We were all told to read 5 stories from the novel and come for this lecture. We had quick discussions on each story which helped us cover quite a lot of stories through this exercise.
As we moved along one story to the other we also discussed the themes, aspects and parameters present in the novel. Like- Fantasy, permanence duality, journey, realism, symbolism, valuing relationship over form, transcendence and reflection.
These are the five stories I had read and most of them were discussed in class too-
- Thekla– constantly under construction; senseless till complete; stars-symbolic (hidden blueprint); coherent work; user centric design; devalues humans/ parasitic
- Isidora– city of dreams; nostalgia; “desires are already memories”;twisted nature; signifies circle of life; the grass always seems greener on the other side
- Trude– familiarity; “the world is a sole true”; nothing is different; imaginable similarity
- Clarice– rebirth; lack of satisfaction; unknown; desire of a memory
- Octavia– spider web; suspension; uncertainty
Reflection-It was an interesting exercise since I ended up learning about certain stories just through the discussions, without giving it a prior read. It was an active class with good discussion and interaction between the faculty and us.
As our class assignment, we had to pick phrases from cities that we associate with design. These are the few phrases that I chose-
Sirina’s blog 