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American Exurbia/Surbubia reminds me of this song by Malvina Reynolds Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky Little boxes on the hillsi
by nojvek 7y ago
American Exurbia/Surbubia reminds me of this song by Malvina Reynolds
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same,
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same
And there's doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same,
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
- asdf21 7y agoAlso the theme song to Weeds
- malyk 7y agoIIRC, she was inspired to write the song by the rows of identical square houses with identical rectangular picture windows on the hillside of daly city south if san francisco.
- TulliusCicero 7y agoI'm an urbanist and hate this sort of condescending BS. Like, sure single family homes in suburbia tend to look the same. You know what also looks the same from the outside? Apartments. Literally all you can see for each one is a window and maybe a balcony, and they all look identical. The problem with American suburbia is not that houses are similar looking, or that the people in them raise families, go into business, or go to university. The song seriously reads like r/im14andthisisdeep material.
- naravara 7y ago>Like, sure single family homes in suburbia tend to look the same. You know what also looks the same from the outside? Apartments. Literally all you can see for each one is a window and maybe a balcony, and they all look identical. It really kind of depends. People focus on the "And they all look just the same" element of the song and glance over the fact that they're "made of ticky-tacky." In an urban setting large solidly built structures slowly form accretions and extensions to them that slowly help a neighborhood develop character and personality over time. Large apartment blocks that don't permit something like that, as you see in lots of East Asian countries where they had to throw up tons of housing REAL fast, can also end up looking really bland and dehumanizing. But then you go to a place that has had time to really develop character as multiple generations of residents have written over them without ever fully erasing what came before and you end up with beloved urban centers like New York or Paris. The suburban development model doesn't really allow for that. The houses can get extensions in theory, but often deed restrictions or HOAs insist on things adhering to specifically defined code about how they can look and what they can do. The conformism is a willful aesthetic choice rather than just a pragmatic shortcut.
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y agoGrown 'organically' within constraints of geography, climate, and local customs over large times vs. industrially stamped out mass products modelled after contemporary design fads.
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y agoBut... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle
- Kalium 7y agoFamously so! That song was about houses on a hill in Daly City, outside San Francisco. Personally, I've always found it a great example of irony. The condemnation of sameness and uniformity, from someone self-consciously countercultural and generally trotted out by others who are self-consciously counterculture stereotype compliant. A song lambasting people for their smug and thoughtless conformity from the perspective of someone thoughtlessly smug and superior for their conformity who marks the difference by sneering. It's really a remarkable piece.
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y agoGreat! :-)