…the Great Atlantis (that you call America)

Through a process of simultaneous events, mystified into the idea of ‘coincidence’, this arrived earlier – A Concrete Atlantis: US Industrial Building and European Modern Architecture by Reyner Banham. It is not really ‘about’ the working class of the USA. But without that class none of the grain elevators, car factories, print works and otherContinue reading “…the Great Atlantis (that you call America)”

Hamburg to Dakar

On the recommendation of a friend I’ve acquired Patrick Keiller’s book ‘London‘. It complements well the other two books I’m currently reading, Voltaire’s Letters on England and Reyner Banham’s Theory and Design in the First Machine Age. We learn that in ‘1735 the French authorities were so disturbed by Voltaire’s book ‘Letters on England’ (LettresContinue reading “Hamburg to Dakar”

Winter Walk

Script…is pitilessly dragged out into the streets of advertisements, and subjected to the brutal heteronomies of economic chaos…Before a contemporary finds his way to opening a book, his eyes have been exposed to such a blizzard of changing, colourful, conflicting letters such that the chance of penetrating the archaic stillness of the book are slight.Continue reading “Winter Walk”