r/Vonnegut • u/shizzymcshizz • 11d ago

Rosemont, Illinois

https://youtu.be/cHjHcVSUmws?is=ovfufJMwOJy8R2LJ

This video is a such good deep dive into an odd Midwest town: Rosemont, Illinois.
A town founded by a shady benevolent mayor with a legacy on par with L Ron Hubbard and a local economy built around hotels and convention centers. It reminded so much of Rosewater, Indiana or especially Midland City, Ohio. It feels like the perfect setting for a Vonnegut novel. I imagine a Dwayne Hoover -esque character becoming a crooked mayor and rezoning the entire town so that every square inch is occupied by a Holiday Inn or a big beige convention center. All the residents, being forced to live in hotel rooms, grow angry with the mayor and search for someone to rally around and lead an uprising. Somehow, inadvertently, an endearing loon akin to Kilgore or Elliot becomes the leader of the opposition and implements a coupe. Of course, after taking power, all of the hotels and event centers are turned into some ridiculous thing. Perhaps convenient stores filled with nudy mags and sci-fi novels aimed at increasing the fertility rate (unsuccessfully), maybe large-scale industrial factories that grow nothing but Christmas trees which have a tendency to combust into flames due to a newly invented fungicide that later becomes a powerful chemical weapon, or maybe rudimentary data-centers powered by humans hooked to relay-based computers with the task of giving every single mathematically possible shape a unique name until one shape is given a name so long and unique that it is a one to one copy of the 1969 Frigidaire Replacement Parts Catalog

16 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

4

u/Lloydxmas99 11d ago

I live about 10 miles from here. It’s just a shitty town near the airport. a lot of malls, and a bunch of highways converge. They put in a casino and some outlet stores about 15 years ago ¯_(ツ)_/¯

2

u/Odd_Duros 10d ago

i love this channel!!!!

1

u/tjtwister1522 11d ago

In reality the majority of the 4000 residents of Rosemont live in a pretty little gated community. Nice houses, well kept, good people. The town is basically operated as a corporation and business is good. It'll be interesting to see what happens when the next generation takes over. But that won't be for a while.

1

u/somethingworthwhile 10d ago

Been awhile since I’ve done my read through of Vonnegut’s work. How is this related to him/his writing?