THE CULT OF HOUSE WORSHIP: These are not the best of times....

(Hal Crowther, Oxford American) - ... So it has always been and is yet, North and South, though fewer and fewer gifted architects seem able to tame the dreams of tasteless plutocrats. Way beyond comfort or any aesthetic considerations, the great houses tower and sprawl because, as Thomas Sutpen grasped, “How else would they know how much money I have, how far I’ve come?” There was a time when church-building and public building were rivals to residential construction. But in America, Domus has become one of the most potent gods in the pantheon of Mammon, and his temples far outstrip anything we build for church or state. Continued