- Copyright 2009-2012 by Paul Goss All Rights Reserved
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Category Archives: Literature
Spending time with Spent
I recently purchased a book on the long-time suggestion of my anthropology professor in college. Spent: Sex, Evolution and Consumer Behavior takes a look at modern consumer behavior from the perspective of evolutionary psychology. Seeking to illuminate the unconscious decisions … Continue reading
Teaching Los Angeles
Los Angeles is so often criticized in this century as a failed city, an anti-city lacking the traditional hierarchies and radial density gradient that we have come to take for granted as key characteristics of functioning large cities. That which … Continue reading
Coney Island then and now: A look at the Pyrotechnic Insanitarium 100 years on
On a recent trip to New York City, I finally made it to see a long time fascination of mine: Coney Island. My interest in Coney Island stems Rem Koolhaas’s analysis of the island in Delirious New York. In his … Continue reading
A Lesson from the Aleutians – The Brilliance of Vernacular Design and Construction
The book Steller’s Island is the account of a Russian ship exploring the coast of Alaska in 1741. The ship carried the first scientist to ever visit that part of the world, Georg Steller. In addition to performing an amazing … Continue reading
Architecture and Anthropology in The House of Mirth
This fall I read The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton on the recommendation of a former professor. It is a tale of a young woman in New York’s high society in the early 1900s and follows her social rise … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Architecture, Literature, Social Norms
Tagged Add new tag, Anthropology, Edith Wharton, House of Mirth, New York City, Social class
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Ayn Rand’s Anthropological Insights
In the introduction to her seminal work The Fountainhead, Rand comments that in her opinion the greatest failing of man is the loss of the spirit of youth, of giving up. She writes: “Then all of these [men] vanish into … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Architecture, Literature
Tagged Add new tag, Fountainhead, Human behavior, Norm, Social group
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Inspirational Words from Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand’s introduction to The Fountainhead, written 25 years after it was first published, is both a reflection on her trials in the publishing process and a call to the youth. As recent graduates from architecture school the novel, and … Continue reading
