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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Helen DeWitt's - The Last Samurai, due to your recommendation then I couldn't help but search the review on Amazon. by the book title I thought this might be a "Shogun/James Clavell" type book which it isn't. Still it looks like a good read so me thinks Ill add on to my list as well.


The below is from the Publishers review of the book (on Amazon) and surely must be qualified as torture.
To avoid the cold, they ride the Underground on the Circle Line train daily, traveling around London as Ludo reads the Odyssey, learns Japanese and masters mathematics and science.

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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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