Is there a bias among writers and critics toward cities as a setting?

I hear Centralia, and I automatically think 'Silent Hill'.

 

???

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

Centralia, PA was the inspiration for the game Silent Hill.

 

Ohhhh lol

 

Steering away from naming a city or state for that matter. One of my stories takes place in A CITY and ITS SUBURB along with the surrounding neighborhoods. Just good ol' Anywhre U.S. It could be anywhere since most states have a capital or a big city and suburbs and downtown, etc.

 

Doesn't most people in the US still live in the country side?
If so then I think in your country more people would feel at home in a country side setting.

 

no... only a small percentage of the us population now lives in rural areas... as of 2012, 79% of the US population lives in urban areas...

 

yeah I ment country side and small town and villages. As oposed to cities.

 

For the first time in human history the majority of the world population are city dwellers. The preponderance of educational institutions are in cities. People write what they know.

 

well, that's what the statistic shows... that the vast majority [79%] of americans now live in cities, not in the 'countryside, small towns and villages'...

 

Maybe not if you're a creationist.

 

Not necessarily in cities though.

 

Yeah, that's what makes me scratch my head a lot: "urban" is both downtown Manhattan and your average Dhaka City (Bangladesh) slum. It's a very, very broad term. However, so is "rural". A farming community in New York (state) and a "lost" hunter-gatherer tribe in Brazilian rain forest are both said to be "rural"

 

'urban areas' genereally means just the city and adjacent suburbs... neither of which could be considered 'rural' or 'countryside and small towns or villages'...

so, that 79% figure i quoted undeniably contradicts:

so, why all the quibbling?

 

I don't think it matters as much for books so long as when you describe the setting the reader can imagine being there. A prime example is Twilight which was/is wildly popular, being set in Forks, Washington. It worked to the stories advantage in that it was a small enough town that the rest of the world wouldn't notice the weird stuff going on. Murder mysteries can also work better in these settings b/c it can take a while before the authorities/public completely notice what's going on.

Also if you ever want a big city setting but don't want the cliched NYC, LA, Chicago, etc, there are many other major cities in almost every state (Dallas, Austin, St. Louis, Denver, etc) that could work but still seem fresh

 

Well think of it this way: if you do use a major city, not everyone in your audience lives there or knows much about the place, but you might find yourself skimping on detail of the city since it already exists. But when you use an obscure place, that few people know of, you can make it your own, and make things up as you go along, if you are comfortable doing that, of course. It's always fun going somewhere new, and I think it would be fun for other writers to create their own places so you're kind of going on a new adventure with your readers.