StopSmiling's reviewof "The Dark Knight" is a shining example of why that particular magazine is the coolest magazine on the planet. But more importantly, I think it correctly grasps what is the most important theme in the new crop of Batman films: urbanism.
Nolan's unsubtle play in the new Batman series suggests that Gotham is our collective soul - hopelessly complicated, easily corrupted, given to mass hysteria and savagery, and not necessarily a place worth saving. Virtually all of my favorite superhero stories have an element of this "urban landscape as heart of darkness" - certainly Robocop and The Watchmen, but also some less high-minded fare like Darkman.
I also note that the modern city becomes especially scary to the consumer of pop culture sometime around the late 1970s and early 1980s, though I'm not sure what broader conclusion suggested by this. An economist would talk about the fact that this tide shifted back sometime in the mid-90s, during a period of massive growth. A two-bit sociologist might point to the end of the cold war and the advent of political correctness leading to an embrace of the "other." Truth is, there are so many trends - the rise of hip hop and the use of the word "urban" as code for black culture, for example - that it seems silly to say that it happened for any one reason. But what does interest me is that in other countries, living in the city is often perceived as a happy accident borne of necessity, whereas in America, there are a number of people who see cities simply as an inconvenience, a distraction from their real lives.
The gap between urban and non-urban was one of my "themes" a few years ago - I saw just about everything as evidence of this, from consumer behavior to gastronomy and national election results. My formative years were spent in a teeming mess of a city, where I was routinely mugged, where bus routes were fluid and open to interpretation, and where being a self-described native means that you have successfully navigated one of the most complex environments invented by humans.
Even when I thought I was likely to move away from urban areas entirely, I still thought cities were absolultely vital to human enterprise, while suburbs were the opposite of all authentic human experience. Moving to the U.S. suburbs in the early 1990s was disorienting, like being placed into a sealed container or something. Where was the streetlife, where did people congregate, why weren't there more bus routes? But I did grow accustomed to that rhythm after a while, at least until graduating from college and realizing that I didn't want any part of a suburban life.
I had a professor in college who used to describe the ideal suburban weekend: car rolls into garage, garage door closes - family is sealed in. The door will not open again until it is time for work and school on Monday morning because the family is in a self-contained unit. This is facile and I don't want to suggest that everyone in the suburbs is drab while all in the city are vibrant - far from it, in fact, and I think the line between the two is fairly blurry.
I didn't know Rubert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" or anything about social capital, nor had I read Jane Jacobs at this point, but I could see that I thought living in a city would mean, in the most basic terms, more entertainment. More action that had little to do with me, and a greater likelihood that I would be a supporting actor in another story (as opposed to always feeling like the protagonist of my story.)
There was a New Yorker "Talk of the Town" piece where Wynton Marsalis, speaking to a school assembly in New York City, used the word "cosmopolitan." Someone asked him what it meant, and he replied something like, "It means that you belong wherever you go." Or something along those lines, I can't seem to find the exact wording. But clearly, it's an idea I like - not because it implies that there's a universal fraternity of urban centers, but because it suggests to me that cities teach valuable life skills: about talking to people directly, about living outside of your own head, about asking questions and about not being such a bumbling idiot just because you happen to be out of your element, and also about the individual's relationship with their environment being a two-way street.
Of course, you can learn these skills and lessons elsewhere. And I've always thought that the people who pride themselves on their urbanity are the most likely to be from Des Moines (no offense, Iowa!) Seriously - remember that Bill Murray's character in "Groundhog Day," who made it clear that he hated central PA, was from Pittsburgh - not exactly a cosmpolitan center, though it is a city that kicks Washington's ass in terms of regional pride and strength of character.
I spent a good chunk of the summer outside of cities, in between them, or in cities that I plain just don't like a lot (hello, San Diego!) It feels good to be home, picking thai chilies off the pot that grows on our windowsill, our tiny spice garden overlooking an infinitely more messy and unweeded garden gone to the proverbial Shakesperean fie.
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