What do outer space capsules, submarines and office buildings have in common? Each was conceived as a closed system―a self-sustaining physical environment demarcated from its surroundings by a boundary prohibiting the transfer of matter or energy. As partial reconstructions of the world in time and space, closed systems identify and implement the basic materials necessary for the sustenance of life.
From the space program to countercultural architectural groups experimenting with autonomous living, The Architecture of Closed Worlds documents a disciplinary transformation and the rise of a new environmental consciousness. It presents an archive of 39 prototypes from 1928 to the present, creating a genealogy of closed-resource structures. These include the FNRS Balloon (1931), Aqualung (1943), House of the Future (1956), Disney's EPCOT (1966), Bios 3 (1972), Rocky Mountain Institute (1982) and the EDEN Project (2000).....
You have to freeze the frame and do research to grasp what an intellectual/poseur Albie is.
SPOILER: This is the moment when Albie sees that another man is quickly winning the young woman he's been attempting to slowly win. The young woman, Portia (my favorite character), has been telling Albie that he needs to be more sexually exciting, but he went to Stanford, where he, apparently, learned that men should never pressure a woman to feel at all as though they are interested in having sex.
If I had read "The Architecture of Closed Worlds: Or, What Is the Power of Shit?," I could probably say something quite smart about college feminism as a closed world. I haven't, so I'm just gesturing at the idea.
Maybe Mike White hasn't read it either, and he's also gesturing and creating a place where we can think about such things to which he doesn't purport to have the answer. And that's the answer to the question How is "White Lotus" like a blog?
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I think there's a little metacommentary going on there as well-The White Lotus (the resort) likes to present itself a "closed world." But a lot of the drama comes from the way it isn't, and the surrounding areas leak in, especially in Season 2.
Performative reading=LeBron James bringing books to press conferences that he would quote!
Sports people will know what I'm talking about.
ChatGPT has written a sonnet about the author of that book
In the realm of architecture and design,
A scholar of great intellect and insight,
Lydia Kallipoliti's work does align
With the future, and not just what is in sight.
Her theories on systems, both old and new,
Challenge the status quo and push the bounds
Of what we think is possible to do
And how we can build our cities and towns.
Through her writing and teaching she does strive
To better understand the world we make
And the impact it has on how we live
Her work is both practical and wide awake.
In a field that is often stuck in tradition
Lydia Kallipoliti brings innovation.
Does "wide awake" mean "woke"? Who knows.
Office buildings are "self-sustaining" closed worlds??
Anyway, gesturing comments about books one hasn't read are the best. Althouse can easily talk about how to talk about books one hasn't read without reading Pierre Bayard's book on the subject.
No Biosphere II? That was a really big thing in the Nineties, but didn't everybody know it was all a crock all along? Our Intrepid Bionauts. I guess the media missed all the excitement of the moonshots and wanted to recapture it.
I think the director is trying to isolate the character. If this young man wasn't reading, he would be on his phone communicating with his friends or playing video games or whatever.
But there is something to these characters picking books that (smugly) confirm their good taste and education.
Why is the book title on the back cover? Maybe he is reading in Arabic.
Katie Porter, the Congresswoman who dressed up as Batman/girl/woman last year, took care to get herself photographed reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Shit during the voting for speaker.
Man Reading Pynchon On Bus Takes Pains To Make Cover Visible
"I think there's a little metacommentary going on there as well-The White Lotus (the resort) likes to present itself a "closed world."
Excellent point!
"But a lot of the drama comes from the way it isn't, and the surrounding areas leak in, especially in Season 2."
Yes, and that's exactly what's happening in this episode.
SPOILER ALERT: "These gays" have arrived and they're saying we have a boat and it can take you to our villa in Palermo. That's another "closed world" and one Tanya and Portia will have a hell of a time understanding.
People have compared "White Lotus" to a locked room mystery — we begin with a dead body then figure out the clues — and that seems like another way to say "closed world."
"Why is the book title on the back cover?"
It's a nice design. There's a 2-part title and half of it is in big print on the front cover and half is in big print on the back. The second half is also in small print on the front.
The goodness of the design is proven by Albie's performative reading. If the title was only on the front and the back was the usual bullshit of blurbs or author's photo, I wouldn't have been able to write this post.
"Office buildings are "self-sustaining" closed worlds??"
You should read "The Circle" by Dave Eggers. https://amzn.to/3XKbI3B
"Anyway, gesturing comments about books one hasn't read are the best. Althouse can easily talk about how to talk about books one hasn't read without reading Pierre Bayard's book on the subject."
Ha ha. Unfortunately, that would actually not be easy at all. I'd have to time travel.
But here I am, in the past, being there and doing that.
I don't see The House of Next Tuesday on the learned lady's list.
T-i-v's ChatGPT experiment proves that AI can write poetry that sounds like The Great McGonigle.
When I think of performative reading, I think of this passage in "Goodbye, Columbus":
"I launched into my speech. “Hello-Brenda-Brenda-you-don’t-know-me-that-is-you-don’t-know-my-name-but-I-held-your-glasses-for-you-this-afternoon-at-the-club . . . You-asked-me-to-I’m-not-a-member-my-cousin-Doris-is-Doris-Klugman-I-asked-who-you-were . . .” I breathed, gave her a chance to speak, and then went ahead and answered the silence on the other end. “Doris? She’s the one who’s always reading War and Peace. That’s how I know it’s the summer, when Doris is reading War and Peace.” Brenda didn’t laugh; right from the start she was a practical girl."
Roth, Philip. Goodbye, Columbus (p. 7). HMH Books. Kindle Edition.
If a director shows you a book title in a scene, it’s a clue intended to be interpreted. You are free to ignore it, of course, but no book is going to be randomly presented, even if it is just used to fix a wobbly table leg, unless the director is Ed Wood.
"But here I am, in the past, being there and doing that."
Good!
Outside of teaching, no need to feel guilt though. As Bayard explains :).
"Outside of teaching, no need to feel guilt though."
You think I might feel guilty about having read that book? That would be odd. There are probably some books I feel guilty about reading, but I can't think of any off hand.
"LeBron James bringing books to press conferences that he would quote!"
Unless the quotes are on the first five pages, someone else listed the quotes for him.
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