joey’space

 The Poetics of Space

by Gaston Bachelard 

Thirty years since its first publication in English, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space remains one of the most appealing and lyrical explorations of home. Bachelard takes us on a journey, from cellar to attic, to show how our perceptions of houses and other shelters shape our thoughts, memories and dreams…

1  The House, From Cellar to Garret - The Significance of the Hut

“At the door of the house who will come knocking? An open dorr, we enter… A closed door, a den… The world pulse beats beyond my door.”

2  House and Universe

“When the peaks of our sky come together, my house will have a roof.”

3  Drawers, Chests and Wardrobes

“Orderliness. Harmony. Piles of sheets in the wardrobe. Lavender in the linen.”

“The reflection on the old wardrobe cast by the live coals of an October twilight.”

4  Nests

“I found a nest in the skeleton of the ivy, a soft nest of country moss and dream herb.”

“White nests your birds will flower, you will fly, feather paths.”

5  Shells

“It’s a giant snail descending the mountain, with at its side, the brook’s white foam, ver old, only one horm left… which is its short, square belfry.”

6  Corners

“Close space! Close the kangaroo’s pouch! It’s warm in there.”

7  Miniature

“I have hands to pluck you, wee thyme of my dreams, rosemary of my excessive palor.”

8  Intimate Immensity

“The world is large, but in us it is deep as the sea.”

9  The Dialectics of Outside and Inside

“One of the maxims of practical education that governed my childhood: ‘Don’t eat with your mouth open.’”

10  The Phenomenology of Roundness

“… This round bird-call rests in the instant that engenders it. Huge as the sky above with withered forest docilely things take their place in this call. In it the entire landscape seems to rest.”