watching badlands after writing this
though it's the term I've come to associate this particular texture with, small town america seems a bit specific, as the concept, I feel, could be applied to any established mass homestead. the idea of the acid western comes to mind the more I try to analyze this; the west was initially a beacon of hope for those looking to begin a life for themselves, but when viewed under the modern lens, became a caustic amalgamation of the warped american dream, something to escape from that would kill you over time. when suburban housing tracts began exploding after world war 2, it was a realization of the same dream; a place to live and start a family, all necessities covered. thus, works in this grain encapsulate the boredom and lack of purpose felt by characters at the end of the conflict as well.
as a child, I lived in the Cass Corridor of Detroit. my parents we're very protective so I rarely left the house. this probably contributed to my later fascination with isolation and urban decay. I've spent my teens in the surrounding suburbs of Grosse Pointe (which I'm currently trying to make my great escape from thankyouverymuch) and can relate to what thosepeople was getting at. though the Pointes are comparably small, and exist as a pocket snuggled against the frenetic activity of the surrounding Detroit area, I'd call it a "prison of the mind." the aforementioned lack of activity or drive is abundant. my experiences we're painted by the high school that literally everyone says they went to when telling a story like this, community events neutered in all respects that seemed to exist only to keep white fires burning amid the tide of Detroit immigrants, and let's get high lol. without a car I walked around often, and would wind through the confusingly built courts and places, which we're all filled with similarly built houses consisting of quaint features. /rant
I've thought of two works that contain this phenomena though in a more specific sense. There's an increpare game which I linked below that allows you to play as a housewife, who does nothing but housewife stuff. this touches on the issue of isolation, only as an effect of gender/social role rather than communal climate (though a housewife in his sense could be a product of the same suburban nothing.) although I feel that what we're discussing is mostly an American product, there are likely similar examples in other cultures. however, what distinguishes this from the broader implications of an isolationists is it's origins through American development, so I'd like some examples (not necessarily through media; cultural phenomena would work too) of a non-American sort, if anyone has the time.
the other is Rant by Chuck Palahniuk, which is the most "small town" i can think of. Rant, at the beginning, seems to be a product of the "going nowhere" outlook, and escapes from this town through his own ingenuity. there's an interesting passage towards the beginning about how rural towns are often filled with beautiful people, as the most attractive members of each generation get pregnant early, plunk their family down where they were born, and pool the most desirable genes in one area. as it goes on, the novel veers away from it's focus on the isolation of a community to escapism through technology, which is a trend I think is occluding the suburban absurd. we've established that there's nothing to physically do there, and in an age of digital connection, are trying to examine what happens when those kids instead live their lives in the digital (wink wink.) so, what are some works that reflect this in a digital age/meld the two ideas together?
sorry for the wall of text
http://www.increpare.com/2010/04/the-terrible-whiteness-of-appalachian-nights/