Words by Mike Judd & Thom Yorke
‘A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals.’
I’m quoting films again, Men in Black this time, it’s a very universal medium film some good lessons if you know where to look. Now I’m assuming you’re not reading this aloud to a bloodthirsty mob, all of whom are calling for my head, so I’m going to assume you’re the smart person I hope you to be and we can rattle along as normal.
That baying mob is part of what we’re dealing with today folks, the mob and the representation of them forms a major character in the Fountainhead. Now when I say the fountainhead we’re talking about the film rather than the book, I’ll confess I’m not sure I could have coped with the book it’s layered on pretty thick in the film and any more than 2 hours of it probably would have sent me back to that dark room we talked about last week.... ‘For a minute there I lost myself, I lost myself.’
Decline and fall is the counterpoint today, written between the world wars, it’s a comic tragedy set against the backdrop of the decline (hence the title, I like the obvious sometimes, it’s reassuring don’t you think?) of the British class system.
So we’ve got two stories both with architects as central characters (I can’t think of two many storeys like that, I think Three men and a baby had an architect in but I don’t think it’s got quite the same weight as these) one set in the good old USA and one routed right here in blighty.
Our two architects couldn’t be more different, in Decline and Fall professor Sillineus cuts a pretty forlorn figure, he’s not built much (a chewing gum factory in eastern Europe) he doesn’t sleep, he hates everything he’s done and he thinks the only buildings that work are factories because they house machines not people. I’ll admit I started cacking myself when I read that, as a young(ish) man at the start of my architectural career the idea of ending up like that had those Radiohead songs swirling round my head again.......’ For a minute there I lost myself, I lost myself’.
Must keep a clear head, we’re close to the end I can’t let this slide into negativity. Although id be remiss if we didn’t talk about Sillineus’s giant stone cold bummer to end them all, his big theory is that life is like a spinning wheel – people get on they fall they get back up again the fall again and again, very few get to the middle and when you’re there it’s not moving, you’ve reached equilibrium. He then tells Paul the main character that he is a watcher, not made to get on the wheel at all, but instead to stand on the side lines watch others living. Wow not sure I’d take being told I’m like that, I’m mean come on you might slip over once or twice on the wheel but deep down you know it’s a giggle. Although watching people fall over is a giggle too, pop ‘face plants’ into youtube you’ll see what I mean.
Now a man of definite intelligence posed the question, is it impossible not to feel sorry for rourke? – the architect in the fountainhead. Err in a word yes; I can’t get onside with anyone who says they don’t care what the people who inhabit one of their buildings think about it. Now it’s worth pointing out at this point that the character of Rourke is based on Frank Lloyd Wright, and he like Wright will offer no explanation of method or end product. Now it’s at this exact moment, right here right now that you should be saying to yourself oh yeah just like Zaha Hadid in the first of these blogs!!!! It’s implied that you’re supposed to worship these guys and any explanation would shatter the god like mystic they’ve created. Can you imagine the average architect essentially telling their client to go fuck themselves if they want to make any changes to a design? I’ve got to say I’ve always found reasoning with a client to be a more productive discourse.
Again we’re in need of background to all this, like last week we’re in interesting times when the fountainhead was written, we’ve got communism (you know my feelings on ism’s I’m trying to remain calm), the reality of nuclear obliteration (heavy, really heavy). It’s this fear that brings the mob into play here, when people don’t understand something they have a tendency to fear it, the same goes for buildings, Rourke finds himself in a battle with the banner a news paper which represents the baying mob. They deplore his new buildings that have no reference to past styles, indeed when a client suggests adding some period features to a design he declares that he’d rather it wasn’t built at all.
I’m going to float this idea, hopefully its sits well, I don’t think it’s something new they’re against it’s the lack of explanation. If the mob were ambivalent to the self indulgent god complex brigade (I’m talking to you here Hadid!!) if there wasn’t such frenzy would these people get on as well as they do? would they actually explain themselves if they weren’t so entrenched? If there were no wall of opinion to push back against would they just fall over?.......’phew for a minute there I lost myself, I lost myself’
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