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NOWHERE_VICTORIANS

   
One of the things that "The    
Geography of Nowhere" (1993) by
James Howard Kunstler seems                           
strongest at is it's summary of                   NOWHERE_MAN
architechtural history.               
                                  
History of the Victorian: 

   "The revolution started with what was at
   first mockingly called the 'balloon
   frame.'  Prior to this time, all wooden
   houses -- whether Georgian, Greek,
   Federal, Gothic, or vernacular farmhouse
   -- were supported by post-and-beam
   frames.  Massive timbers were connected
   by joints, such as the
   mortise-and-tenon, and secured with
   wooden pegs called 'trunnels' (from tree
   nails).  Hand-wrought iron nials
   existed, but they were mainly used for
   finish work, and were so terribly
   expensive that families leaving New
   England to settle western New York and
   Ohio knocked apart the insides of their
   old farmhouse in order to salvage
   precious nails for the next homestead.
   [...]
   By the 1840s this began to change."
                     
                     p.161

And so on.  

He touches on:

White pine forests in upper Michigan. 

Canal shipping. 

Factory-made steel-wire nails. 

At one point, he suggests
baloon-frame houses rot  
and sag after roughly a  
lifetime (meaning what,  
50 years, 100? Maybe SF  
has the weather gauge here. 

More:

   "The light and versatile wooden frame
   made possible all those turrets,     
   balconies, bays, cupolas and porte   
   cocheres of the Victorian styles. ..."
 
   "At the same time, factories
   mass-produced wooden mill-work --
   brackets, spindles, balusters, shutters,
   moldings, and all manner of decorative 
   items --  ..."
   
   "These houses became such exercises in
   wretched excess that the next generation
   ran shrieking back into neoclassicism."
                         p. 163

   
   "Discusses a book by Downing and Davis
   called _Cottage Residences_, published
   in 1842:  'The plans offered by Davis 
   and Downing formed a schematic basis for
   the orgy of styles that followed, which
   came to be bundled under the rubric
   ''Victorian.'' ' "       p. 159 
    

All of this is from Chapter 9, "A Place
Called Home", and it left me puzzled.

It's a history of American building
styles, and I get the sense it's
supposed to be a tale of decline.
Myself, I have trouble perceiving where
things are supposed to shift from good
to bad.

One remark:
          
   "The tragic thing is that there            
   existed in America a fine                  
   heritage of regional                       
   home-building traditions, rich              
   with values and meanings, and              
   we threw it all away." p. 149              
                                           
Is his concept that everything *after*
the invention of the baloon frame     
sucks?  That would be *extremely*                         
reactionary, in my opinion, but he          Funny: does he 
does appear to be sneering at               loathe *both* 
Victorians in places ("frippery",           "Modern", and 
"orgy of styles").                          "Victorian"   
                                            Architcture?  
                                                    
   If baloon-frame Victorians                       AGES
   are okay, when did things stop
   being okay?
   
   
On page 168, he talks about the
lack of charm, and charm being             
related to connectedness, and              Possibly he envisions 
the car is the villain that                a steady collapse 
produces the disconnect...                 proportional to technical 
                                           advance, with the car 
   If Victorians are not okay,             as the capstone?
   then how could cars be
   responsible for them?


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