Word: suburbanity
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Students spend most of their time on campus, where the bicycle is the dominant form of transportation. In sprawling, suburban California, getting off-campus practically requires a car since public transportation is somewhat limited. Although it is possible to get along without a car, those without one (that's you, first-years) will be left stranded on a campus that many jokingly refer to as "the Bubble...
...teenagers in the early '60s, best friends Toni and Chris glorified everything French, fell in love with la vie boheme and, most importantly, rejected the suburban wasteland and lifestyle their parents submitted to. The mass of generic houses at the end of the London Underground Metropolitan Line, referred to as Metroland, disgusted and frightened these two aspiring artists (one poet, one photographer). The view of Metroland from the train is both boring and ominous-mile after mile of conformity, complacency and security...
...present (nine years later), Toni has traveled the world and is still scratching out tortured but unnoticed poetry, while Chris somehow ended up with a nice English girl, Marion, and a house in Metroland. Toni's intrusion into Chris' suburban bliss is literally a rude awakening. His visit is announced with a phone call that wakes the baby, but more than that, it awakens the desperation Chris has been quietly holding back. When Marion asks him what he has to worry about, Chris replies, "Nothing. That's what worries me." Toni forces him to ask himself, doesn't he like...
...face of such horror -- not to mention the apparent suicide of the young gunmen -- few have the heart to trace the blame to the homes that produced the killers. Doubtless too many parents can see themselves in that position to confront the uncomfortable, unfamiliar reality of suburban teenage anomie. In a country where burning yourself with a very hot cup of coffee is considered grounds for a lawsuit, the temptation to place the blame on someone -- anyone -- else is apparently irresistible, especially in the face of such an unconscionable...
...second postwar phenomenon that may contribute to this American trend is suburbia -- mass shootings by high schoolers appear to be confined to mostly white, suburban schools, rather than the inner city communities more commonly plagued by gun violence. "Violence in minority neighborhoods and schools tends to be gang- and drug-related," says TIME correspondent Elaine Rivera. "In suburbia, though, it appears to be influenced by intense alienation and isolation, combined with easy access to guns and a culture that teaches kids, in everything from movies to foreign policy, that violence is a valid means of resolving problems." The isolation...