Science fiction about abandoned cities descends from an ancient lineage of image-making

Evidence

There was some kind of collective image of overgrown and abandoned cities at that time. Perhaps it’s always there. Such images were present in Ballard, Burroughs, Philip K Dick. In those science fiction authors writing about the near future – conducting thought experiments, exploring likely consequences and views of the unrecognised present, which I think is very valuable. They offer perspectives and meditations on our vanity and endeavours. As such they maintain continuity with a long line of imagery, from religious myths and folk stories to science fiction. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 399

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the hauntology and ‘no future’ themes central to Fisher’s larger project elsewhere in this book, plus the reader’s standing interest in ruins imagery. — connects to: Avant-garde films function as unintended documents of pre-gentrification neighborhoods — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York…, 1122; Lost futures haunt a city more keenly than its past does — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 212
• SEED: The image of the overgrown/abandoned city as a continuous thread from myth to sf to digital-era ruins could seed an essay on ruins as infrastructure/time index across media.

Broader Connections

• Lost futures haunt a city more keenly than its past does #expands (0.78) — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 212
• Avant-garde films function as unintended documents of pre-gentrification neighborhoods #exemplifies (0.75) — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1122