Bold Ventures: Thirteen Tales of Architectural Tragedy

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Synopsis
A prize-winning Belgian poet explores the nature of creative endeavor—the godlike ambition, the crushing defeat of failure—through the stories of thirteen tragic architects. In thirteen fascinating chapters, Charlotte Van den Broeck goes in search of buildings that were fatal to their architects—architects who either killed themselves or are rumored to have done so. They range across time and space from a church with a twisted spire in seventeenth-century France to a theater that collapsed mid-performance in 1920s Washington, DC, and an eerily sinking swimming pool in the author&’s hometown. Drawing on a vast range of material, from Hegel and Darwin to art history, stories from her own life, and popular culture, Van den Broeck brings patterns into focus as she asks, What is that strange, life-or-death connection between a creation and its creator? Threaded through each story is the author&’s meditation on the question of suicide—what Albert Camus called the &“one truly serious philosophical problem&”—in relation to creativity and public disgrace. The result is a profoundly idiosyncratic book, breaking ground in literary nonfiction, as well as providing solace and consolation to anyone who has ever attempted a creative act.
Copyright:
2019

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
304 Pages
ISBN-13:
9781635423181
Related ISBNs:
9781635423174
Publisher:
Other Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Charlotte Van den Broeck
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Biographies and Memoirs, Psychology
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.
Translator:
David McKay

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