Chapter 21 Economics - 16

It is also worthwhile to be more cautious and careful than I am building a house. For example, first consider what basis a door, a window, a cellar or an attic have in human nature. Before, maybe you should never build a superstructure.It is as legitimate for a man to build his own house as for a bird to build its nest.Who knows, if the people of the world built their own houses with their own hands, and fed themselves and their families simply and honestly, the talent of poetry would flourish all over the world, just like the birds, which are doing it At that time, the singing was sung all over the world.But alas!We dislike starlings and cuckoos, which go to lay their eggs in other birds' nests, and whose chirping and discordant music does not please those who pass by.Shall we never give up the joy of construction to the master carpenter?What is architecture in the majority of human experience?Never, in all my walks, have I come across a man engaged in so simple and natural a task as building a house for himself.We belong to society.Not only is a tailor one-ninth of a person, but so are missionaries, merchants, and farmers.To what extent should this division of labor go?What was the result?No doubt someone else could think Lo in our place; but if he does it so that I can't think for myself, that's far from ideal.

Indeed, in this country there is a kind of man called an architect, at least I have heard of an architect who had the idea of ​​giving architectural ornament a core of truth, a necessity, and therefore a beauty, as if It was the revelation given to him by the gods.From his point of view, Luo is very good. In fact, he is only a little better than ordinary amateurs who love art.An emotional reformer in architecture, he did not start from the foundation, but from the cornice.Just to put a kernel of truth in the decoration, like a candied plum with an almond or a caraway seed embedded in it—I always think it is healthier to eat almonds instead of sugar—he doesn’t want to think about the inhabitants, even Those who live in the house can build the house well inside and out, regardless of the decoration.What reasonable man would think that ornamentation is only superficial, something that pertains only to the skin—that tortoises acquire dappled carapaces, shellfish acquire mother-of-pearl sheen, sign something like Broadway dwellers acquire Trinity Church? What about the contract?A man is no more concerned with the style of his own house-building than a tortoise is with its carapace: a soldier need not be so dull as to paint the exact color of his courage on his banner.The enemy will know.At the critical moment, he was going to turn blue.It seemed to me as if the architect was leaning over the cornice, whispering his plausible truths shyly to the rude occupant, who knew more than he did.The beauty of architecture that I see now, I understand that it grows gradually from the inside out, from the needs and character of the person who lives in it, and the person who lives in it is The only architect—beauty comes from his unconscious sense of reality and sublime mind, and he has no thought of appearance; if such beauty must arise, he has unconsciously had the beauty of life.Painters in our country know that the most interesting dwellings are generally the no-frills, humble huts and farmhouses of poor commoners; What is also interesting is the box-shaped wooden houses of the townspeople. Their lives will be simple, just as imagined, and their houses will have no Nervous style.Most of the ornamentation of the building is hollow indeed, and a September wind can blow it off like a borrowed feather without detracting from the reality in the slightest.He who does not want olives and wine in cellars can get by without architecture.What would happen if such an eventful pursuit of ornament was made in literature, and if our biblical architects spent as much time on cornices as the architects of churches?Such are the mannerisms of those belles-lettres, those arts, and their professors.Of course, man is very concerned about whether the sticks are placed at an angle above him or below him, and what color his box should be painted.There is a little bit of interest in this, if he said seriously, he put them on the side, and the box was gradually painted; but in the case where the spirit has left the body, then it is of the same nature as building his own coffin —the architecture of tombs, —and "carpenter" is just another name for "coffin maker."Someone said, when you are disappointed or take an indifferent attitude towards life, grab a handful of dirt under your feet and paint your house with this color.Did he think of his dying narrow house?Toss a copper coin to decide.He must have a lot of leisure!Why do you grab a handful of dirt?Much better to paint your house the color of your own skin; let it pale or blush for you.A creation that improves the architectural style of the village house!When you find my decorations, I shall adopt them.

Before winter, I built a chimney, and nailed some lamellae to the side of the house, because it was no longer able to keep out the rain. Those lamellae were cut from the wood, not very perfect and very green wood, but I had to plan it with a plane. their sides.