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Tom Wolfe’s critique of modern architecture, first published in Harper’s Magazine and subsequently as the 1981 book From Bauhaus to Our House, offers a sharp and highly readable assessment of the built world on display in urban mid-century America. His trenchant analysis did not meet with universal approval, however. One reviewer offered this reply in The New York Times: “What Tom Wolfe doesn’t know about modern architecture could fill a book. And so indeed it has, albeit a slim one.”
Whatever your views on the subject – and we’d be delighted to hear of them – we hope you enjoyed this week’s acrostic, which we chose to construct in part because of Wolfe’s colorful prose. There was something in the phrase “full-blooded, go-to-hell, belly-rubbing wahoo-yahoo youthful rampage” that simply spoke to us. And what it said was “This language might really tickle/exasperate those clever and intrepid people who solve our puzzles!” Again, we’re eager to hear your views.
We profess no expertise on the subject of architecture, modern or otherwise, but recalled the adage that “form follows function.” And so it does in the acrostic (see Answers D. and F.). How many other references to architects and architecture did you see?
Tom Wolfe passed away in 2018. For those of you curious to know more about his life and works, here’s a short interview he gave in 2006:
One final tidbit: the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, pictured at the top of this post, can be found on the campus of Harvard University. It was constructed based on a design by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, who was one of the modern architects Wolfe skewers. When the building opened in 1963, Le Corbusier came to see it for the first time and exclaimed, “My God, they’ve built it upside down!” Or so the story goes.
I was floundering initially, as I had a couple of incorrect guesses (“inferior” instead of UNWORTHY, “Glacier” instead of OLMSTED), but as the theme of the puzzle became clear through various clues and answers, I was able to fill in the two instances of “architecture” in the quote from only a few letters, and that opened up a number of other answers (eventually).
Some other observations:
– Nice to see SAARINEN as an answer. The father (ELIEL) and son (EERO) first names were crossword staples for many years.
– Also nice to see ART DECO clued by someone other than ERTÉ (another crossword staple).
– Working the principle “form follow function” into the acrostic through D and F was a nice touch.
– Favorite clue was the one for BRUTALIST (“One who makes things concrete”)
– As Jane and David pointed out, the string of four hyphenated phrases was a linguistic treat!
– I have to admit I was surprised to see “gimp” in the clue for M (HOBBLE). As a noun, the term is considered an offensive term for someone who limps, though In the context of the clue, it’s being used as a verb (where it’s just a synonym for “limp”). Still, its appearance in the clue was a bit jarring.
I too greatly enjoyed this puzzle. Like Richard, I had some trouble until I was able intuit “architecture“ in two places, and that helped backfill a lot of clues.
Tom Wolfe was always a delight to read, but he held many retrograde views including, I think, about modern architecture. The greats of 20th century modern architecture (Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright, etc.) were and remain great, and their buildings rightly revered.
I think his curmudgeonliness was more on target when he took on modern art in “The Painted Word.” Unfair in many respects, but hilarious. I still remember his riff on Clement Greenberg‘s use of the term “fuliginous flatness.“
Architecture-related clues that I detected:
D and F: The awesome “form follows function.”
E: Otis, without whose elevator, modern skyscrapers would not be possible.
J: Brutalist – The architectural style Wolfe was mostly fulminating about.
K: Abbey
N: Art deco. The style associated with architects Van Alen (Chrysler building) and Cormier.
P: U.S. Steel Tower.
R. Olmsted point. Named after Frederick Law Olmsted, the great landscape architect who co-created Central Park, and his son, who achieved fame for his work in the national parks.
S. Ogee.
Y. The Saarinens. I always loved Eero’s TWA terminal, and was delighted when it was resuscitated and turned into a hotel.
First thought was that this Acrostic was going to be an appreciation of hyphens, so-to-speak.
What a treat it turned out to be.
Thanks for the challenge.
“So to speak” is not hyphenated, after all.
I filled in the source pretty early, so that helped, After that It wasn’t so much the hyphenated words that made me stumble (though I admit I’ve never come across “wahoo-yahoo” before, having never read this particular Wolfe) as the odd construction of “what architecture has SHE to show for it,” calling back to “America.” For the life of me I couldn’t figure out the center letter of S_E, which in turn hindered solving UNWORTHY and, yes -YAHOO…When the solve came, it was gratifying.
When I was growing up near Pittsburgh, we always called it the Steel Building, don’t remember Tower ever being used…
This was a brilliantly designed and constructed acrostic. I created a major problem for myself be confidently plugging in inferior instead of UNWORTHY, which caused no end of confusion. Once the plethora of architecture related clues revealed the theme and I spotted the word architecture twice in the quote, I had enough building blocks to fill in the gaps left in the puzzle.
Then, on top of everything else the quote contained 4 hyphenated words and there were two more in the clues. Genius.
Clue A. “Wright” also has architecture connection, Frank Lloyd Wright.
Clue K. “Abbey” Road is also the recording studio of a band named Architects.
Clue V. “Hagel” –is there a connection here?
Interesting that you chose the photo of a Corbu brutalist building. That one is not my favorite, but his Villa Savoye? Chef’s kiss!
I have to acknowledge that I still don’t get the SHE. I finally figured it had to be unworthy, but I don’t know what that pronoun signifies in the quote.
I have to acknowledge that I still don’t get the SHE. I finally figured it had to be unworthy, but I don’t know what that pronoun signifies in the quote.
That tripped me up a bit too. It refers to America, treating countries like ships.