tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post3475701677996651165..comments2023-10-19T05:40:59.162-04:00Comments on Sippican Cottage: What The Hell Is A Victorian House?SippicanCottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14940797380578921776noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-71306233210667171462007-05-05T16:17:00.000-04:002007-05-05T16:17:00.000-04:00Hi Sissy- Thank you for reading and commenting. Th...Hi Sissy- Thank you for reading and commenting. <BR/><BR/>The quote you referenced is a bit jarring. It's boilerplate anti-Victorian on first gloss.<BR/><BR/>I had to re-read it a few times to realize the fellow was saying the exact opposite of what I thought he was at first. He said the deficiencies he outlined were imaginary, and we brought them with us because we had a preconceived notion of the inhabitants of the houses, which he is positing is entirely incorrect. <BR/><BR/>He talks about the Victorian style of massing and arranging rooms for picturesque effect. The ornamentation was added to that to achieve a kind of density, but the bones of the houses were almost sublimely arranged and decorated. It's really hard to do. And his idea is that not only do we not know how to do it anymore, we don't even know how to appreciate it any more. <BR/><BR/>Your formulation:<I> an accretion of architectural sound bites in search of an author</I> is very good, and a lively way to describe postmodernism: Just grabbing gewgaws and gluing them willy nilly all over a tract house on steroids stapled to the ass end of a garage in a cornfield, as it were.<BR/><BR/>Postmodernism uses architectural and cultural symbols as a sort of visual pun. No one sane wants to live in a pun.SippicanCottagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14940797380578921776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-65807401477361531152007-05-05T07:26:00.000-04:002007-05-05T07:26:00.000-04:00This bit caught my eye in that proto-multiculti-li...This bit caught my eye in that proto-multiculti-lite intro to the Victorian Houses book:<BR/><BR/>"The traditional theory in Western culture is that architecture is style . . . applied to structure."<BR/><BR/>What about the classic proportions that underlie those houses of yore? In my artistic eye, today's functional equivalent of the Victorian urban mansion -- the lumpish trophy mansion plunked in the middle of an old cowfield -- is an accretion of architectural sound bites in search of an author.<BR/><BR/>Your blog rocks! . . . 'found it via Maggie's Farm.Sissy Willishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04316411260777111360noreply@blogger.com