Beautiful Terrible Ruins: Detroit And The Anxiety Of Decline Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Once the manufacturing powerhouse of the nation, Detroit has become emblematic of failing cities everywhere—the paradigmatic city of ruins—and the epicenter of an explosive growth in images of urban decay. In Beautiful Terrible Ruins, art historian Dora Apel explores a wide array of these images, ranging from photography, advertising, and television, to documentaries, video games, and zombie and disaster films. Apel shows how Detroit has become pivotal to an expanding network of ruin imagery, imagery ultimately driven by a pervasive and growing cultural pessimism, a loss of faith in progress, and a deepening fear that worse times are coming. The images of Detroit’s decay speak to the overarching anxieties of our era: increasing poverty, declining wages and social services, inadequate health care, unemployment, homelessness, and ecological disaster—in short, the failure of capitalism. Apel reveals how, through the aesthetic distancing of representation, the haunted beauty and fascination of ruin imagery, embodied by Detroit’s abandoned downtown skyscrapers, empty urban spaces, decaying factories, and derelict neighborhoods help us to cope with our fears. But Apel warns that these images, while pleasurable, have little explanatory power, lulling us into seeing Detroit’s deterioration as either inevitable or the city’s own fault, and absolving the real agents of decline—corporate disinvestment and globalization. Beautiful Terrible Ruins helps us understand the ways that the pleasure and the horror of urban decay hold us in thrall.
Paperback: 184 pages
Publisher: Rutgers University Press (June 23, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0813574064
ISBN-13: 978-0813574066
Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
Best Sellers Rank: #677,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #138 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Architectural > Cities #222 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Criticism & Essays #626 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > City Planning & Urban Development
Last week I received my usual daily email from a digital magazine that is in the forefront of creating and reporting political news. In the center of the page was an advertisement called Nine Scenes from A Changing Detroit. It is full of optimistic and promising chatter about the new Detroit that is emerging due to business and government coalitions. Whole Foods, a charter school (and the privatization that comes with that), a central market and much more all powered by a $100 million investment from JP Morgan Chase and CO. I had just read Beautiful, Terrible, Ruins so I viewed this with a different lens then I might have otherwise. While I live in a city that has gone through its own machinations with gentrification and the suffering and anguish that comes with it, Beautiful Terrible Ruins makes it clear that the winners blames the losers and that this is just the way of crony capitalism. The concept of "ruins" is new for me and I appreciated how clearly Dora Apel defined it and her critiques of it. I felt challenged by the book and wholly immersed in it. The art demonstrated her theoretical perspective and give life to it. Now when I am walking in Boston, in an area that has been almost fully gentrified I see the new construction of multi-million dollar condos as the ruins and it's pretty heartbreaking. I thank Edelweiss for giving me the opportunity to review this book for an honest opinion.
Beautiful Terrible Ruins: Detroit and the Anxiety of Decline Lost Detroit: Stories Behind the Motor City's Majestic Ruins Beautiful Ruins Stage Fright and Performance Anxiety: An Essential Guide to Staying Calm and Focused Under Pressure - ( How to Overcome Stage Fright and Performance Anxiety ) The Pregnancy and Postpartum Anxiety Workbook: Practical Skills to Help You Overcome Anxiety, Worry, Panic Attacks, Obsessions, and Compulsions Mindfulness for Teen Anxiety: A Workbook for Overcoming Anxiety at Home, at School, and Everywhere Else (Teen Instant Help) The Anxiety Workbook for Teens: Activities to Help You Deal with Anxiety and Worry The Anxiety Workbook for Teens: Activities to Help You Deal with Anxiety and Worry (Instant Help Solutions) House Beautiful The Home Book: Creating a Beautiful Home of Your Own (House Beautiful Series) Swear Word Coloring Book : 40 Swear Words, Obnoxious Words and Insults: Release Your Anxiety and Stress. Sweary Beautiful Designs : Patterns, Flowers, Mandalas (Swear and Relax) Swear Word Coloring Book. 40 Unique Designs: Swear and Relax Coloring Book.Release Your Anxiety and Stress( Sweary Beautiful Designs : Flowers,Mandalas,Patterns) Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of an American Landscape Havana beyond the Ruins: Cultural Mappings after 1989 A Guide to Ancient Maya Ruins A God in Ruins: A Novel The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins Exalted Ruins of Rathess *OP Ruins (Pathfinder) American Ruins Ruins (Pathfinder Series)
