Making Dystopia: James Stevens Curl Exposes Totalitarian Modernism and the Falsification of History

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1. This is much more involving than I had anticipated, as it seems architecture, more than most mediums, grandly demonstrates the modernist discarding of tradition and nature. And James Curl speaks very clearly about it and takes a cauterizing hard line.

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2. The strange thing is that there’s a rabid response from supporters of the modernist garbage, whenever any sort of criticism is thrown their way.
   I know this because every time I get something published showing the horrors and shortcomings of a particular, hallowed, Bauhaus project, the followers (who I presume are mainly current architectural students) shriek in protest and call for my head.
   It’s almost cultish in its belief system to the point where no amount of disassembly is countenanced.
   I have yet to find a project by Lloyd Wright, by Gehry or by Erickson (or even IM Pei, who should have known better) that has any aesthetic or symmetrical value, they are all ” design on the back of a napkin ” ideas which magically enthrall the people who have the authority to give the go-ahead. I hate to be repetitive but I’m STILL traumatized by the Lou Ruvo center in Vegas.
   How ANYBODY could have approved that design (and for a place of healing, no less) is beyond belief.

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3. Whether you are a layman or expert, Professor Curl’s book and video discussion is stimulating and thought provoking stuff. What comes over clearly is the damage done to the lived space, the brutal concrete monstrosities that sit as grey rot in peoples lives ever since the “modern” cult started. James Steven’s Curl is a master in the telling of how and why this came about. His influence and erudition are making a difference as another generation of architects are discovering that beauty and form in building are life-enhancing qualities..

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