."

From an NPR report on evil suburbs:

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6215779>

Then again, if American Beauty sells, keep making more of it with the stars of
Titanic. Beautiful, I love it, let's do it, see you at The Grill tomorrow. So
I can't fault them from a business perspective, but artistically this review
sums up my assessment of American Beauty:

<http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N44/American_Beauty.44a.html>

------
biohacker42
When compared to the neighborliness of a tiny village or the freedom and peace
or huge ranch or a villa in the mountains or the life of a city, suburbs truly
are the worst kind of compromise.

