Delight's Muse is a blessedly short, accessible, and thoughtfully illustrated summary of Christopher Alexander's four volume work, The Nature of Order. It rescues readers from the massive effort required to navigate Alexander's 2000-page labyrinth without map or compass. Delight's Muse will interest not only fans of Alexander's earlier books (the best known being A Pattern Language from 1977, and The Timeless Way of Building from 1979) but everyone willing to entertain a fresh and stimulating way to observe the world and the variety of things we place in it.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's weird that this book is so ugly,
This review is from: Delight'S Muse On Christopher Alexander'S The Nature Of Order: A Summary And Personal Interpretation (Paperback)
I wish I didn't have to vote, because I haven't read the book yet. It arrived today and I have only just looked at it. It's ugly.
The cover shows a detail of a painting by douanier Rousseau, but it's a blow-up of a low resolution compressed image. It has been blurred in an unsuccessful attempt to hide the pixels. There are many other badly reproduced pictures inside the book, some blurred, some badly lacking contrast. Some picture have a fine black line around them, others don't. The indentation of the table of contents seems erratic. There are paragraphs with huge blanks between the words. It's obviously been put together by someone who doesn't know much about graphic design. This so completely undermines the book's claim to say something meaningful about art and beauty that I can't believe Christopher Alexander would have approved of this. But the author of the book knows him; didn't he proofread it? Believe it or not, this book made me look up Christopher Alexander in wikipedia to check if he was dead. He's not. There's something very wrong here that I can't explain. The little I've read here and there seems to be well written though. I'm looking forward to getting over the ugliness of the layout and actually read the book. EDIT: I've read most of the book now. Alexander can't be involved in this. It's being sold as shortcut to his work by a long time collaborator, but it's more like a backstabbing. Read these quotes: "I have been struck by the fact that the talented builders and craftsmen with whom I have discussed Alexander's new ideas don't find them all that enlightening." "I have visited some of [Alexander's] buildings and although I believe I understand what he was reaching for, I felt he never quite pulled it off." "So consumed was Alexander by writing that he couldn't be bothered to practice what he preached. More notable perhaps [...], Alexander squelched anyone who dared comment on that obvious fact with his notorious, nanosecond, trigger happy, poison fumed, bilious green, razor bladed tongue. (OK, I exaggerate - but not by much.)" I don't know how legitimate Jenny Quillien's criticisms are. But her book certainly fails as an honest introduction to Christopher Alexander's work.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat disappointing,
By
This review is from: Delight'S Muse On Christopher Alexander'S The Nature Of Order: A Summary And Personal Interpretation (Paperback)
Alexanders work surely needs simple introductions. Having read most of his books I appreciate what this book does: it builds on the basic ideas and puts in a lot of images and quotes from other authors to illustrate its points. And yes, it is an easy read.
But on the other hand, instead of drawing a big picture, the book seems to disintegrate Alexanders ideas. It is like a finished puzzle, partially broken down to its pieces, as if the author hadn't really taken the time to fully understand what she is writing about. In many places she suggests that Alexanders ideas aren't really working, that she has outgrown his concepts and knows better. In one place she even presents a photograph of Alexanders chaotic office, seemingly as evidence against him. Or says things like "there is no Alexander party" as if public applause where an evidence for conceptual correctness. There are certainly many reasons to criticise Alexander. He is probably dogmatic and convinced of his truth. But he is a pionier and has marked ways through almost unknown territory. He deserves better than to be mispresented and then be put down light-handedly.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Modest Map of the Universe,
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This review is from: Delight'S Muse On Christopher Alexander'S The Nature Of Order: A Summary And Personal Interpretation (Paperback)
How many books seem destined for the at-hand reference shelf, the visual treat of the coffee table, the bedside reflection pile and the bathroom inspirational moment all at once? Delight's Muse is such a book. This is one woman's intelligent, sensitive reflection, extracting the essence of one man's life endeavor. Christopher Alexander's The Nature of Order is the work under inspection, a lengthy, earnest, courageous effort to articulate the very heart of nature and to weigh man's built environment in comparison, its success and failure.
Delight's Muse invites skimming, choice grazing and then deftly serves up substantial concepts to reread and ponder. Interlaced with quotes from poetry to physics and images from the macro and microcosms, it enhances one's vision of the world, natural and built, as it tunes one's place within it. This is a book for architects, yes, for those who take the daily fabric of our lives into their hands, but also for artists, homemakers, gardeners, thinkers... in short, for people who live here and wonder how to do it better.
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