As he grows increasingly suspicious of this notion, and of architecture's ability to "awaken" the masses and to reform institutions, he begins to invest his cultural critique in poetry--especially in The Cantos, where the architectural images he uses are fragmented, but nonetheless powerful in their socio-politically/historically significance.
Architecture serves especially well as a dialectical image for Pound because of the multiple facets of its language, and because of its obvious ubiquity.
As Keith Tuma explains, "Architecture is important to Pound because it is intimately connected with the daily life of the masses" (1990: 86), and whatever most often confronts the masses, Pound may have surmised, has the most power to change consciousnesses.
Architectural publications had a dramatic impact particularly in rural areas, where no architectural services were available, permitting builders in the country to erect the latest designs.
In the case of Los Angeles, a functional architecture with flat roofs, stucco exterior walls, open courtyards, patios, pergolas, and use of glass window-walls and doors developed that was appropriate for both the mild climate and the out-door lifestyle.
Architectural historians should be allowed many diversions, but their first responsibility is to show how, through a compelling rendering of the elements of architecture and their assembly, vital ideas become transmuted into vivid and memorable form.
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