Scan barcode
the_count's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.5
paalomino's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of my all time favorite books. I re-read it often and am always inspired.
hberg95's review against another edition
5.0
It seems completely irrelevant to rate my experience of this book on a five star scale (more than usual, that is). My experience of this book has not been singular. I read this book over the course of the last 5 months, a chapter at a time, alongside a group of other folks who met weekly to discuss it.
At times, I was frustrated. Bachelard's language is so difficult to track at times, often I would be wondering about the implicit meanings lying behind his claims when I really ought to have been taking his claims at face value. There were moments where I didn't agree and couldn't follow and I stand by those problems.
That being said, The Poetics of Space has challenged me to open my eyes to the world in new ways. I read this book shortly after re-modeling and selling my childhood home and it helped me understand that experience in a new way. I now have new and accurate language to understand the experiences of vastness, felicity, immensity, and the coziness of corners.
One of the most profound bits of Bachelard's analysis that has stuck with me from the start actually helps explain my feelings about this book and my experience with it, specifically his remark that poems and texts function by "expressing us by making us what [they express]". I'm not walking away from this work in phenomenology with a deep understanding of the truths of the universe or a profound understanding of my place in the world, but I do feel like this book has become personally meaningful to me. Between the pages are scribbled moments and images that connect me to the images Bachelard expresses. When he talks about the familiar feel of doorknobs and latches in our childhood abodes, I have my own images; when he speaks of moments of vastness or corners of comfort, I've written and thought of my own.
It is not a typical experience in reading philosophy, but I would certainly recommend it to anyone open to this type of phenomenological exploration.
At times, I was frustrated. Bachelard's language is so difficult to track at times, often I would be wondering about the implicit meanings lying behind his claims when I really ought to have been taking his claims at face value. There were moments where I didn't agree and couldn't follow and I stand by those problems.
That being said, The Poetics of Space has challenged me to open my eyes to the world in new ways. I read this book shortly after re-modeling and selling my childhood home and it helped me understand that experience in a new way. I now have new and accurate language to understand the experiences of vastness, felicity, immensity, and the coziness of corners.
One of the most profound bits of Bachelard's analysis that has stuck with me from the start actually helps explain my feelings about this book and my experience with it, specifically his remark that poems and texts function by "expressing us by making us what [they express]". I'm not walking away from this work in phenomenology with a deep understanding of the truths of the universe or a profound understanding of my place in the world, but I do feel like this book has become personally meaningful to me. Between the pages are scribbled moments and images that connect me to the images Bachelard expresses. When he talks about the familiar feel of doorknobs and latches in our childhood abodes, I have my own images; when he speaks of moments of vastness or corners of comfort, I've written and thought of my own.
It is not a typical experience in reading philosophy, but I would certainly recommend it to anyone open to this type of phenomenological exploration.
naiapard's review against another edition
good. so very good. not the best of the best, but among the best of the good.
yuefei's review against another edition
4.0
Finally done with this bad boy! A challenging but ultimately rewarding read. Bachelard’s idea about a phenomenology of the imagination, one that tries to examine images with a primal, immemorial source, is utterly mesmerising and fertile (though I do believe poetry/art consists of more than that which Bachelard values most in this book). A lot of it went over my head - it’s super dense - definitely down for a re-read. I don’t think I’ll look at poetry (or elements of reality) in the same way again.
nicktomjoe's review against another edition
I can see that many people who read this book found it life-changing. I'm afraid I wasn't one of them: from misunderstanding about how birds use nests to play around whether "in" suggests figurative language in the phrase "in his mind," I found it not only difficult but perversely whimsical. I am perfectly prepared to believe that I haven't read enough of this genre to appreciate the talent behind it.
Having said that, it is full of rich imagery and ideas that I found myself applying to my reading of the work of Lucy Boston, whose novels themselves are a meditation on what Bachelard describes as "the daydream..." where "childhood remains alive," and where "an entire past comes to dwell." But rather a lot of verbiage just for quotable quotes? Perhaps I'm being unfair: this was an unfamiliar type of text, a different approach to meditation on space, and I maybe just didn't appreciate its richness. For this reason I don't feel competent to give it a star rating: it's not as if I really appreciate them often, after all...
Having said that, it is full of rich imagery and ideas that I found myself applying to my reading of the work of Lucy Boston, whose novels themselves are a meditation on what Bachelard describes as "the daydream..." where "childhood remains alive," and where "an entire past comes to dwell." But rather a lot of verbiage just for quotable quotes? Perhaps I'm being unfair: this was an unfamiliar type of text, a different approach to meditation on space, and I maybe just didn't appreciate its richness. For this reason I don't feel competent to give it a star rating: it's not as if I really appreciate them often, after all...