The Art of Quotation

This week we read about Postmodern Architecture, and the rules or cannons which these forms of architecture follow. The forms are made into various combination's of the latter forms of modernism. The way disharmonious harmony is explained as fragmented unity was very interesting to me. We see this all around us everyday and consciously make sense, in our own meanings, of these things around us, but reading this helps make more sense of why this type of postmodern architecture works. The quote that, "Disharmonious harmony' also finds validity in the present consensus among scientists that the universe is dynamic and evolving" (282) is a very true and powerful statement. That everything in the universe is evolving is true yes, but making sense of all the dynamic factors that go into these changes is what is so fascinating.

It is then said in the article that pluralism justifies the rule of disharmonious harmony'. Radical eclecticism--"The mixing of different languages to engage different tastes cultures and defines different functions according to their appropriate mood" (283) is said to be the "stylistic counterpart" of pluralism. I thought this tied in with our discussion last week in class about "otherness." This made me think about how our society would need to be able to understand these different languages and culture to understand the radical eclecticism. In order for this to be fully understood and for the fragments to unify and make sense there would need to be an understanding of peoples surroundings. On page 85 it says, "When several possible readings are presented simultaneously, it is left to the reader to supply the unifying text." Which can be given in the two postmodern genres of an enigmatic allegory and suggestive narrative.