Friday 15 August 2008

The Lamp of Memory by Ruskin


I'm borrowing some of the new Penguin Great Ideas range from work. They are such beautiful little embossed matt books :D I read this one too quickly and it was difficult. I probably shouldn't have but the superior tone grated on me and it was quite religious too. But I could agree with some stuff he was saying like that we don't appreciate things enough and that understand their meanings. And that architecture is full of memory and meaning, it contains the past? There was a huge section in Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame saying the exact same thing I think. Anyway I think Ruskin reckons we should take as much care over the building of our own house as of like a cathedral, it should be as beautiful and well loved. I think I see, like if we took care, put our hearts into our homes and everything, we wouldn't throw away and consume so much?

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