The Poetics of Space

I LOVE this book. I’m a freshman in college now(and holy crap @ that) and an art major, and when I read the first excerpts from this for my favorite class, I bought it immediately— despite not needing to. Gaston Bachelard speaks to the root of poetic experience, how we perceive and affect the spaces around us; in effect, that our perceptions and memories *create* places in our existence that are both “real” memory and that filter of subjectivity. Look, I’m exhausted and I can’t really express both how fascinating and fantastic this book is and WHY it’s fantastic. But if you are a writer, a poet, a musician, or any kind of artist, or really, if you’re a thinking and perceptive human being, take the chance on reading this. It lifted my soul up, I swear to god: it reads like a scientist had a completely immersive acid trip and devoted the rest of his life to looking for the meaning of art— and thus, life. A note: at first, the language may seem super-dense and off-putting. STICK WITH IT. It finds its own almost poetic rhythm.

I read this book as a graduate student in Boston about 40 years ago, and re-purchased it just recently to have a second leisurely look at it...to remember its beauty and provocative meanings. This book changed my life in a wonderful way; it gave me a new vocabulary to understand my experiences of living, it confirmed and affirmed how I daily lived with a personal 'poetics' called Me... Professor Gaston Bachelard, from France, defined a sensibility and sensitivity called "intimate immensities", which is one way of expressing a pantheistic and human "phenomenology". If you are an artist or musician or poet, etc. you "got it in you" and you recognize "it" in everything around you... Lao Tzu in ancient China called it the Tao, there are many other names from many countries and cultures... The only caution I would note about this book, is that it is densely written in a professorial philosophical way; it not a casual read. I can suggest many children's picture books that express a similar sentiment, more with pictures than with university-level text. But if you enjoy "a sudden salience on the surface of the psyche" (page 1 of the Introduction), then this book is for you...

Astonishing. It is best consumed in small bits. For a person like me, who has many dreams and daydreams and lives to consider comfortable spaces, this is the most beautiful description ever written.

This book was an optional resource in a class I took years back, so I bought it and returned to finish only recently. I have it 4 stars based on an optimistic view of what I might have grasped had I a background of education in the underlying philosophies comprising concepts discussed. I plowed through many obscurity only to find within much beauty. The book as a whole felt to me as a prose poem. The quotes and references mainly are to French poets I've never heard of, but he does include much Rilke who has long been one of my favorites, and I acquired an expanded perspective there. There is an ephemeral, dreamlike quality and references to hashish make me wonder if chemicals were involved!

The Poetics of Space is one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. It is to be taken slowly - the author's primary idea is that people crave spaces that inspire them to daydream. The style of the book is one that inspires daydreams itself; you will suddenly find that you have placed the book in your lap and you were off daydreaming! Poetics of Space is a methodical, carefully argued book which tells us that we read spaces like we read a book. There is a distinct psychology to each type of space - attics, cellars, the forest, and nests are just some of the spaces examined. The author was chair of the Philosophy department at the Sorbonne. For most of his life, he examined the philosophy of science, but in his later years he turned to artistic reverie as his main subject. The book is written with thought, love, and passion and is a tour-de-force. Highly recommended to those who enjoy poetry, philosophy, architecture or art.

Phenomenology is the school of philosophy that claims to begin its analysis of existence with a careful study of human experience. Its founder, Edmund Husserl, and its most famous exponent, Martin Heidegger, laid its groundwork with studies of the epistemological foundations of science and the nature of Being. Bachelard apples their methods to architecture, basing his analysis not on purported origins (as was the trend in Enlightenment thinking about architecture) but on lived experience of architecture. He is thus led to consider such emotionally charged spatial types as the attic, the cellar, drawers and the like. In its emphasis on actual experience, it is refreshingly real, in contrast to much recent architectural theory that treats architecture as "text". The proof of the phenomenological pudding is always in the reader's response to the experiences being described. Bachelard is an exceptionally acute writer of such descriptions. This book implicitly urges architects to base their work on the experiences it will engender rather than on abstract rationales that may or may not affect viewers and users of architecture.

In my 80 years, I have read mountains of books on a wide variety of topics. Never have I read one that remained such a mystery in its meaning. Somehow, it left me blank. I gave it three stars for being such an enigma.

Very heavy to read, very long sentences with multiple ideas. Hard to follow.

het boek is prima! de bezorging is waardeloos: de eerste nooit ontvangen, geklaagd, opnieuw gestuurd en het tweede per ongeluk bij iemand anders afgeleverd!

Este libro revivió tantas memorias de mi infancia, y ahora las veo desde otra perspectiva, que me ayudó a entender mi mirada del presente, se convirtió en un libro talismán al que vale la pena regresar y revisitar. Ampliamente recomendado para arquitectos con intereses fenomenología. El papel y la tipografía hacen muy agradable la lectura de este libro.

Hard to say why this book was even written.

Poetics of Space is a wonderful book - relaxing, and occasionally inspirational. However, there is a BIG problem with this particular edition - Mark Danielewski. Danielewski wrote a new Foreword for this edition, and it's terrible - pretentious, needlessly complex, and tedious. I didn't know who he was prior to this, so I've learned something new today. Bachelard's writing is actually very easy to read, and he delivers his (very) complex thoughts in a warm, simple, nuanced, and engaging way. He delivers his points very well, and each reader is invited to come to their own understanding. By contrast, Danielewski reminds me of an art student who hands out copies of his so-called "mind-blowing" poetry to strangers on the subway. (Maybe I'd like it if I took drugs? It wouldn't make it more understandable or necessary, but possibly less painful?) Bachelard does just fine on his own. He doesn't need a lesser writer like Danielewski to supposedly "explain" things for him so arrogantly and ineffectively.

It's amazing what Bachelard has as his ability. Showing how we limit our imagination or, better yet, how we expand it. Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's difficult at times but so worthwhile. The chapter on immensity blows the mind.