phrase derived from author James Howard Kunstler'
s influential work 'The Geography Of Nowhere' which, like similar tomes with a social conscience (e.g., 'Fast
Food Nation', 'Bowling Alone', et al), challenged Americans to reassess the plight of their urban/suburban landscapes, especially since the end of World War
Two. What Kunstler found was a terrain blighted by shopping and strip malls, fast
food restaurants, twelve
lane super highways, shoddily constructed business and residential developments or what he referred to as 'cartoon architecture'.
Bill : say
Tom, where are you living these days ?
Tom : oh, out on 197th Mile Rd. in Paradise County, just east of the Rolling Meadows gated community, adjacent to a Chuckie Cheese'
s and Major Magic's
Pizza Revue, in between the 467th and 468th exit and on ramps to the eighteen lane Interstate, right behind the Wonderland strip mall, right next to a nature band-aid consisting of wood chips and one-foot tall shrubs.
Bill : Wow. In other words, nowhere in particular.
Tom : That's right ! Ain't this country great !