Isn't this the same Simon Jenkins who backed the Millenium Dome?

It's true that Modernism failed in all sorts of ways, but it didn't
fail totally. I'm writing this on a Mac, very much a modernist
machine (OK, maybe that's not the best example :). People don't
listen to musique concrete? What about all those film scores and
sampling DJs? No mass callisthenics? Have you been to a gym recently?
And the Underground map is a modernist classic.
At one level, modernism was no more than an inevitable swing back to
classicism, a bit more extreme than usual perhaps.

The point about post-modernism (whatever that is), is that it's /
post/ modernism. It takes what it likes from Modernism and uses it
where appropriate.

S.

On 9 Apr 2006, at 12:48, Edward Summers wrote:
> On Apr 7, 2006, at 5:15 AM, Nat Pryce wrote:
>> The happiest valediction on the V&A show is that at least peoples
>> across Europe rejected all it celebrates. They denied modernism's
>> odious utopianism. They refused to live as they were ordered. They
>> hated glass buildings. They did not buy abstract art or listen to
>> musique concrète. They refused to do mass callisthenics. They turned
>> their back on "less is more" in favour of a humane environment and
>> courtesy towards the past. They are doing so to this day. But
>> think of
>> the damage that was done.
>
> What a lovely phrase 'odious utopianisms'--thanks for posting [1]. I
> have to admit I do have a soft spot for Mondrian :-)
>
> The review definitely got my mind working on what the 'odious
> utopianisms' of computer programming are today. It often feels like
> computer language advocacy in general comes bundled with the language
> of utopia--or of distopia when speaking of 'other languages'.
>
> I'm kind of curious to hear what other folks find to be todays odious
> computing utopianisms.