Compromise and Conceit

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An Australian statistician and role-player living in Japan, interested in the theory and practice of role-playing…

Photos from the End Times…

The Guardian today has a series of pictures from deserted buildings in Detroit, USA, where the economy (particularly, I suspect, the housing sector) has been slowly collapsing. These pictures are exactly how I imagine the world after a zombipocalypse. Who leaves a library deserted but full of books, except someone fleeing a zombie assault?

I think there’s probably a lot that could be said in connection with this about the decline of the US industrial working class, and the economic conditions that various powerful political interests have been willing to bring about in order to secure that collapse. Is the Zombie movie an allegory for this? Given I know nothing about the US, I can’t say… but it’s an interesting thought. One typically associates apocalyptic imagery with the cold war, but maybe there are other fears playing in the back of the movie-maker’s mind when, in producing a post-apocalyptic movie, they envisage the buildings of modern real-life Detroit?

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5 responses to “Photos from the End Times…”

  1. mercermachine Avatar
    mercermachine

    Ah, Detroit. Detroit is a Rube Goldberg machine of self-destruction, but the end-game began during the 1967 race riots. David Byrne has written a fine and interesting piece on detroit here:
    http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2010/09/092310-dont-forget-the-motor-city.html

    But Detroit has a chance to remake itself as well. There is a serious trend towards urban farming there, due to the massive amount of land that has turned into ‘urban prarie’ in Detroit’s city limits. Decent coverage here:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/11/detroit-urban-renewal-city-farms-paul-harris

    For myself, Detroit images make me think less ‘World War Z’ and more ‘After Man’

  2. faustusnotes Avatar
    faustusnotes

    Thanks for the comment Mr. Machine. I don’t have an opinion on the collapse of Detroit, but I’ll be sure to check David Byrne’s. Urban farming is definitely a zombiepocalypse thing, don’t you think?

    When I saw the photos I also thought of general “after man” stories. Those are also, I think, more closely tied to fears of general economic or social collapse.

    Why do you think the end-game was the race riots? Potted history please!!!

  3. Grey Avatar
    Grey

    Yeah, it’s been on a downward spiral long before the riots ever took place however though, those just greatly accellerated what happened within the city. Here is a pretty good recap of the actual event.

    The city needs to basically completely reinvent itself and its politics to stand any chance at all. All those buildings “could” possibly be restored but it’s not worth having to put up with the citys mechanisms itself to actually get around to doing it. Sad really, because a lot of that stuff could really be glorious were it made right. I should probably see about getting some pictures of some of those for my own some day before they knock em down.

    There is a small portion around the waterfront, the ballparks and the educational district that has made a halfway decent recovery, but there is a long, long way to go with the rest of the city. Redisticting some of it into farm belts is more or less going to have to be an inevailibity as they are trying to support and infrastructure that was designed for 2 million with somewhere around 800k (or less) people. It needs to properly size itself before it can consider growing or even recovering.

  4. Grey Avatar
    Grey

    And yeah, it does bring up thoughts of zombie apocalypse for sure. Either that, or maybe neutron bombs.

    I guess this is where they go for inspiration if they’re not quite sure how things should look after everyone scattered.

  5. mercermachine Avatar
    mercermachine

    Oh, my. I know a lot more about Detroit’s near history, but I think anytime you have a city as big as Detroit was, population-wise, based around one and only one industry, you basically make the images above that captured your attention inevitable. The biggest boom-town ever. Add in race and class inequality as deep as it was in Detroit pre-riots and stir. Voila. The haves moved to the suburbs, the industry more or less collapsed, and municipal government was inept/corrupt. Now you’ve got high crime, high taxes and poor public services due to the massive area to be covered by police, fire, etc.

    Zombies, for me, are more of a statement of societal fear, fear of our fellow humans (and ourselves), which is why I guess Detroit doesn’t give me the zombie vibe. It’s just too empty.

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