The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard - Book Chat

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@southernbiscuits1275 7 жыл бұрын

I was introduced to this book in the nineties. A friend at work gave me her copy. She studied it in college and thought it was boredom beyond compare. I took it home, opened it up and immediately knew where Bachelard was coming from. However, prior to reading this book I had a background in the works of Nietzsche, Jung, Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade. One theme that runs through these authors works is the concept of the transcendent. Transcendence in these terms should not be confused with transcendentalism in literature. However, transcendence does appear throughout literature of the ages. When you spoke of being transported out of oneself, you came very close to what transcendence means. Bachelard speaks of spaces but he clothes these spaces in the garments of personal memories. When I got the book and was telling my friend about it, he bought a copy and started reading it on his own. Within the first chapter he immediately experienced a very personal and significant re-connection to a memory from his childhood. The memory dealt with his mother and a small area on the back porch of the home he grew up in. He was a reader. His mother, thinking it would benefit him, took an area of the back porch and set it off from the rest of the house, I think with a curtain. There was a light, an area where he could place his books and a very small window through which he could look out into the backyard. Like me, David is an older gentleman. To have this memory come to him in such vividness surprised him. He is not a demonstratively emotional person (men don't discuss emotions) but I suspect the memory of that time in his childhood, that memory of his mother in such detail was a transcendent experience. He was removed from the present to the past in such a way that the past was, for a moment, the present for him. And, that re-connection came about as a spatial memory evoked through Bachelard's writing. What the transcendent experience brought about was a different experience of time from what we are familiar with. The past became the present for just a moment. This aspect of time and meaning is explored in the excellent book by Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and Profane. Eliade refers to these moments of transcendence as sacred hierophonies. Back in the mid-nineties I wrote a monthly newspaper for my friends. In it I wrote stories of memories of growing up. I was shocked by the responses I got from some of the stories. Me and a group of friends were sitting at a table having lunch. I passed out the latest paper. One of my friends started reading the story I had written, burst out in tears and ran to the restroom. I was horrified. Everyone at the table looked at me as if to ask what I had done to her. I was tremendously embarrassed. Another time I saw one of my friends (another lady) sitting at the table where we would have lunch. When I walked in tears were streaming down her face. I was afraid she had had some bad news delivered. But, she was reading another one of my memory stories and was moved to tears. The unifying aspect of these two instances was the subject matter of the stories. In the first instance I was telling the memory of my mom ironing clothes while listening to the radio. My friend, Dorothy, lost her mother when she was a child. To read about my mom ironing clothes sparked memories she had of her mom doing the same thing. Like the flick of a switch, the memory was recalled and the emotional response was immediate. With my other friend, Vivian, the story was about memories I had going grocery shopping on Friday nights with my dad after he got paid. It was a ritual. Reading the story caused Vivian to remember going places with her dad who had been dead for many years. She related to me going to a very small circus that came to their neighborhood with her dad. She remembered getting to ride the elephant and her father picking her up and placing her on the elephant. I apologized to Dorothy and Vivian that I had caused so much emotional stress for them. They both said that it was a good thing because through that response, for a moment, it was like they were reunited with their loved ones. My point in all of this is to say that Bachelard's work is a great service to mankind. I imagine that there is another world that is behind a veil where the key to passing through that veil is our memories. And, when we are able to transcend this place and arrive at that other place, what Eliade refers to as sacred, we have arrived at a moment that is not fettered by the restraints we deal with in the world of the here and now. We have transcended time and space and commune with those objects and people that inform the sacred experience that awaits anyone that manages to become transported away.

@EarnestlyEston 7 жыл бұрын

This is such a wonderful commentary on The Poetics of Space! It's wonderful gift to learn to let oneself be taken up in a transcendent moment either by a personal memory or by the more universal as described in the book (such as the feeling of expansion by description of a small space). I think I would have enjoyed your newspapers! Perhaps you should collect them and publish them as a memoir? I am not familiar with Mircea Eliade but will look into The Sacred and Profane as it sounds very interesting to me. I too feel that the book is a treasure just waiting to be picked up and read by anyone who will come away the richer for it. Thanks again for your thoughtful and insightful comment.

@eithardaherFreeSpirit Жыл бұрын

Thank you for this amazing review.

@fastnbulbouss 4 жыл бұрын

Such a pleasure to find out Bachelard crossed your path and is available in english. I was looking at what was available on KZbin and while listening to a few interviews I noticed your chat on La Poétique de l'Espace, and was delighted to listen to your take on this wonderful man. Hope you get to read more from Gaston.

@BrightGarlick 3 жыл бұрын

What a wonderful assessment Eston! I loved your insight and your enthusiasm and the intelligent and considerate dialogue between you and your commenters! I came to some of the same insights independently of Gaston and it's deeply encouraging to discover he mapped out so much so long ago. It would be great if in time people recognize his contributions to understanding the human mind and the power of words and perception. His insights are similar to those of Roberto Assagioli but they came at them from different directions. Thanks for sharing your wisdom! ;-)

@sunkisstx 6 жыл бұрын

thank you very much for this video! i'm currently doing a university project on space, and i always find it helpful to see how others have approached a given text.

@EarnestlyEston 6 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you found my chat on the book interesting. How wonderful to study space in a formal manner as you are doing!

@aubreeevans6405 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you for this. You did a nice job summarizing this abstract book. And you pulled out some of the quotes that I loved, too. This book has enriched my work in faculty development and global sociology.

@EarnestlyEston 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much for the kind comment! I find myself referring to this book often and can definitely say it has enriched my life as well.

@saifiliciousftw 4 жыл бұрын

This was a great primer for what to expect, thank you!

@williamson_pip 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the introduction. I heard about this book in a passing comment and your video gave the context I was looking for! Now I’m going to read it for sure.

@EarnestlyEston 5 жыл бұрын

You're welcome! I think it's really a beautiful book :)

@Bonezswiss 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your commentary on a such an important book.

@AAscension 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks. Finished reading the book a few weeks ago, and it helps to hear someone else lay out the purpose of the book. Excellent book, liked it all the way through.

@EarnestlyEston 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your comment!

@ellelala39 3 жыл бұрын

I was pleasantly surprised by Bachelard's humor. Reminded me of Richard Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, which was amusingly frantic.

@EarnestlyEston 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for bringing The Anatomy of Melancholy to my attention... I must read it!

@anannyauberoi8658 4 жыл бұрын

This was so helpful, thank you!

@leafyconcern 4 жыл бұрын

I really want to read this one! I just got it pretty recently, about a few months ago. Thanks for this video.

@EarnestlyEston 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for commenting. I hope you love the book!!

@mariaaaa1128 2 жыл бұрын

Your cat is so cute

@idosmith2348 Жыл бұрын

Which page was that quote taken from referring to our soul?

@internetanel9174 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@BiblioAtlas 7 жыл бұрын

House of Leaves was pretty good, and quite strange. I was more moved by Subsidiary possibly because it's shorter and I had time to reflect on it properly. In this video, there's a lot to mull over! I read somewhere that poetry is a superior art form above all others. Naturally, a poet said it, so they must be biased :P I partly agree because I'm also biased. And it's so difficult to give poetry a decent definition or even to explain why I enjoy it. It's like a painting of the mind's experience, set to music. Applying poetry to physical space is a whole new level of study and understanding. Maybe it's a connection between what our mind perceives and what our spacial awareness is. If that makes sense? I can grapple with poetry or the understanding of poetics all day :P Geographical space affects us also I think. It's outside what this book covers. Being in Canada, I'm aware of how big Canada is and our only neighbours are the US. It's fairly cut off from the rest of the world. While in Korea, Russia was my closest Western neighbour. Being a winter country, I feel a stronger connection with them. I was also always aware of how many countries were around us. It's a different kind of spacial awareness. I wonder how much of that affects a person as they grow up, based on their geographical location in the world :P I'm not thinking of the politics, but that would become a part of their spacial awareness.

@EarnestlyEston 7 жыл бұрын

I bought House of Leaves many years ago (2004) and started it but didn't get very far. I was also quitting smoking at the time and was having difficulty concentrating so I think it was just the wrong time to try and read it. Then I had a big move (from a somewhat spacious house to a small apartment in New York City) several years later where I sold off almost all my physical books and so no longer have a copy. It haunts me though that I didn't finish it. I almost never DNF books... really never do. So I keep thinking I'll pick it up again maybe. The Poetics of Space was such a reflective book to read. I would be reading along and then get transported to a completely different mindset based on the examples given from poetry and literature and spaces. It was a wonderful experience for me. I think you may be on to something about the Geographical space affecting us. I have heard this said with regards to the expanse of Russia or the Island of Britain. The US had/has this big East/West Manifest Destiny zeitgeist. It's interesting what you describe about your experience in Korea and recognizing the different feeling from kind of isolated Canada to surrounded. The US and Americans of course stereotypically think of themselves as set apart from the world as well. Whereas in a country like Israel which is tiny, and surrounded by numerous countries which are or are perceived as hostile surely affects their worldview. I hadn't thought of geographical space and its effect on the macro such as whole societies while reading the book but it's an interesting angle. Thanks!

@BiblioAtlas 7 жыл бұрын

Reading Prisoners of Geography set me off to the races with that idea. I started to reflect on how my perception changed while in Korea. Then of course led to the reading as an expat :P Amazing how one idea always inspires another seemingly unrelated one!! Spatial awareness in Korea is something very interesting. If there are folks around you who've been there for an extended period of time, ask them about it. If they've only been there for vacation, they may not have observed the idiosyncrasies of it. I'd love to study that and compare it with their language which is agglutinative. But that gets into Sapir-Whorf (Linguistic Relativity) which has been debunked :P Don't rush too much on House of Leaves, I wasn't amazed by it and found it a bit 'gimicky.' It could be I didn't give it enough attention. When I get to the tomes, I plan to only focus on them. Infinite Jest is an example of a tome I'll devote all my attention to. House of Leaves could be a book requiring that type of devotion. But on the quick read, it just didn't connect enough for me, so I may not return to it. I'd also like to focus on Zone, I saw it on Neil Griffiths channel :P Way to go on the smoking, I never started, thank goodness! Awesome job on the quitting, I know a bit how tough it can be. The 1950s radio ads for smoking could give you a chuckle! Amazing how they pitched that habit!

@EarnestlyEston 7 жыл бұрын

Prisoners of Geography sounds interesting (just looked it up) as does Sapir-Whort (had to look that one up too...lol). It surely must affect us as it seems the more that is discovered about human consciousness, the more we learn that everything does. I'm not going to rush into House of Leaves at this point. There is so many other priorities! I actually have Zone coming up. It is on my must read TBR for 2017 I just haven't gotten to it yet (but will soon). Quitting smoking was difficult but it's probably the single best thing I've ever done for myself :)

@BiblioAtlas 7 жыл бұрын

Sapir-Whorf was debunked, but there's still a glimmer of hope for Linguistic Relativity which I think is a milder theory :P I'm with you on beliving that language affects our thinking at least to some degree. It could be because in daily life, we are lazy thinkers. So we're happy to use whatever phrases are readily available to us. Through the Looking Glass by Guy Deutscher is an interesting book on the subject of Linguistic Relativity. I could do a book chat for it. He also wrote The Unfolding of Language ^.^ I adore this subject to no end!! I'd really like to read Zone this year! Not sure how practical it would be though :( It's a tome needing undivided attention!!

@EarnestlyEston 7 жыл бұрын

You never cease to amaze me by the myriad of subjects you have read on! I'd love to hear a chat on the subject! In the meantime, I'll explore the works you mentioned for possibly adding to next year's 2018 TBR.