HomefromNowhere

First Impressions

I began reading this fine book on the recommendation of my good friend Emily. It looked interesting enough by its cover (but then, I could say that about many other unread books sitting in crates and on my shelves); that Emily communicated a particular excitement for the book was the needed push to get me started.

Thanks, Emily!

Kunstler's wholesale rejection of car-culture/suburbia dove-tails nicely with my own wariness about the role of consumer culture in enabling warmongering oil-based oligarchy. More importantly, though, Kunstler manages to convey his hatred of the culture cars have forced upon us with a finesse and precision that transcends tirade and sparkles with those moments of visionary alternative that must accompany any useful critique.

This man wants intellectuals to talk about beauty, again. That was my clue that he is some sort of classisist, in the architectural/aesthetic sense. There is beauty out there, and enough of us can agree about it that it is worth building, Kunstler says. Such endeavors are not the imposition of a limiting aesthetic, but necessary for us to believe we are citizens and our civic efforts (our efforts 'for the good') go for something.

Although full of vitriol for a world Americans have stupidly built and accommodated since the 1950's, Home from Nowhere is full of vision sufficiently alive to provide a counterbalance, and on these two wings, takes off to exhilerating hights of perspective on economic and cultural history, as well as planning and architecture.