Is there a glass-breaking equivalent of pyromania? A name for someone who, for whatever reason, is driven to break glass? Attaching a name to something can attract interest in it. Scientific interest, aesthetic interest. The recognition of a name allows us to say, "Yeah, it's a thing," and now the thing has a name.
I noticed an increase in storefront broken glass during the first years of the pandemic. Because some businesses were "pausing", they never bothered to replace their broken glass, boarding it over instead. The cumulative effect was most noticeable on the downtown portion of Granville Street, a stretch that has struggled since 1973 when that modernist egg known as the Eaton's building was laid, the Pacific Centre Mall was built and car traffic was re-routed. The 2020 stretch boasted full occupancy (construction and renovations aside), yet these boarded up shops suggested otherwise.
So is it the sound of breaking glass that attracts the thrymmatizo-maniac? The visual effect? Both? Could it also be political? An attack on the capitalist mode of production? More research is needed.
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