Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Beacon Press (1969), Edition: 1st, Paperback, 241 pages
Description
Thirty years since its first publication in English, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space one of the most appealing and lyrical explorations of home. Bachelard takes us on a journey, from cellar to attic, to show how our perceptions of houses and other shelters shape our thoughts, memories, and dreams.
User reviews
LibraryThing member jonfaith
[W]e are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.
This is not what I expected. The Poetics of Space is not some rigorous discussion of the concept of home or the distinction between inside and outside. This is a
Borrowing Bachelard's seminal point of contact, his Poetics remains half-open. The idea of the house and dwelling is only explored on the hoof; broader issues of the miniature and the vast are extended the lengthier chew. I loved the sections on nests and wardrobes, each dizzying with references to Rimbaud and insularity. I simply felt the wider thrust of the book abandoned the thesis of the Home.
This then is my ancestral forest. And all the rest is fiction.
This is not what I expected. The Poetics of Space is not some rigorous discussion of the concept of home or the distinction between inside and outside. This is a
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meditation. Bachelard prefers "daydream". As one reads, one takes shorthand from the philosopher's imagination. The text is steeped in whimsy and speculation. The citations refer to the poetic, not the philosophical. Heidegger is not mentioned. I suspect that is political.Borrowing Bachelard's seminal point of contact, his Poetics remains half-open. The idea of the house and dwelling is only explored on the hoof; broader issues of the miniature and the vast are extended the lengthier chew. I loved the sections on nests and wardrobes, each dizzying with references to Rimbaud and insularity. I simply felt the wider thrust of the book abandoned the thesis of the Home.
This then is my ancestral forest. And all the rest is fiction.
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LibraryThing member medievalmama
I love this book! It would have to be way at the top of my list of books that changed my life and how I look at things around me! Does include a very large number of difficult philosophical and psychological terms, but if you read through, you can get most of them in context.
LibraryThing member DeFor
This is supposed to be a book about perceptions, so I guess I can’t fault him on factual flippancy. He seems to be saying, though, that these perceptions are at least somewhat universal. Which is ridiculous, least of all because I can’t relate to most of them.
He brings up some interesting
I’m only half way through, hopefully it will get better?
Edit: it didn't. It did, however, make me doubt a few things I took for granted. Not because of any convincing evidence or arguments, but because he seems to take for granted the opposite.
He brings up some interesting
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ideas, but only in passing, before he goes off again on pseudo-psychological babbles, passing them off as universal Truths.I’m only half way through, hopefully it will get better?
Edit: it didn't. It did, however, make me doubt a few things I took for granted. Not because of any convincing evidence or arguments, but because he seems to take for granted the opposite.
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LibraryThing member clifforddham
How spaces can have a profound emotional/psychological effect. A place to go for automatic inspiration.
LibraryThing member Frank_Prem
This and the other Bachelard translations inspired my best work (poetry) in a series that took me through in excess of 700 poems.
I think his ability to thoughtfully examine space, from a perspective that that is contemplative rather than analytical s a wonderful variant.
Works well for me, at the
I think his ability to thoughtfully examine space, from a perspective that that is contemplative rather than analytical s a wonderful variant.
Works well for me, at the
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least. Show Less
LibraryThing member kencf0618
I bought this at the James Castle House in Boise, Idaho, inasmuch as Deleuze and hourglasses were both mentioned (and I bought an hourglass, too). A fabulous, sustained reverie for the poet in us all.
LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
Very well done and thoroughly intriguing.
Subjects
Language
Original language
French
Physical description
241 p.; 7.9 inches
ISBN
0807064394 / 9780807064399