Scan barcode
A review by nicktomjoe
The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard
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...