These contrasts of inside and outside, and lightness and darkness, create little thresholds we pass through from hour to hour. These simple transitions, such as walking through a trellis, or sitting down for breakfast, can change your whole mood. A room is a mood, and we need different moods, small and capacious. The past is more past when it happened somewhere else, with other qualities of light. The changes are needed—they make time more felt…
Le Corbusier defined the function of a house as “1. A shelter against heat, cold, rain, thieves and the inquisitive. 2. A receptacle for light and sun. 3. A certain number of cells appropriated to cooking, work, and personal life.” Everything else is merely decorative, this suggests.
— Elisa Gabbert, Any Person is the Only Self: Essays (FSG Originals, June 11, 2024)
Notes:
- Book Reviews of “Any Person is the Only Self”
- By Lily Meyer: An Essayist Who Revels in Glorious Chaos? NY Times, June 8, 2024.
- By Becca Rothfeld: A charming look at a reader’s many moods. (Washington Post, May 30, 2024)
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.
