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People don't generally go to Selkirk, New York, to look for the future. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
People don't generally go to Selkirk, New York, to look for the future. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having worked on design I couldn't wait to read it.
What a pity I couldn't finish it.
The book continuously states the obvious,it's far from revolutionary.
If this book was meant for people within the design industry
it is simply wafflle,if it was meant for the" hobnob" go ahead
and buy it - especially if you ... " just want a more attractive living room."
Silvio Artero-Italy
What a pity I couldn't finish it.
The book continuously states the obvious,it's far from revolutionary.
If this book was meant for people within the design industry
it is simply wafflle,if it was meant for the" hobnob" go ahead
and buy it - especially if you ... " just want a more attractive living room."
Silvio Artero-Italy
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By ZDDQ140770
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
The subject area is potentially very interesting but this book doesn't doit justice.The author is far from dispassionate- she is actively in favourof superficiality and goes out to prove This Is A Good Thing. The factthat the chapter outlining rebuffs to this idea from architecture,philosophy and ethics is more convincing than her own arguments makes fora bad start. The observations seem limited to hairstyles, interior designand planned communities in the US and these are extended to prove thatstyling affects everyone and everything. Again, this isn't convincingmainly as it seems entirley limited to the US urban middle class. Mostpeople do NOT live like this. The writing style is the snappy nasaleagerness of business journalists which doesnt help- the authors ownappeal for more style hasnt reached her own pen, it seems. However, theconcept is vast and all-encompassing, but it needs a writer with moreauthority first to frame it and then to define it.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Postrel talks about the importance of style in design. She uses plenty of case studies and ideas from every day life. She talks about shopping malls, interior design, home depot shops and other things that reviewers here have taken issue with. Yes, she talks about the American aesthetic, but she is American, and she doesn't claim to be writing about the inhabitants of the whole globe. Her stories are interesting and relevant, and they may not be profound, but for someone who may not think that 'style' is relevant to their ordinary life, this book is an eye opener. It is journalistic in style, which makes it readable, rather than some epic, educational edifice that you need a dictionary to get past the first page with. She deals with superficiality, and she celebrates it, but she is only illuminating a culture that already exists. It is a kind of anthropological study of what ordinary people do with and need from stylish objects. Her argument is that it is alright for people to want and expect beauty from the most mundane of objects, and why not indeed?
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