Imitating the style of a particular writer, artist or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect is what we call a parody. Parodies have a long parallel with the theatre and literature, often to make political and social situations we find ourselves in laughable. The book has a funny way of showcasing the view of an aspiring architect student and the stereotypes architects are perceived by others. Being written in the 1920's, it stereotypes architects, along with other characters, in a different way had it been written in todays world.
Otto Silenus is the architect, he is portrayed as a sad person but with a very narcissistic demeanour and a great self loathing character. A person who isn't excited by much. The text goes on to suggest 'the drains were satisfactory', nobody wants to graduate from an exciting creative course and go on to laying out drainage, something underground where nobody can see. It becomes a draining (excuse the pun) idea that we study hard and put all that effort in to want to create and build to showcase our creative ideas to the world but instead we get lumbered with boring work like drainage, maybe Otto Silenus cannot be blamed for not getting excited about much if this is what the future of architects has in store. Does this affect the future of the role of the architect, does this mean the architect could potentially be eradicated and buildings will be designed purely around function, if so, architects could be replaced by services engineers and town planners.. not a great outlook on the future of the architect; in Evelyn Waugh's eyes.
Architects do not necessarily gain new work by creating the perfect buildings, but how the finished structure is advertised can and will always play a part in the future of architecture. Media is so powerful nowadays that images can be seen almost instantly and almost everywhere in the world, it wont take long for a finished image of a building to circulate around the world if it is a trending topic. Architects of today realise this and want to create this crisp images of the finished build, finesse is the drive for the modern day architect who would love their images to be in big newspapers and magazines. The media wont cover the space created and the functionality of the build, as long as its appearance is bold and shiny.
We have to believe, opposite to that of Otto Silenus, that the industry can still bring the imaginative and fun factor, we can still get excited about our industry and it isn't all doom and gloom designing pipes. We have to understand that side of the build, of course, but that's not what architect students went into study for, they wanted the finished article.
Otto Silenus is the architect, he is portrayed as a sad person but with a very narcissistic demeanour and a great self loathing character. A person who isn't excited by much. The text goes on to suggest 'the drains were satisfactory', nobody wants to graduate from an exciting creative course and go on to laying out drainage, something underground where nobody can see. It becomes a draining (excuse the pun) idea that we study hard and put all that effort in to want to create and build to showcase our creative ideas to the world but instead we get lumbered with boring work like drainage, maybe Otto Silenus cannot be blamed for not getting excited about much if this is what the future of architects has in store. Does this affect the future of the role of the architect, does this mean the architect could potentially be eradicated and buildings will be designed purely around function, if so, architects could be replaced by services engineers and town planners.. not a great outlook on the future of the architect; in Evelyn Waugh's eyes.
Architects do not necessarily gain new work by creating the perfect buildings, but how the finished structure is advertised can and will always play a part in the future of architecture. Media is so powerful nowadays that images can be seen almost instantly and almost everywhere in the world, it wont take long for a finished image of a building to circulate around the world if it is a trending topic. Architects of today realise this and want to create this crisp images of the finished build, finesse is the drive for the modern day architect who would love their images to be in big newspapers and magazines. The media wont cover the space created and the functionality of the build, as long as its appearance is bold and shiny.
We have to believe, opposite to that of Otto Silenus, that the industry can still bring the imaginative and fun factor, we can still get excited about our industry and it isn't all doom and gloom designing pipes. We have to understand that side of the build, of course, but that's not what architect students went into study for, they wanted the finished article.
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