The Poetics of Space (1957)

Helpful reading for anyone building or occupying space.

Compare, in his essays on the imagination materielle [including "L'eau et les reves: Essai sur imagination de la matiere" (1942), and "reveries du repos" (1948)], Bachelard examines the formative processes of verbal symbolization, and demonstrates that nature often appears to be the target of our most aggressive impulses. Especially when we are dealing elementally with the world -- the air, water, earth and fire -- our words reflect a disposition toward nature that is destructive. I myself experienced this. As a youth, I seamlessly moved to attack. Repose was but a temporary redoubt of the hunt. My cat leaps to the flicker of movement in the pile of leaves. ( )

I'm guessing I would rate this more like a 3.5. Initially, I loved the book, but it grew to feel more and more like something out of the Romantic canon, and I was finally glad to be done with it. That said, there are moments of brilliance here, and it's definitely worth the read. ( )

Reading this book is akin to dreaming. You will inhabit space in a new way, both on the page and in the real world. Brilliant. Essential. ( )

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. ( )

In spite of its size, this is not a book to be read quickly. Very deep stuff. ( )