Thursday, May 18, 2023

Main Street

Practically every town in America has its Main Street. Sinclair Lewis of course wrote Main Street. The book is, incidentally, not what it sounds like to the extent that it involves a character who wants to escape from everything Main Street represents. In fact, Main Street was ahead of its time in that it proposed a Bovaryesque character whose "aspirationalism" is accommodated by her spouse. Most main streets lead to the old Post Road whose form followed function i.e. to deliver the mail, sometimes by Pony Express. Main Streets declined after World II especially in larger demographics where they were known as inner cities. Others became antiquities. Commerce was pushed out of town, onto Route 1, which generally paralleled an interstate. There you find your clothing and furniture chains like Men's Warehouse and Raymour and Flannigan and naturally all the fast food outlets from Burger King to Popeyes and Dunkin’ Donuts that put humankind at the top of the food chain. 

read "Diasporic Dining: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and listen to "25 Miles From Home" by Edwin Starr



No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.