American Decay (p40)

(Setting:  Freeman, the protagonist, takes in the ambience of an industrial district that has decayed into oblivion.)

Oddly, Freeman felt comfortable in this forsaken venue. A burned out shell of a once proud building made a statement to the world that was unambiguous. These urban carcasses held no pretensions and offered a truth unfiltered by the media and politicians. Something once right was now terribly wrong. Something once heroic had gone awry. This industrial district was now a barren ghost town, inhabited only by furry demon rats that were gleefully dividing up the slowly rotting remains of a vanished civilization. These scavenging rodents were a metaphor for the political and cultural dissolution that ate away the foundation of the businesses that had once prospered here. The stark reality of this struck a harmonious chord in him, like a tuning fork ringing out in perfect melancholy resonance.