Blogs
God, I love that Dustin’s dad is absolutely seething in the second panel. He went through all this trouble of buying a big suburban house, just like society says he was supposed to, and now he finds out he has to maintain it, just like he has to maintain his failing body? This is bullshit. Bullshit.
Literature
It was the kind of quietly well-off residential street where mass-murders live, unnoticed behind the Neighbourhood Watch stickers, until someone turns up a toenail in the rosebeds.
Live-Action TV
"Suburbia's full of prisons. Women who have everything they've asked for and nothing they need." (Beat) "Locked inside themselves." (Beat) "Remember, Sharon, 'Iron bars do not a prison make'."
— Dorien Green, Birds of a Feather, "Mrs Robinson"
"Our story is about a town. A small town. And the people who live in the town. From a distance, it presents itself like so many other small towns all over the world. Safe. Decent. Innocent. Get closer, though, and you start seeing the shadows underneath..."
—Jughead Jones, Riverdale
Music
And all the houses in the street have got a name
'Cos all the houses in the street they look the same
Same chimney pots, same little cars, same window panes
'Cos all the houses in the street they look the same
Same chimney pots, same little cars, same window panes
—The Kinks, "Shangri-La"
Suburbia
Where the suburbs met utopia
What kind of dream was this
So easy to destroy?
And who are we to blame
for the sins of the past?
These slums of the future?
Where the suburbs met utopia
What kind of dream was this
So easy to destroy?
And who are we to blame
for the sins of the past?
These slums of the future?
—Pet Shop Boys, Suburbia
This could be heaven
Shallow spreads of ordered lawns
I like the illusion, illusion of privacy
The careful trees blending so perfectly
Bland planned idle luxury
A caviar of perfect dignity
Life in lovely allotted slots
A token nice, a nice constitution
A layered mass of subtle props
Shallow spreads of ordered lawns
I like the illusion, illusion of privacy
The careful trees blending so perfectly
Bland planned idle luxury
A caviar of perfect dignity
Life in lovely allotted slots
A token nice, a nice constitution
A layered mass of subtle props
—Public Image Ltd., No Birds
It's in the order of their hedgerows
It's in the way their curtains open and close
It's in the look they give you down their nose
All part of decency's jigsaw I suppose
It's in the way their curtains open and close
It's in the look they give you down their nose
All part of decency's jigsaw I suppose
—XTC, "Respectable Street"
Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order, an insulated border
In between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown
Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Dominions are provided, the future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided in the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone
In geometric order, an insulated border
In between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown
Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Dominions are provided, the future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided in the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone
—Rush, "Subdivisions"
Tabletop Games
When all is said and done, Pleasant Homes residents are content. They become more focused and slip into the routine of work. Leisure activities center on the planned golf course or group activities. Parents find themselves actually able to trust their neighbors and let their children play in the street. Indeed, all the rough corners in their lives seem to just smooth over, so long as they listen to the beat of the Weaver thrumming through the dappled lanes. Pleasant Homes communities are crawling with Weaver spirits dedicated to making sure that those who live in their webs fit in and conform. Pesky details like individuality melt away. While living there is not a guaranteed ticket to becoming a drone, those neighborhoods do seem to be breeding grounds for the Weaver's human servants...
—Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Book Of The City
Video Games
"There's beautiful irony with this particular simulation as well. The residents here are naturally at home, naturally safe. When I toy with them, when their suburban illusion is suddenly broken, it's that much more satisfying. I do believe we shall all remain here in Tranquility Lane for a very long time. A very long time, indeed."
—Stanislaus Braun, Fallout 3
Web Original
The Dallas Cowboys are the team for 40somethings who gave up on their dreams and moved to Texas for some bum-ass office job because the pay is good and a house there costs, like, seven dollars. Refusing to confront the fact that they have willingly resigned themselves to the slow death of suburbia, their hopes and dreams become entwined with the Cowboys, because if they’re going to spend the rest of their lives in middle management for Texas Instruments, at least they can be From The City Where The Good Football Boys Live.
