Eyesores

by Kieran Healy on December 16, 2003

Architects like to think of their work as social theory made real. Conversely, paging through the examples in James Howard Kunstler’s Eyesore of the Month is like reading a stack of freshman essays on Smith and Marx written by students who didn’t do any reading and were too drunk to come to lectures.

Incidentally, I had no idea that the Dark Tower of Barad-Dur — eye of Sauron and all — is now located in Nashville.

{ 7 comments }

1

T. Gracchus 12.17.03 at 12:08 am

Thank you.

2

Cliff Styles 12.17.03 at 1:43 am

Barad-Dur is priceless…but…aren’t you afraid Sauron is watching this blog?

3

Katherine 12.17.03 at 2:03 am

“I had no idea that the Dark Tower of Barad-Dur — eye of Sauron and all — is now located in Nashville.”

Well, duh. That’s where Al Gore and his minions are plotting to undermine democracy as we speak. Did you fall off our email list or something?

Kuntsler is a very angry person, isn’t he? (Not without reason, I am as anti parking lot nation as they come. I’m from Long Island so seeing the rest of the country start to look the same way makes me feel very Cassandrish.)

4

Keith M Ellis 12.17.03 at 3:52 am

Christ, that was depressing. I went back to early 2000.

He’s mostly right, but I can’t imagine seeing the world through those eyes constantly. I’d have to shoot myself.

I need a drink.

5

David Sucher 12.17.03 at 4:03 am

Jim Kunstler is correct about the awful state of suburban development of course. But he has a bit of a tendency to see the dark side. For example, he expects us to “run out of oil” — and off a cliff, rather than merely down a slope.

To look on the bright side, a great many of those horrible suburban malls represent tremendous opportunities. For example, when I see a huge parking lot I see the opportunity to redevelop it into lots and blocks.

The built world is not fixed and static but is very plastic and malleable.

6

Jeffrey Kramer 12.17.03 at 9:21 am

It isn’t just “the rest of the country,” Katherine. Bangkok (“The Venice of the East” in old travelbooks) is now well on its way to becoming The Indianapolis of the East.

7

praktike 12.17.03 at 6:05 pm

Oy.

What’s up with this line from November:

This exercise in hyper-entropic avant garde faggotry is so cutting edge that it is already out of date.

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