The KunstlerCast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler

I have always found Kunstler to be on the edge of amazing. His writing and talks can come off a little too elitist in the way of telling people what to do. I often shy away from arguments that are heavily urban based, but Kunstler helps to provide a little bridge to gulf the issues.

I had previously read some of The Long Emergency and I did not finish it because it was too extreme. It seemed to concentrate on rant language as an art form.

In this one the more analytical sections are more useful, shorter, more concise. The autobiographical sections are interesting. But in general it is scattered.

I note that as of today every review here is from the early reviews program. Perhaps the publishers are not getting enough return out of it. ( )

This book of essay or ersatz dialogue takes us into the iconoclastic mind of James Howard Kunstler, a resituated New Yorker. Duncan Crary seems to function as Kunstler's amanuensis. Kunstler is always interesting even when he devolves into something of a rant. I tend to agree with his concern about USA sprawl, whose greates protagonist, Randal O'toole, has written often against public transit.

I am not sure that Kunstler likes large cities and the two authors extol their two small cities near Albany (NY): Troy (where Crary lives) and Saratoga Springs (Kunstler). Small cities do not have the spral of large cities, but don't really have the size for public transportation or the great urban amenities one assoicates with cities like New Yor, Boston, and San Francisco.

Kunstler has a short essay on the effect of Vietnam on American culture that I found quite interesting. He is also very sympathetic to the idea of the New Urbanism, some of which can be seen in Seaside, Florida. He does not like the architecture of Koolhaas or Gehry, but I find these two post-moderns to be fascinating. Kunstler wants to point back to an earlier age, probably pre-modern.

He does want to see a revival of rail transportation, both of the urban variety, which is happening, and the intercity type (Amtrak), which is more stymied. He also want us to look more at water transportation, whose costs and limiting geography work against it, despite their natural charm.

He does a series of city Fly-bys, most of which I found that I agreed wwith. But his distress for Minneapolis seems unwarranted. He does not like the walkways between buildings, even though this cities has lots of minus 0 days and despite a rather active downtown., which he found depressing. ( )

This book provides an excellent overview of James Kunstler and his work, particularly in connecting his earlier work on suburbs and urban planning with his later work on peak oil and impending economic reduction. The interview method works very well here. It's not used here to interrogate Kunstler, but to draw out and organize his thinking in ways that Duncan's listeners (and readers) can easily consume and digest. It's really a very low key and friendly sort of discussion, which I personally like because it means that the conversations are relaxed and don't feel forced. You get a real sense of what James is like as a person as well as who he is as a thinker. In general I found myself liking him even when I disagree with him. And I do disagree with him on several main points, though probably not the same points most people disagree with him on. And although I think most everyone will disagree with him on something, he offers a lot of food for thought that should challenge the thinking of anyone who approaches this book. I should also say that Duncan Crary has done a very good job editing this work as well as in conducting the interviews, and I appreciate his work here. ( )

This is a printed collection of podcasts with James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary. It is a good introduction to Kunstler’s thinking on modern planning and our automobile culture. The book does retain the feel of the podcast, but this is something of a negative if you’re looking for logical consistency in the layout of the ideas within the book. It also leads to a fairly large amount of redundancy. The book is not a long or heavy read, but appears to aim at those who may not be familiar with Kunstler’s thought. I would have liked the foul language to have been cleaned up since that’s the reason I won’t listen to the KunstlerCast podcast. ( )