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macbethz:

I'll take a quiet life A handshake of carbon monoxide And no alarms and no surprises No alarms and no surprises ALT
A shot from Safe (1995) of Carol White, played by Julianne Moore, in her suburban living room, holding a glass of milk. She is centered in frame, and stares blankly into cameraALT
THE SUBURBS DREAM of violence. Asleep in their drowsy villas, sheltered by benevolent shopping malls, they wait patiently for the nightmares that will wake them into a more passionate world.ALT
A shot from Blue Velvet. A man lays, collapsed, on his lawn. His hose is still running; a dog has climbed on him to drink from it. A child with a lollypop wanders through the gateALT
And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?" And you may ask yourself, "Where is that large automobile?" And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house" And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"ALT
A shot from Little Shop of Horrors of a house on a white lawn against a blue sky. The scene has a sense of artificiality about it - the lighting is all wrong, the sky like a painted backdrop. Seymour and Audrey, in a suit and wedding dress respectively, stand in the doorframe.ALT
I think the traditional preoccupations of cosmic horror are ultimately charming and quaint in comparison to that endless atrophy wouldn't it be a relief to gaze into the maw of an eldritch god once, confirm the truth of existence, and lose your mind entirely? At least that'd have a sense of resolution to it. At least then you could stop pretending that everything was fine.ALT
A shot from Vivarium. Rows and rows of identical green houses. On the roof the center one, arranged sheets spell out "HELP"ALT
So we were lying in bed afterwards And she asked me What made me frightened And I said... I'm frightened of Belgian Chocolates I'm frightened of potpourri I'm frightened of James Dean posters I'm, I'm frightened of 26" screens I'm frightened of, of remote control I'm frightened of endowment plans I'm, I'm frightened of figurines Ow! I'm frightened of evenings in the Brincliffe Oaks Searching for the... ConversationsALT
A shot from the Truman Show. Truman, played by Jim Carrey, climbs a set of stairs against a wall. Both the stairs and wall are painted like a blue sky with clouds. ALT
Murray and I extended the range of our contemplative walks. In town one day he went into small embarrassed raptures over diagonal parking. There was a charm and a native sense to the rows of slanted vehicles. This form of parking was an indispensable part of the American townscape, even when the cars were foreign-made. The arrangement was not only practical but avoided confrontation, the sexual assault motif of front-to-back parking in teeming city streets. Murray says it is possible to be homesick for a place even when you are there.ALT
Three panels from the comic Supergod. The first panel shows a dove flying above a home. The second, the dove crashing into the dome of the sky, revealed to be artificial. bubbles read: AN UNDERGROUND AMERICAN SMALL-TOWN HEAVEN. THE KIND OF PLACE AN ALL-AMERICAN DEADMAN WOULD HOPE AND PRAY TO FETCH UP IN. The third panel, a white, middle-aged man stands in a pilot's uniform, drinking a beer. Bubbles read: I LIKE TO IMAGINE HIM THERE BY HIS LITTLE PICKET FENCE IN FRONT OF HIS LITTLE HOUSE, BREATHING IN THE AIR- CONDITIONING OF HIS LITTLE HEAVEN. NEVER QUESTIONING HIS EXISTING WITHOUT EATING, DRINKING OR SLEEPING, BECAUSE HE THINKS HE'S DEAD. PERHAPS HE THINKS OF THE DAY HE VISITED EARTH.ALT
But I don't think so. But I think about it. And I think, well, I can't be. Because I'm like you, I kinda look at the big long life ahead of me that stretches out forever and disappears. And I get scared. And I think, "this can't be Heaven if I'm getting scared, right?" And then I think, "maybe I am in Heaven, and Heaven is scary."ALT
A photograph of a 70s underground Cold War bunker in Las Vegas. It features an imitation of an outdoor suburban home, complete with painted backdrop and fake trees, cut off by the ceiling. ALT
Ask yourself: is there something sinister in moralism? And then answer: no. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth.ALT

suburbia; or the sad, quiet horror of getting everything you ever wanted

“No Surprises,” Radiohead // Safe (1995) // Kingdom Come, J.G. Ballard // Blue Velvet (1986) // “Once in a Lifetime,” Talking Heads // Little Shop of Horrors (1986) // Jon Ware on I Am In Eskew // Vivarium (2019) // “His ‘n’ Hers,” Pulp // The Truman Show (1998) // White Noise, Don DeLillo // Supergod, Warren Ellis and Garrie Gastonny // 17776, Jon Bois // photograph of 1970s Las Vegas underground Cold War bunker // Disco Elysium, ZA/UM