Everything I know about Le Corbusier I know from Jane Jacobs (who hates him, and is well worth reading -- Death and Life of Great American Cities is one of the best books I've read, period).

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Ooh, that's high praise indeed! Adding to my list.

And you, what have you to say for yourself, in re reading Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai?

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I haven't read it, so I can't say! Should I?

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Mm, I'm either going senile, or am grossly negligent. Haven't I recommended the book to you in the most glowing of terms? Have I not affirmed that it was the best book I've read in, oh, ten years?

By which I mean to suggest: drop everything ('cept Verity!) and read it!

Go! Now! I'll wait. You can thank me later.

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Quite possibly! My memory is made of holes. But I now have a systematic place for keeping track of things I mean to read, so I will add this!

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Just yesterday I listened to this podcast http://www.ifyourejustjoiningus.com/2009/12/11/cities-real-and-unreal-a-discussion-of-architecture-and-fiction-with-jeff-vandermeer-jeffrey-ford-geoff-manaugh/

where Geoff Manaugh said that he thinks JG Ballard's writings are a reaction to Le Corbusier ("if you want people to live in buildings like that, this is how they'll behave", or something like that).

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Interesting. Haven't read a word of Ballard yet. Have you?

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Not much beyond a short story ("The Voices of Time") I read for Dr. Brian McHale's "Poetics of Science Fiction" course in 1991(?).

I've probably read more about his writing than of his writings.

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