Session Ten: The Epic (Pt 1)

The last two 'texts' are in many ways the opposite of each other, but they share the same epic quality, and the same doorstop level in size. It is impossible to make a reading of the whole book 'USA', it will be slightly easier to abbreviate the film 'The Fountainhead'. Part of this book's epic quality is to try and do everything; in turn novel, newsreel, snapshot and biography, merging fact and fiction; in short it tries to be 'the Great American Novel'. I've selected certain sections.  

The first section I would like you to read/research/google is the chapter 'The Bitter Drink' (pg 806) a portrait of the thinker Thorstein Veblen, author of 'Theory of the Leisure Class'(1899). 

The second his portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright in the chapter 'Architect' (pg1076).

The third his portrait of Henry Ford in the chapter 'Tin Lizzie' (pg769).

These are all sections of the same, relatively short and concise, 'biographical' type.

The intension is to lodge this book in your mind for future reference. You never know when you might need reference to it, especially given the way the America it describes has developed over the last century. Certainly if Dos Passos was writing today, there would be a chapter on 'Trump'.

Session Nine: Parody

This novel, set in the roaring twenties in Britain, is a parody of England's class ridden society. The architect, Professor Silenus, is (of course) and emigre from Eastern Europe where things are far more progressive. You are asked to read Part Two of the story, but Silenus reappears at the end, almost enjoying the last laugh. Given the progressive, perhaps utopian, nature of modernism it is illuminating to read Waugh's witty scorn that implies that here really things will ever be the same, and to understand his view of modernism written for laughs. 

Session Eight: Colin Rowe

In this reading we will discuss the work of historian and postmodern theorist Colin Rowe. We have jumped over the Faustian imperative in Le Corbusier for a moment, and will study, in particular, Rowe's essay 'Mathematics of the Ideal Villa' (1947) and take a glance at his essay 'La Tourette' contained in the volume 'Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays'.

I wrote about Rowe for Reputations in the Architectural Review in the August edition 2015. I suggest you read it; it's easily downloadable on-line, then focus on the 1947 text.

Hint:

It is a good idea not to read too much Rowe in one go and to read it carefully. This will be especially difficult to do in class. I suggest you read MOTIV in two parts, and you will become aware of the great fastidiousness of the argument, as well as perhaps thinking it almost too good to be true!

Session Seven: The Production of Space

This reading is the chapter 'Social Space' pages 68-80. This material should be downloadable via your booklist on moodle (hopefully the Paul Mason chapter 'The Rational Reason for Panic' and Marshall Berman on Faust are also available this way- let me know if there is a bug in the system).
This reading involves materialist interrogation of words and their meanings, and in that interrogation (not a pleasant word but an appropriate one) we begin to read ideologies that lie hidden beneath appearances. Take the word 'home'. The media is rife with the screaming need for 'homes', but the word 'home' has particular connotations. Really what can only be provided is 'houses' or perhaps 'accommodations'. 'Homes' smacks of advertising.
I read this segment each year and whilst it's a bit of a struggle I always get something more out of it. In particular the difference between 'work' and 'product' talked through here. This should shine some light on discussions you no doubt find yourself having all the time about the value of technology (or for that matter the value of human labour) highly pertinent to the world in general, let alone architectural production.
If English is your second language, you may find this stuff even more difficult, but feel for the translator who had to convert it from the original French! In your reading, when the going gets tough, I would recommend searching 'short cuts' via the web to get some background on how to situate Lefebvre, and the best background of all, if you are stuck with the idea of Lefebvre's Marxism in the first place, is to read Marxism for Beginners, a cheap cartoon book by Ruis which is an invaluable springboard.

Session Six: Counterculture

Having looked at the faustian imperative and seen how we might see it mirrored in the life and career in that great believer in organisation and the new tomorrow, Le Corbusier, it's time to look at reactions against the actual consequence; the military industrial complex. You are asked to read the poem above, readily downloadable, from the father (if you like) of the Beatniks, whilst I will complement this reading with discussion of sixties counterculturalists William Burroughs, Marshall McLuhan, and the literary figure Norman Mailer, who was mentioned by Berman in the context of that curious attempt to levitate the Pentagon.