If you listened to the last episode of Citations Needed, you heard that the CIA funneled money into into cultural institutions like the Iowa Writers Workshop and the Paris Review to win the cultural war against communism. Much of this led to the emphasis on first-person writing and a focus on individual experience.

I don't know about you comrades, but I got Ds throughout secondary (high school) in English. I fucking hated 20th century lit. Are there any pretentious and overly individualistic writers that you blame on the CIA?

  • fuckwit [none/use name]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Jane Austen was CIA special ops

    Sorry for the tangent but, not writers but supposed green architects like Frank lloyd Wright, even author of Cradle to Cradle, Mcdonough (who I mildly respect). Shit man, all the modernist ‘greats‘ Le Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe, Groiphus....you honestly can’t tell me the Barcelona pavillion is a fucking beautiful architectural masterpiece when it’ s just a glass shitbox responsible for the most wasteful aspects of building aesthetics that we see today.

    Norman Foster is a heralded green architect...he designed this shit: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.admagazine.com%2Farquitectura%2Fnorman-foster-el-arquitecto-de-los-grandes-proyectos-20200217-6484-articulos.html&psig=AOvVaw2mL9InbY8uYWCqshC7Xs8G&ust=1632669605176000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAgQjRxqFwoTCOCkhbK2mvMCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAI

    Dude, how in the fuckkk.....is it not CIA propaganda to call that ‘green’ architecture? The entire field has been overtaken by covert ops and needs to be purged. Then there’s the architects who make no pretense about their wastefulness.

    Hadid https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.archdaily.com%2F922310%2Fopus-hotel-zaha-hadid-architects&psig=AOvVaw2MZ3q7pfQT65FTIrh5q6Ne&ust=1632669916157000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAgQjRxqFwoTCLDzosi3mvMCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

    And of course the progeny of the beastly mindpalace inside Frank Ghery’s skull: Bilbao guggenheim

    https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcms.guggenheim-bilbao.eus%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F05%2Fel-edificio-guggenheim-bilbao-1.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.guggenheim-bilbao.eus%2Fen%2Fthe-building&tbnid=-qb_lYeBox8grM&vet=12ahUKEwiHvPauuJrzAhUMLN8KHVEoByYQMygAegUIARDQAQ..i&docid=_DQlfJeg6I6nZM&w=1920&h=1080&q=bilbao%20guggenheim&hl=en-US&client=safari&ved=2ahUKEwiHvPauuJrzAhUMLN8KHVEoByYQMygAegUIARDQAQ

    that’s CIA funding at work, no doubt in my mind.

    • Bugger [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      responsible for the most wasteful aspects of building aesthetics that we see today.

      Would you mind going a bit more into that/link to some interesting articles if it's not too much of a hassle? It sounds very interesting. I am someone who has taken a casual interest in architecture and I would like too know more.

      • fuckwit [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Sure, I’ll look up some links for you later but a really straightforward answer is the use/overuse of glass that modernist architecture is often characterized by. Glass sucks for several reasons because it ramps up the energy consumption used by buildings and prevents passive cooling/ventilation through wind. A glass building is pretty much required to use artificial cooling whereas louver’d windows for example will allow air and a really efficient, well designed building might not even any sort of electrical or HVAC apparatus to cool the insides of a building.

        It’s also a pretty bad insulator (at least compared to non metals).

        Cradle to Cradle is a pretty good introductory book on a materialist approach to ‘green design’, although it has its problems and is getting kind of date. It talks a lot about the reuse of materials, and the necessity of locally sourced, inexpensive materials.

        I think good, eco friendly architects, at least by today’s low standards, are skilled at using passive cooling and natural lighting in their designs to create the most energy efficient buildings possible. A good book for learning how to use these tools in your designs is ‘Sun, Wind, and Light’.

        There’s other aspects of energy consumption that are determined by design such as building envelope(ie the geometry of the building can have an effect, complex shapes can be more inefficient that just squarish or round buildings, low ceilings are infinitely less energy consuming, individual homes are more wasteful than housing complexes). Less total square footage of a building is better. Materials, as mentioned earlier, can make a big difference.

        Designs that really change our working relationship to homes and climates hold the key. Let me rephrase that, rather than ‘change’, I think it’s necessary to return to the vernacular architecutre of history and of indigenous peoples. Just that term ‘vernacular architecture’ is a great rabbit hole to go down.

        examples include these saddleback roofed houses of Indonesia (Tongkonan): https://factsofindonesia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Tana_Toraja_20180621_021-e1570021063162-1280x720.jpg

        • Bugger [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Very cool and based, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

        • fuckwit [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          These are perfectly built for their environments in the tropics of Indonesia

          The granaries in Scandinavia have a unique construction of stone and wood in high altitude that keeps perfect interior temperature for food holdings.

          Yurts used in the steppes of Central Asia provided perfect heating and a place for ceremonial activities

          https://simplydifferently.org/Present/Pics/nativeyurt-karakalpak-yurt11.jpg

          .