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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rambi who wrote (64936)	3/19/2004 11:53:56 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

My theory is that people have reached such a point of alienation, are so far from home, have these vague yearnings for a time when people actually had roots and knew their neighbors, that they are trying to find it again, but don't understand that it is not something you replace with a new decor. I think you're bang-on right about the relationship between recent architecture and the general mood of the population. There do tend to be strong correlations between architectural styles and the prevailing events of the time. I've probably mentioned this before, but one of my degrees is in art history with a specialization in architectural history. When I drive through any town or city, the architecture tells me so much about the people who lived there - the type of industry that supported the town, ethnic background of the inhabitants, distribution of wealth and poverty, availability of certain materials, which design books people were getting their plans from during a certain year on a certain street in the town or city. It's like the town or city is wearing its entire history on its buildings. But I digress... Returning to your point about people attempting to recreate a time when they had roots and knew their neighbours. This has been a common topic of discussion among my circle of friends. Much current public architecture seems to attempt two things. One style recreates the kind of houses and interior spaces that remind most of us of visits to our grandparents' farmhouses in the country. The other kind -- the heavily-massed stone and brick McMansions with their fancy entrance halls, great rooms and faux expansiveness, remind us of the old manor houses where gracious hosts presided over assemblages of witty dinner guests. Of course, the irony is that we can easily build these houses, but they don't work like time machines. We can't open the door and find grandma baking bread at the wood range. And with everyone living such hectic lives these days, the likelihood of assembling 20 witty guests in one room on the same evening is almost nil -- and if it did occur, doubtless, the harpist in the corner would be continuously interrupted by the chirping of guests' cellphones. The architectural time machine doesn't work all that well. Equally of interest (and rather disturbing) to my circle of friends is the strange revival of Roman architecture for public and commercial institutions. What kind of message is that supposed to be sending out to the public? Is this the last hurrah before Nero breaks out his fiddle? We'll be watching with interest to see which style follows next. Seems like it's been awhile since we've seen a good rash of New Brutalism. <g> I've read The Poisonwood Bible. A good friend's father gave it to me about 3 years ago. Interesting novel. Makes you think, doesn't it? A few years ago, I studied literature under a professor who has written several books on British lit during the colonial period. Kingsolver's novel manages to tweak a lot of the same nerves exposed by a good dose of post-colonial critical theory. Loved the Ogden Nash. How true.