M. Night Shyamalan says the suburbs are "soulless," lives in suburb

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M. Night Shyamalan says the suburbs are "soulless," lives in suburb

by Patricia Mayville-Cox (Subscribe to Patricia Mayville-Cox's posts)
Oct 11th 2008 @ 11:20AM

Filed under: Celebrities

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M. Night Shyamalan's horror thriller "The Happening" came out on DVD this week. Shyamalan says "The Happening" is the science-fiction version of "An Inconvenient Truth," about a human crisis that occurs when the earth fights back and plants start emitting chemicals to kill humans.

In an interview in the Winnipeg Sun, Shyamalan comments on a scene in the movie where the characters drive by a billboard advertisement for a suburban development. Shyamalan says this scene is a commentary on sprawl, "where they take farmland and they take all these forests and they drop 90 identical homes on a hillside," and adds that he finds that lifestyle potentially stifling. "It seems that we're going into a soulless place. I have heavy thoughts about development in general."

There are lots of reasons to push smart development and certainly cities have their advantages in terms of the environment. However, I take issue with Shyamalan's comment about suburbs being "soulless" places. That seems rather harsh, and in my interpretation, a comment on the people who live there. In everyday life, most people try to optimize their housing budget with their needs, including schools and proximity to their jobs, and yes, that means the majority of Americans live in suburbs. Certainly, many of these places could be planned better from an environmental perspective, with more mass transit and higher walkability. But to call them soulless? That seems a rather harsh comment, and dare I say, elitist.

According to wiki, Shyamalan lives in Willistown, Pennsylvania, which, to me, looks like a suburb of Philadephia, about 18 miles out from the city's center and only five miles from the Main Line.

[Via ecorazzi]

Comments [3]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-11-2008 @ 5:52PM

sitruc said...

This is supposed to be an environmental blog and the problem you have with what he said is being called "soulless"?

10-11-2008 @ 5:52PM

sitruc said...

This is supposed to be an environmental blog and you have a problem with suburbs maybe being called "soulless"?

10-13-2008 @ 4:05PM

Micah said...

I agree with Shyamalan. Although I live in the suburbs. :)

But, I think he may be referring to something else. I don't think he is saying that the people who live in suburbs don't have souls. He may be referring to the soul of the surrounding building, streets and common areas.

An environmentalist blog shouldn't be new to the works of Christopher Alexander(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Alexander). So, take a review of the Timeless Way of Building(http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TheTimelessWayOfBuilding). I think this is the soul he refers to.

And give the guy a break. We don't need to dissect every word and admonish him. Sure, he may live in the suburbs. He has every right to think the place lacks soul.

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