Pre-class Blog 9/11 Robby Riehle

I would have to say I think this has been the most difficult article we have read yet. Not because the writing itself was complex, but in trying to relate it to our class and with the other readings. I just didn’t understand, and I am still wary about how architecture plays a significant role. Although when Jencks started to talk about “urban urbanism” and the paradoxical view of oxymoron’s we use in language to describe such things I got to thinking. Then the store Urban Outfitters came to mind. Urban Outfitters is popularly growing store you can find in pretty much any mall that specializes in selling vintage, hipster, retro and designer clothing. Basically they make clothes for people who live in the city (or who want to look like they live in the city) and want to standout as such by wearing “modern” or “urban” clothes. As Jenks states, “Postmodernist, like the modernist before then, or for that matter any historical movement, are definable by stylist formulae which they invent or adapt. Fashion and function both play a role in establishing these new figures . . .” (291).  The issue that I see here is if these kids are wearing these clothes to show their uniqueness and modernity, how is it that these stores are so popular? And furthermore what happens when the fad grows large enough to become the norm? Well, Jenks says, “The urban way of life is simply better than is the disassociated and overcentralized city” (285). And so, since “ . . . we have the freedom to choose and perfect out conventions, this choice forces us to look both inwards and outward to culture as a whole” (294).