the great fire of london
jacques roubaud

the great fire of london is a text in place of a text, a text in place of a project, a text in place of the life it consumed, it also makes possible the things that it replaces, the text that it replaces, that failed aspiration, is in fact contained within the text that laments it, it is nominally invoked, a luminous plasma that birthed the failure and also maintained the failure long enough for it to expire and leave a ruin, which is what we find in it, the project and the life that sought it are made palpable only through the humanity of an obscure ethos, we are assured by the failure of the author because it ensures that he was indeed there, a spectre, why trumpet success, success is an end, yet through his abandonment of the text it becomes ours, and happening across its ruins in mid-october i spun together greater yarns than could be supported knowing the fecundity of reflective failure.

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Co. Aytch: A Confederate Memoir of the Civil War
Sam R Watkins

“My pen is unable to describe the scene of carnage and death that ensued in the next two hours. … The sun beaming down on our uncovered heads, the thermometer being one hundred and ten degrees in the shade, and a solid line of blazing fire right from the muzzles of the Yankee guns being poured right into our very faces, singeing our hair and clothes, the hot blood of our dead and wounded spurting on us, the blinding smoke and stifling atmosphere filling our eyes and mouths, and the awful concussion causing the blood to gush out of our noses and ears, and above all, the roar of battle, made it a perfect pandemonium. Afterward I heard a soldier express himself by saying that he thought ‘Hell had broke loose in Georgia, sure enough.’”

“My pen is unable to describe…” amazing.

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play it as it lays
joan didion

this is one of the most enchanting and haunting texts about los angeles i have read. didion’s pace and narrative capture the desparation and dryrot of the beige city well. the portrayal of the freeway as a civic space, possibly the only space that breeds identification with the rabble, is quite beautiful, perhaps irresponsible, perhaps just dated, as a thread. although the status of the heroine as an industry cog is frustrating at times, it may be idleness, as a literary manoeuvre, that best characterizes the los angeles condition. file next to day of the locust.

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blow-up, and other stories
julio cortázar

the master of the short story. rich, multi-pointed layering + baroque crooks = a gnarly mass of rootage ensnaring the baffled would-be rambler.

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mr. palomar + more
italo calvino

Most architecturists will tell you that ‘invisible cities’ is calvino’s contribution to environment construction and happenstance; while this is undeniably true, in the effort to further intricate the arabesque, a couple of other texts should be noted. ‘numbers in the dark’ informs of the dangers of insisting only upon memorizing texan fire codes when there is a world of work to be done, such as changing a clutch plate or upholstering chairs. ‘mr. palomar’ reminds us of proust’s lessons of constant scrutiny.

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invisible cities
numbers in the dark
mr. palomar

invisible cities + more
italo calvino

Most architecturists will tell you that ‘invisible cities’ is calvino’s contribution to environment construction and happenstance; while this is undeniably true, in the effort to further intricate the arabesque, a couple of other texts should be noted. ‘numbers in the dark’ informs of the dangers of insisting only upon memorizing texan fire codes when there is a world of work to be done, such as changing a clutch plate or upholstering chairs. ‘mr. palomar’ reminds us of proust’s lessons of constant scrutiny.

acquire these texts from powells.com:

invisible cities
numbers in the dark
mr. palomar

numbers in the dark + more
italo calvino

Most architecturists will tell you that ‘invisible cities’ is calvino’s contribution to environment construction and happenstance; while this is undeniably true, in the effort to further intricate the arabesque, a couple of other texts should be noted. ‘numbers in the dark’ informs of the dangers of insisting only upon memorizing texan fire codes when there is a world of work to be done, such as changing a clutch plate or upholstering chairs. ‘mr. palomar’ reminds us of proust’s lessons of constant scrutiny.

acquire these texts from powells.com:

invisible cities
numbers in the dark
mr. palomar

the open work
umberto eco

this collection of essays changed the way i perceive constructed realities, from architecture and texts, to music and lifestyle decisions. the topics range over openness, multiplicity, and the accidental in construction, and misreadings, pluralism, and non-sequitur in apprehension. this could be the most instrumental text in my current line of thinking. read barthes ‘the death of the author’ and the open work then revisit the wrk.grp’s group e2 competition entry.

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la bas
joris karl huysmans

this decadent french text makes a case for the urban significance of church bells, details the symbolism of colour, and explains why authors keep housecats. and oh yes, it is about satanism.

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