“I think Detroit ruin porn is so popular, and such a well-traveled visual avenue, in part because we want to be reminded that it could all fail. The voyeurism isn’t just gawking at the old buildings; it’s gawking at the possibility and the danger of death.” writes Kyle Chayka.
I don’t know whether we’re all that complex really. Maybe there is a little bit of that underneath us ogling yet another book showing the ruins of Detroit. I admit when I went to see the ruins of Pompeii that was quite something - the realization that you could walk where people had walked 2,000 years ago.
But there is another aspect of ruin porn, especially in this world where simple stories are always preferred over stuff that requires more imagination: Ruin porn is great for cheap, simple narratives. Whether it’s the Europeans going gaga over the decline of America (while their own beloved Euro is crumbling under their asses), whether it’s TIME magazine in need of some illustrative material for some story…
You take the ruins, and you can almost build any story around it. They are great to project things onto: there’s nobody left to talk back.
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