tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830563225783203492.post2131748367271725239..comments2023-04-29T06:37:18.856-04:00Comments on Our God is Speed: On LocationGreyhooshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14161781141733273715noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830563225783203492.post-75074611321223707062010-11-20T16:47:21.911-05:002010-11-20T16:47:21.911-05:00Good point (or points, morelike), espec in terms o...Good point (or points, morelike), espec in terms of returning the matter to how certain social notions & anxieties are filtered into a sci-fi/"speculative fiction" narrative. Oh, where to start? A few related things that leap to mind...<br /><br />1) Right. Things like the "Soylent Green"/"Make Room, Make Room" scenario definitely stemmed from social anxieties that were lurking on the periphery. The American landscape of the post-war years was shaped by the idea that the future that involved unlimited growth and expansion (i.e.: "it's all onward & upward from here"). But, in the late '60s & early '70s, some were starting to raise concerns about overpopulation, finite resources, and (what would later be termed) sustainability. <br /><br />2) I believe the "outliving their function" scenario is something that's been kicked back & forth by wildly different parties since the dawn of industrialism (if not longer). But it's played in odd ways in recent history.<br /><br />3) As far as cramped quarters thing goes: I believe that was more of a European trend in terms of city planning, etc. Americans have from the very beginning always had the mentality of limitless boundaries, of always having the option to spread out as much as they please. (Hence the discussion on these shores of "urban sprawl" & whatnot that accompanied the suburban boom of the late 1950-early 1960s.) But in a few -- very few -- industrial cities in the U.S., you did certain measures taken toward providing compact housing for working-class populations. (I'm thinking of the many blocks of narrow rowhouses around the harbor of Baltimore -- quite claustrophobic, with some rooms in the "living area" only slightly more than an arm-span in width.)Greyhooshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14161781141733273715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830563225783203492.post-31524822624481472802010-11-20T07:20:24.705-05:002010-11-20T07:20:24.705-05:00It's interesting to think about the belief tha...It's interesting to think about the belief that 'cities had started to outlive their function' - a big theme of science fiction was the overcrowded mega-city. People couldn't see that the 'Soylent Green'-type overcrowding couldn't happen, and that cities would just begin to seep out into the suburbs and countryside. This is what has happened in Britain, with houses becoming smaller and more claustrophobic.Between Channelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08580333960133302878noreply@blogger.com