The New, New City

Beton Brut said:
ablarc -- Before we have a revisit of the tiresome and all-too-frequent piss tossing, could you put some bread around this sandwich?
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Sorry, BetonBrut, I wasn't even referring to the substance of Ouroussoff's article. How could I have been? --there isn't any substance.

I was referring instead to this shallow screed's journalistic vacuity, its uncritical passing-on of pop profundity. Did you catch, for example, his opening quote from Koolhaas? Was anything so utterly devoid of content ever intoned by a soi-disant sage? It goes downhill from there.

I can't truthfully claim to have read the whole article. At some point I simply tired of slogging through the tedious writing, the uncritical litany of received wisdom, the wide-eyed wonder at what is commonplace to most of us who aren't in denial.

Of course we're played out in this country --no news there. We're effete and incapable of potent action like the last emperor's China: bureaucratized, demoralized, traumatized and paralyzed. So what else is new? Haven't most of us known this for ages? Can't you find its awareness in scores of posts on this forum; why-can't-we-get-anything-done-anymore laments jump out at you from half the threads.

We're through with running the world. We don't have the power, the savvy or the will. We're old and tired and grey, we're reactionary and undynamic, we're socially regressive, internationally despised, clueless about what to do next. And China will be Number One by midcentury. What else is new? This passes for illumination?

His attempts at commentary on architectural and urban planning theory are so void of truth or insight that they deserve to be ignored.

BetonBrut said:
I'm of the opinion that the West is only good at exporting its worst habits and character traits.
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You mean like hyping democracy and chewing gum?

BetonBrut said:
Maybe that's what your saying here? You've never been a broad generalizations guy.
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I've always been a broad generalizations guy, but usually with a little detail (slathered with a whole lot of bombast in a630's eyes.)

Btw, how did he get the idea I was an untraveled xenophobe?
 
ablarc said:
We're through with running the world. We don't have the power, the savvy or the will.
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And isn't that a good thing? I've never favored US imperialism and will be glad when we leave it behind. Plenty of other countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark and Italy have found ways to prosper without the need to "run the world" anymore.
 
Van, did you snip off the tail of this thread and move it to "General" under the slightly ponderous title, "How Would You Fix this Country"? Or was it Briv?

That tail grew rather organically out of the original discussion that grew out of the Ouroussoff article, and to be honest I'm a little sorry to see it amputated. Are we left with two stumps?

In any case, here's the rest of this thread in its new quarters: http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?p=55054#post55054

Not sure it's all that comfy there. Would you consider stitching it back where it came from?
 
ablarc: It was I, and I did it only because I knew if people responded to it the thread would tangent off, having nothing to do with the original post.

You posted a link to the other thread so I think that will suffice if people want to read what happened.
 
well, China builds all these amazing buildings but there cities overall are just awfully ugly. its a mess of random skyscrapers with no flow and everything is blanketed in pollution. I mean, even our thousands of skyscraper cities, new york and chicago, at least have some what of a shape and character to there skyline.

having said that, the individual buildings in asia are so much cooler...
 
How come this thread has racked up so many Hits?

19,275?
 
Wow, that is really odd.

Briv, can you get IP addresses for visits/referrals to individual threads or just the site as a whole?
 
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