Untitled Document<\/title> \n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=iso-8859-1\"> \n<\/meta><\/head><\/p>\n<body><\/p>\n <\/p>\n[Editor’s Note<\/strong>: I started this entry in mid-August, \n just before school started. But at some point before I could finish it, responsibility \n kicked in, and I actually went back and finished my syllabi… As the subject line states here, the syllabi are done, hooray!, so I begin to tidy up some left-over “vacation tasks”… :) ]<\/p>\nHere on the verge of a new semester, with "syllabi to go before I sleep," \n I find myself looking back, reflecting on my summer past, my vacation, my recovery \n from the long haul of the tenure-trauma that wore me down so.<\/p>\nI’m thinking about Falling Water, a side trip on our "Baseball Vacation." \n Falling Water fit–the principle of the fittedness<\/i> of context, environment, \n and structure being so key to Frank Lloyd Wright–Falling Water fit between \n Cleveland, the game at Jacobs Field (with the highly entertaining between inning \n commentary by a very drunk, or increasingly drunk, Paul Assenmacher), and the \n game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. And now, as I’m writing and posting syllabi, \n my computer falls to sleep, and starts cycling through all the pictures scattered \n across its hard drive. There arises <a href=\"http:\/\/english.sxu.edu\/bonadonna\/images\/falling.jpg\">Falling \n Water<\/a><\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/english.sxu.edu\/bonadonna\/images\/falling.jpg\"\/> <\/p>\nThere are so many things to love about Falling Water. For one…just how many \n years has it been since I last used the word, "cantilevered"? Our delightful \n guide explained the cantilevered design with such thoroughnesss and "balance." \n <a href=\"http:\/\/english.sxu.edu\/bonadonna\/images\/guide.jpg\">Our Guide<\/b><\/a>: She was a young, Gen-X-er-aged woman, but really she belonged to \n another generation. Her admiration for Wright, for the society that is preserving \n the home, for museums and art and possibilities, all bespoke a centering in \n some kind of timeless humanitarian possibility. In a word, she struck me as \n a true-believer in the gentle, melioristic influences (and compulsions) of art \n and ideas; she had no pretension, no judgment of the rest of the world. She \n was self-aware and mildly wry, in that wincing way that is very sweet, for there \n is only complexity in it, and no meanness. She kinda nodded to our baseball \n vacation, with a genuine smile, but a half-apologetic disconnectedness or muted \n puzzlement. But I digress…<\/p>\nFalling Water is a beautiful idea–the integration of architecture, nature, \n functionality, human needs–but it’s also a lie and a contradiction.<\/p>\nFor how can I reconcile the humanitarian principle<\/em> that scales everything \n to human needs and proportions (which is five foot seven, fine enough for me \n and Wright, but a little tight for my tallish sons and daughter) with the elitist \n indulgence<\/em> of its many extremes? Egads, the thing was built in the worst \n days of the Depression (for about $8,000–which leads me to think: I could have \n two<\/em> Falling Waters for about the expense of our recent bathroom remodeling, \n but I digress…). And what do you need to situate this house? Land, lots of \n it….and trees…and perhaps some public access roads (on the civic dime, of \n course). Oh yes, a quarry, so you can "dig your own" shale (or whatever \n the stone is). Oh, and one other thing: a waterfall to integrate around and \n within….<\/p>\nI mean: Isn’t there some rhetoric shouting out of all of Wright’s architecture? \n Doesn’t Wright make a counter-statement to the architectures of the past? Yes, \n he was an innovator, but more than that, he was a humanitarian<\/em> innovator, \n in a sense suggesting a kind of universalizing Way to Salvation: Build on these \n principles, if you would have principled buildings… And on what principles \n are the buildings built? Context, function, human proportion, integration, conservation… \n But, spoilsport that I almost<\/em> am (for I did not voice any objection \n as I and my family marveled at the patent splendor), I must reflect at this \n time: There is nothing universalizable about Falling Water (except for its shout \n of privilege, privacy, and the life of an idea…)<\/p>\nI know I’m being unfair, but I’m talking about a feeling<\/em> that Falling \n Water evokes in me. I could never live there…and how could anyone?<\/p>\nAs an idea, Falling Water is not only elegant, but timeless. The water flows \n forever–is flowing now, presumably, as you read this. And I can hear it now, \n and feel soothed by it, awash in the glow of many pleasant memories… The world \n is better for it, and the life of its idea, across generations, and in all kinds \n of circumstances, even a baseball vacation. But it’s a tour de force<\/em>…beautiful…gaudy, \n in its cleverness and elegance.<\/p>\n<\/body> \n<\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Untitled Document [Editor’s Note: I started this entry in mid-August, just before school started. But at some point before I could finish it, responsibility kicked in, and I actually went back and finished my syllabi… As the subject line states here, the syllabi are done, hooray!, so I begin to tidy up some left-over … <a href=\"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/archives\/28\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading The Syllabi Are Written, So Now It’s Time to Catch Up on Vacation…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-life-in-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":28,"date":"2004-09-05T09:01:59","date_gmt":"2004-09-05T14:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.sxu.edu\/bonadonna\/wordpress\/?p=28"},"modified":"2005-08-27T09:04:14","modified_gmt":"2005-08-27T14:04:14","slug":"the-syllabi-are-written-so-now-its-time-to-catch-up-on-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/archives\/28","title":{"rendered":"The Syllabi Are Written, So Now It’s Time to Catch Up on Vacation…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n
\nUntitled Document<\/title> \n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=iso-8859-1\"> \n<\/meta><\/head><\/p>\n<body><\/p>\n <\/p>\n[Editor’s Note<\/strong>: I started this entry in mid-August, \n just before school started. But at some point before I could finish it, responsibility \n kicked in, and I actually went back and finished my syllabi… As the subject line states here, the syllabi are done, hooray!, so I begin to tidy up some left-over “vacation tasks”… :) ]<\/p>\nHere on the verge of a new semester, with "syllabi to go before I sleep," \n I find myself looking back, reflecting on my summer past, my vacation, my recovery \n from the long haul of the tenure-trauma that wore me down so.<\/p>\nI’m thinking about Falling Water, a side trip on our "Baseball Vacation." \n Falling Water fit–the principle of the fittedness<\/i> of context, environment, \n and structure being so key to Frank Lloyd Wright–Falling Water fit between \n Cleveland, the game at Jacobs Field (with the highly entertaining between inning \n commentary by a very drunk, or increasingly drunk, Paul Assenmacher), and the \n game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. And now, as I’m writing and posting syllabi, \n my computer falls to sleep, and starts cycling through all the pictures scattered \n across its hard drive. There arises <a href=\"http:\/\/english.sxu.edu\/bonadonna\/images\/falling.jpg\">Falling \n Water<\/a><\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/english.sxu.edu\/bonadonna\/images\/falling.jpg\"\/> <\/p>\nThere are so many things to love about Falling Water. For one…just how many \n years has it been since I last used the word, "cantilevered"? Our delightful \n guide explained the cantilevered design with such thoroughnesss and "balance." \n <a href=\"http:\/\/english.sxu.edu\/bonadonna\/images\/guide.jpg\">Our Guide<\/b><\/a>: She was a young, Gen-X-er-aged woman, but really she belonged to \n another generation. Her admiration for Wright, for the society that is preserving \n the home, for museums and art and possibilities, all bespoke a centering in \n some kind of timeless humanitarian possibility. In a word, she struck me as \n a true-believer in the gentle, melioristic influences (and compulsions) of art \n and ideas; she had no pretension, no judgment of the rest of the world. She \n was self-aware and mildly wry, in that wincing way that is very sweet, for there \n is only complexity in it, and no meanness. She kinda nodded to our baseball \n vacation, with a genuine smile, but a half-apologetic disconnectedness or muted \n puzzlement. But I digress…<\/p>\nFalling Water is a beautiful idea–the integration of architecture, nature, \n functionality, human needs–but it’s also a lie and a contradiction.<\/p>\nFor how can I reconcile the humanitarian principle<\/em> that scales everything \n to human needs and proportions (which is five foot seven, fine enough for me \n and Wright, but a little tight for my tallish sons and daughter) with the elitist \n indulgence<\/em> of its many extremes? Egads, the thing was built in the worst \n days of the Depression (for about $8,000–which leads me to think: I could have \n two<\/em> Falling Waters for about the expense of our recent bathroom remodeling, \n but I digress…). And what do you need to situate this house? Land, lots of \n it….and trees…and perhaps some public access roads (on the civic dime, of \n course). Oh yes, a quarry, so you can "dig your own" shale (or whatever \n the stone is). Oh, and one other thing: a waterfall to integrate around and \n within….<\/p>\nI mean: Isn’t there some rhetoric shouting out of all of Wright’s architecture? \n Doesn’t Wright make a counter-statement to the architectures of the past? Yes, \n he was an innovator, but more than that, he was a humanitarian<\/em> innovator, \n in a sense suggesting a kind of universalizing Way to Salvation: Build on these \n principles, if you would have principled buildings… And on what principles \n are the buildings built? Context, function, human proportion, integration, conservation… \n But, spoilsport that I almost<\/em> am (for I did not voice any objection \n as I and my family marveled at the patent splendor), I must reflect at this \n time: There is nothing universalizable about Falling Water (except for its shout \n of privilege, privacy, and the life of an idea…)<\/p>\nI know I’m being unfair, but I’m talking about a feeling<\/em> that Falling \n Water evokes in me. I could never live there…and how could anyone?<\/p>\nAs an idea, Falling Water is not only elegant, but timeless. The water flows \n forever–is flowing now, presumably, as you read this. And I can hear it now, \n and feel soothed by it, awash in the glow of many pleasant memories… The world \n is better for it, and the life of its idea, across generations, and in all kinds \n of circumstances, even a baseball vacation. But it’s a tour de force<\/em>…beautiful…gaudy, \n in its cleverness and elegance.<\/p>\n<\/body> \n<\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Untitled Document [Editor’s Note: I started this entry in mid-August, just before school started. But at some point before I could finish it, responsibility kicked in, and I actually went back and finished my syllabi… As the subject line states here, the syllabi are done, hooray!, so I begin to tidy up some left-over … <a href=\"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/archives\/28\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading The Syllabi Are Written, So Now It’s Time to Catch Up on Vacation…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-life-in-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}