The small Midwestern town achieves its legendary dullness by a process akin to evaporation—all the warm and energetic particles depart for coastal cities, leaving their place of origin colder and flatter than they found it. But the restless spirit in a small town knows he lives in the sticks and has a limited range of experience, while his suburban counterpart can sustain an illusion of cosmopolitanism in an environment which is far more constricted (a small town is a microcosm, a suburb merely a layer).
ATTRIBUTION:
Philip Slater, U.S. sociologist. The Pursuit of Loneliness: American Culture at the Breaking Point, ch. 1, Beacon Press (1970).
