blubberland

Elizabeth Farrelly "Blubberland. The Dangers of Happiness"  MIT PRESS, marzec 2008, 219 stron, oprawa miękka, cena: 59 zł

Elizabeth Farrelly, australijska krytyczka architektury, jest autorką jednej z najbardziej wciągających publikacji ostatnich lat poświęconych współczesnym miastom. "Blubberland" to zabawna, pouczająca i przerażająca jednocześnie lektura o przekleństwach wygodnego życia, złej architekturze, otyłości, nudzie przedmieść, budowlanym kiczu i wielkich samochodach. Farrelly rozpoczyna swoją książkę: 
"I, like you, drive too much. I buy too much—of which I keep too much and also throw too much away. I overindulge my children, and myself. Directly as well as indirectly I use too much water, energy, air and space. My existence, in short, costs the planet more than it can afford. This is not some handed-down moral stricture, nor any sort of guilty self-flagellation, but a simple recognition of fact. The consequences are obvious, and near enough now to see the warts on their noses. For my own future, as well as my children's, I must change. And yet—this is what's weird—I, like you, can't. Cannot abandon comfort, convenience and pleasure for the sake of abstract knowledge. Can't stop doing it. This is interesting. 
It's interesting because we think we are so rational, so intelligent, and yet we behave, both individually and as a herd, in such unintelligent ways. That's what drove this book into being."