I've always been fascinated with the themes of slow decay, degeneration and inevitable decline, whether it's perhaps some historical kingdom, empire or nation, present day aspects of society or simple physical crumbling of buildings and ruins. I guess a lot of it stems from the fact that I live in a country - admittedly a very well managed one - where there is little in the way of urban decay or decline. If anything, it seems as though we are near constantly erecting shiny new buildings, reclaiming land for new developments and maintaining our older buildings generally very well (and tearing them down mercilessly if we can't). Our infrastructure is near perfect, you'd be hard pressed to find a pothole anywhere, you can drink the water straight from any tap, even public toilets (if you're that desperately thirsty), never in living memory of my life have I ever experienced a single electrical grid blackout.
Combine that with my society's obsessive penchant for cleanliness and armies of street sweepers, public gardeners, power washers and all that kind of stuff, and even the least well-maintained location here is pristine compared to most other places I've been.

And I don't like that.

Sounds strange, I know. Who wouldn't want new buildings, pristine streets, fancy new hi-tech looking architectural marvels? Still, it all feels really strange to me, somehow. Maybe it's just me, but it's so unnatural, as if we are doing our best to desperately deny a fundamental part of humanity and inevitability. A place so new and clean - to me, anyway - loses much of what defines it as a human creation or a part of humanity. There is no realism, no verisimilitude, it's all so terribly artificial.

I guess you could call what I sometimes have a bad habit of experiencing as almost like the architectural and societal version of uncanny valley, if that makes a little sense.

I know, it sounds really stupid to be complaining about being able to live in a clean, well maintained and governed country. A lot of people would say I'm being ridiculous, after all, there are plenty of people all over who would give up everything to trade places with where I am now. I don't hate it, not really. But it doesn't feel right to me, wherever I look, wherever I turn on the street, whether I'm out buying groceries, taking the bus to work or back, taking a walk or whatever the hell else. Maybe that's what sparked my interest in all these themes of inevitable decay, decline, ruin and rot. In the end, no matter how much we here try to fight against it, we can't keep it up forever. One day, we'll run out, of land, resources, money or just the will. And the spectre of rot and decay will be waiting, as he has for so long. Time is nothing to someone like him.

Perhaps I might still be around to see it. And what a sight it would be.


Another fantastic piece of art by the exceptional  teragabba~! My go-to artist, as always, and she did such a superb job capturing the atmosphere I was hoping for! Check out her page and commission her! You'll love it, I guarantee it! <3


Art ©  teragabba~
Character ©  AWandererfromtheEast