Whose Detroit?
Crime Fiction
Dystopia
Horror
Detroit 9000
August Snow 
RoboCop
Grievers
Barbarian
Ruin Porn
Death
Corruption and crime are common throughout the stories we've studied, and it is for good reason:
Neglect
Poverty
Segregated neighborhoods are much of the backdrop of August Snow, and the picture provided in the Snow discussions clearly shows this in the real world. I remember your comment on how much greener a neighborhood can be from one just beside it, and the image provided really stuck with me This relates to corruption and gentrification in obvious ways, and it relates to crime in that the poorer neighborhoods likely have higher rates of crime.
People who see this decay as a good thing are usually those who've used it to aid in their prosperity via photography, articles, and blog posts. The issue here isn't with their success but with the fact that they are benefitting from the poverty of others. In this, they are taking advantage of people less fortunate than themselves.
Through deprivation and abandonment, areas of Detroit have been left to decay. Some think this is beautiful and should be protected, while others disagree. The solution's contrasting ideas can both lead to hurting the people of Detroit.
What Do We Do With Detroit Now? What does the future look like?
Honestly, H-8 is a ridiculous, too-on-the-nose name for anything in a story. I understand that it's meant to represent the grief black Americans have faced, and I think anyone could easily make this connection. The issues of Detroit affect people below the poverty line more, and because of systemic racism, many of these people are black. The nature of Grievers is more on the nose than any other story we've examined, and whether this is better or worse is simply a matter of taste. This virus is also obviously harkening to the Corona Virusand the sad truth is that people below the poverty line who contract Covid, unfortunately, are more likely to die.
This story uses more literal storytelling devices to convey its messages, rather than the fantastical ideas in the likes of RoboCop. However, they both use exaggeration to prove a point. This can be seen in the H-8 virus.
Gentrification kind of goes hand in hand with the idea of providing government aid to Detroit. If more money were to go into the city or even to subsidize rent, this would make it a hotter destination for people to move into. When this happens, rent goes up and hurts the people who needed that help in the first place. This is a difficult issue to handle.
Many ruin porn photographers hold the opinion that the city should be allowed to decay and that installments should be even made to perpetuate and support this decay. Residents, however, are less keen on this idea and like everybody else want to live in a nice place.
Government Aid?
Style of Humor
Robocop uses the humor of exaggeration to prove its messages. The simple truth that something must exist if we can laugh at it is perhaps the film's most powerful device for conveying its underlying messages about poverty and race. In our discussions, this was often misinterpreted as overly crass, and the satire was entirely missed by many people.
The depiction of criminals in Robocop was one of the areas in which the technique of exaggeration was most prominent. They often cackled like cartoon characters and on many occasions were overly evil: shooting a cop's arm off and laughing, for instance. However, this exaggeration speaks to the issue of poverty in Detroit, as crime and poverty have some correlation. The exaggeration of these criminals is used to convey what people often think criminals are like (and shows how ridiculous this is). Again, this ties back to the issue of poverty in Detroit.
Though I made a post for this discussion rather early, for some reason it was deleted. However, in it I remarked on the film's use of incredibly bright and saturated blood and claimed that this was done to draw attention the atrocities of the killings in the film.
This corruption and crime tie into Detroit in very real ways. The backstory of Snow was that he was removed from the police force for exposing Detroit's corrupt mayor. He was given a large sum of money and took a year-long sabbatical. This is also how he's able to afford to rebuild his neighborhood.
Gore
In the Detroit 9000 and other stories we've covered this term, death is commonplace in Detroit. Again, this ties to poverty and systemic racism, as most of the problems Detroit faces are seen most in these communities.
It's no secret I thought this film was awful. Most of what it said about Detroit was already said in other films we watched and books we read. However, I'd like to point out its poor use of character, plot, and foreshadowing.
The film is written from a third-limited perspective, mostly following a woman who traveled to Detroit for an interview. Later on, it hops to a celebrity who's been accused of rape, and at the end of the film, the writing struggles between these two views as they coincide. This results in heavy head hopping (where the story switches perspective between characters) throughout a chase scene.
The plot of this horror film initially leads us to believe that the jazz player at the AirBnB had dark intentions, but it soon switches gears once the main character finds an abandoned mine along with an eerie rape room. The issue here is that the plot starts with one topic but leads us in a different direction soon afterward. Because of this, the first plot point seems like a null waste of time.
Despite its lack of originality and poor writing, this does on a very basic level inform the viewer of the problems some of the Detroit neighborhoods face.
However, this film doesn't say these problems in a new way, so I don't think it's necessary for the depiction of Detroit. Still, we watched it for class, so here it is in my final.
What it said is that there are neighborhoods in Detroit that have been neglected. It shows this through the characterization of a monstrous woman held in the abandoned mines under the AirBnB. She seems a monster at first glance, just like the homeless man who sprints toward the main character seems dangerous. However, we learn that she is her way because of the neglect that created her. This can be said about the homeless man and about the abandoned neighborhood in Detroit.
An idea board connecting the content of this course to an underlying issue (along with the result) of the problems in Detroit that we've learned about. It also looks like a brain, how cool!
Barbarian should also be noted for its brief moments of exaggerated gore, such as when a character's head is bashed into a wall.
It seems this is the core issue Detroit faces. It has been abandoned by industries, its government, and by people. Media of all kinds seems to represent it in a skewed way, either exaggerating the aftermath of these issues, the habits of its people, or the romanticism of its decay.
This neglect can be seen through systemic racism, through abandonment of industry, and it has resulted in an impoverished city.
If anything, the gore used in various films of this class could represent a severity, just like the nature of exaggerated comedy in Robocop. This severity usually indicates harm being done to somebody, and the people being harmed in gory ways are all citizens of Detroit. Therefore, this ties into the neglect of this city and its people.
The sad truth is that all the ideas proposed for the future of Detroit in some way neglect some group of people. Perhaps this is simply the nature of things, but I think it speaks more to the fact that this city still is not getting what it deserves.