I am trying to read this marvellous book by Anthony Vidler, but sad to say it is too intellectual for me. I know that the effort involved to study it and get to grips with his ideas would be counterproductive. I would get led away from immediacy and my own creative understanding towards a tense effort to follow and comprehend the many threads and the great knowledge within this book.
For the record, it is a reflection on the uncanny or the strange, the "unhomely" which haunts our modern world both in private and in public. Vidler traces the history of this idea and its influence back to the eighteenth century and explores the work of some contemporary architects in the light of this history. I think it is too far outwith the focus on Christopher Alexander that is the underpinning idea of this blog at present.
I thought I might be ready to read this book, but I am already struggling and getting frustrated by its density and its powerful insights, which keep on coming. Maybe I will just have to skim it and wait for another time. Maybe I will have another go and come back and rewrite this post!
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