Source: Silent Hill Historical Society (City Opinion Survey Findings)
Author: Louis Guitteau
Every so often the SHHS likes to put out a survey to measure what citizens think of the town so that the city council may know what to focus on in the next few years. The results of this survey, and the last four, have been increasingly suffering from patterned scoring, that is respondents are marking answers straight down in only one or two columns. People voted that they were either completely indifferent, completely appalled, or completely in love with SH. Clearly this is not a depiction of a normal town, which ought to have certain good points and certain bad points, which ought to create a range of answers across the board, not columned answers.
So in an effort to help determine if there was something wrong with the survey and the manner it was performed, I began to interview some of the respondents.
People who marked they enjoyed the city, told me they love the gleaming architecture, the quaint old houses merging with the new, and that the tourist attractions gave them activities to do; they mentioned words like safe, wonderful and "like heaven."
Those who were indifferent to the city really were quite indifferent. "Just a city" and "another place to live, like any other," were fairly common phrases; they talked about the occasional fog, the tourist income but also the garbage tourism created. They would like to see more money invested in education and support for the elderly, but they also want their taxes lowered. Everything was a fairly typical American responses, normal.
Individuals who marked that the loathed Silent Hill, well, they seemed runned down, haunted by their lives or work, clearly under some sort of exceptional stress. Their yards were dying, their doors triple bolted, and their glances quick and furtive. Silent Hill to them was decaying before their eyes, the peeling paint on the houses, the rust on the street lamps, barnacles on the docked ships, locked fenced off lots, vacant buildings, and the crime rate. They often spoke of the local conspiracy theories, like that of the cult and the dangers of the lake. "It's hell," "hell on earth" "god forsaken city" were all mentioned, but the most curious was "a city living on borrowed time."
It is evident to me that the people of Silent Hill are experiencing very, very different aspects, versions, or realities of Silent Hill. Though the reason why is up in the air. Perhaps people are choosing to see only what interests them, perhaps with such strange occurrences people focus only on the good, the neutral or the bad, maybe it's something else entirely.
Author: Louis Guitteau
Every so often the SHHS likes to put out a survey to measure what citizens think of the town so that the city council may know what to focus on in the next few years. The results of this survey, and the last four, have been increasingly suffering from patterned scoring, that is respondents are marking answers straight down in only one or two columns. People voted that they were either completely indifferent, completely appalled, or completely in love with SH. Clearly this is not a depiction of a normal town, which ought to have certain good points and certain bad points, which ought to create a range of answers across the board, not columned answers.
So in an effort to help determine if there was something wrong with the survey and the manner it was performed, I began to interview some of the respondents.
People who marked they enjoyed the city, told me they love the gleaming architecture, the quaint old houses merging with the new, and that the tourist attractions gave them activities to do; they mentioned words like safe, wonderful and "like heaven."
Those who were indifferent to the city really were quite indifferent. "Just a city" and "another place to live, like any other," were fairly common phrases; they talked about the occasional fog, the tourist income but also the garbage tourism created. They would like to see more money invested in education and support for the elderly, but they also want their taxes lowered. Everything was a fairly typical American responses, normal.
Individuals who marked that the loathed Silent Hill, well, they seemed runned down, haunted by their lives or work, clearly under some sort of exceptional stress. Their yards were dying, their doors triple bolted, and their glances quick and furtive. Silent Hill to them was decaying before their eyes, the peeling paint on the houses, the rust on the street lamps, barnacles on the docked ships, locked fenced off lots, vacant buildings, and the crime rate. They often spoke of the local conspiracy theories, like that of the cult and the dangers of the lake. "It's hell," "hell on earth" "god forsaken city" were all mentioned, but the most curious was "a city living on borrowed time."
It is evident to me that the people of Silent Hill are experiencing very, very different aspects, versions, or realities of Silent Hill. Though the reason why is up in the air. Perhaps people are choosing to see only what interests them, perhaps with such strange occurrences people focus only on the good, the neutral or the bad, maybe it's something else entirely.