tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612236787910598522.post7904430297706613642..comments2024-03-28T03:51:53.434-07:00Comments on Will Wiles: George Orwell, ModernistAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15010578099446949633noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612236787910598522.post-79220118078459842382009-11-01T16:33:42.057-08:002009-11-01T16:33:42.057-08:00I don't know exactly how to tease out this tho...I don't know exactly how to tease out this thought:<br /><br />There's something compelling about the fact that when you talk about architecture that Orwell would like, you imagine labour-saving tools for betterment and social change - the best of modernism. But when people talk about Orwellian architecture, the imagination turns to 1984esque monstrous buildings and institutions - the worst of modernism.<br /><br />The double meaning of the poor guy's name accidentally calls out the double associations of modernism, which feels very right to me. Very neat.Tim Malyhttp://www.quietbabylon.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612236787910598522.post-84325307695445525672009-10-21T07:00:46.133-07:002009-10-21T07:00:46.133-07:00Good point Jack. I get frustrated by the enemies o...Good point Jack. I get frustrated by the enemies of modernism misrepresenting the "machine for living in" line as advocating homes that are impersonal, industrial in feel, dehumanising ... it's a wilful misunderstanding of Corb's intent that the house should work for its owner, not the other way round. (I thought of this when I read of the maintenance problems afflicting some Poundbury residents recently.) It's refreshing to see Orwell put his finger on the social benefits of the "machine for living in" - making a home a place of leisure, not an unending source of chores.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15010578099446949633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612236787910598522.post-6604249267886162272009-10-21T03:43:13.047-07:002009-10-21T03:43:13.047-07:00In some ways Orwell's vision of the home as ma...In some ways Orwell's vision of the home <i>as machine for living in</i> is even purer than corbusier's, in that his interest in architecture seems to be solely as a tool for social change - and not an aesthetic pursuit in itself (as it was undoubtedly for corbu).Jack Selfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05526180971020730260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612236787910598522.post-74323089827857591572009-10-20T13:11:18.426-07:002009-10-20T13:11:18.426-07:00Thanks Will. It is indeed Didcot power station. We...Thanks Will. It is indeed Didcot power station. Well done, but did you also spot William Morris's Kelmscott?Paul Richardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17312252918723908503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612236787910598522.post-50825057555579948072009-10-20T07:02:47.752-07:002009-10-20T07:02:47.752-07:00(this Keiller link quotes some more Orwell)(<a href="http://www.bftv.ac.uk/newslet1/0304p3.htm" rel="nofollow">this Keiller link</a> quotes some more Orwell)owen hatherleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943115307136493045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612236787910598522.post-51736654313534554202009-10-20T06:59:38.483-07:002009-10-20T06:59:38.483-07:00The Ingsoc book is a big one on socialist aestheti...The <em>Ingsoc</em> book is a big one on socialist aesthetics in the UK which I don't intend to write for a good few years, until I get a lot of other things out of the way (and can get a decent price for it, touch wood etc) It's mainly for the title tbh, but Orwell's quasi-modernism was definitely going to be mentioned therein, perhaps getting a chapter, along with his jibes at both Arts and Crafts and Constructivism (implicitly) in <em>The Road to Wigan Pier</em>. And lots of the ideas in it feed into <a href="" rel="nofollow">In the Shadow of Senate House</a>.<br /><br />Incidentally Patrick Keiller has used that Goldstein quote to introduce his <a href="http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/resources/CF.html" rel="nofollow">City of the Future project</a>, which is much more interesting and more Orwellian in its wider form, with juxtapositions between enormously similar (and now dilapidated) Edwardian and 21st century landscapes, than in the enormously truncated version of it that he inexplicably exhibited at the BFI.owen hatherleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943115307136493045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612236787910598522.post-3867627822727099772009-10-20T06:17:55.105-07:002009-10-20T06:17:55.105-07:00Owen, that modern block crops up every now and the...Owen, that modern block crops up every now and then in As I Please and elsewhere - for instance, he mentions the fact that part of it was ruined by snowfall every winter in the AIP I linked to (I believe it's the same building). But it's never really clear what he thinks about it beyond his horror at its decay, and the decay of everything else. In an AIP a few weeks away from the one above, he talks about his fear that the war could go on forever as what we would now call a "low-intensity conflict" - little immediate danger but occasional flying bombs, and of course everything decaying. We now know of course that that was one of the idea that fed into 1984. The Goldstein quote you've put up on your own blog is so perfect, I'm kicking myself. You've mentioned an IngSoc project - is Orwell a feature of that beyond the name?<br /><br />Paul, great cartoon - I love your other work as well, like that drawing of the Trellick tower! And is that Didcot Power Station, Ox-Megastructure-1?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15010578099446949633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612236787910598522.post-34854125943177347642009-10-20T05:34:07.391-07:002009-10-20T05:34:07.391-07:00Excellent article.
In Homage to Catalonia he make...Excellent article.<br /><br />In Homage to Catalonia he makes a disparaging comment about Sagrada Familia, but also comments favourably on what I think must be another Gaudi building, maybe the Casa Batllo, without realising they were by the same architect. I don't have the quotes to hand, and may be wrong. I'm going to have to re-read it now...<br /><br />By the way, I happen to have have just posted a comic strip about Orwell on my <a href="http://paulfranciscomics.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-post.html" rel="nofollow"><br />blog</a>.Paul Richardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17312252918723908503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612236787910598522.post-70136148315090900122009-10-20T05:23:03.264-07:002009-10-20T05:23:03.264-07:00Orwell did live in a fairly moderne block in North...Orwell did live in a fairly <em>moderne</em> block in North London in the early 40s, which curiously I don't think he wrote about directly, but which has been conjectured as either a model for the dilapidated Victory Mansions or for the well-appointed flats of the Inner Party. <a href="http://www.orwelltoday.com/orwellflatlangford.shtml" rel="nofollow">it went up for sale not long ago...</a>owen hatherleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943115307136493045noreply@blogger.com