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Title: The Nature and Art of Workmanship by David Pye ISBN: 0-9643999-0-3 Publisher: Cambium Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: well-meaning, but boring and pointlessly abstruse
Comment: I got this book basically because I wanted to learn something about how to tell a good piece of woodworking (furniture mostly) from a lousy piece of woodworking. But that's only touched on in a small fraction of the book, and, while I agree and sympathize with the author's views in many ways, mainly I found this book a boring read. In part it's because Pye's writing style is rather long-winded and archaic. He might have been more at home as an amateur philosopher in the 18th century, or soapbox orator in the 19th, than an essayist in the 20th. Just picking a couple of sentences at random: "Nor am I saying that free workmanship is better than regulated, nor that regulated workmanship is the ruin of our civilization. On the contrary, I say that on the contrast and tension between regulation and diversity depends half the art of workmanship." As for Pye's ideas, well, he goes to a lot of trouble to analyze and explore his concepts of "workmanship of risk" (simply put, workmanship where you can screw it really bad) versus "workmanship of certainty" (e.g. machine-punching), and "free" (open to variation) work, and the allied concept of diversity in the product, versus "regulated" (uniform, predictable--most machine production) work. Pye observations sound like this: "In our society at present the sensitivity of people to the quality of diversity in workmanship seems very uneven." "There is . . . a total incongruity and a sense of outrage about a piece of material with a highly polished surface and a raw, rough edge." "In the art of workmanship, then, we seek to diversify the scale of those formal elements which begin to be distinguishable at close and also--in season--to diversify the forms themselves by allowing slight improvisations, divagations and irregularities so that we are continually presented with fresh and unexpected incidents of form." "The traditional association between high regulation and durability, whether true aor false, has no force any longer. The highly regulated ball-point pen with which I am writing will be thrown away next week." "The extreme paucity of names for surface qualities has quite probably had the effect of prefenting any general understanding that they exist as a complete domain of aesthetic experience . . . standing independently of form and color."
Well, Pye puts some new names to things, and makes some fresh observations here and there. (There are also some interesting pictures, though too few I'd say in a book that after all is about craftsmanship.) Yet it's hard to see a lot of this stuff as really insightful, or meriting the kind of laborious, involved disquisition that Pye gives it. A page of his comments about about regulated work could be conveyed to anyone's intuition by a single Paul Strand photo of machinery. Also, many of his observations feel, ultimately, a bit like juggling of the names he has given things--but if you step back it's not all that earth-shaking an observation.
There's a part where Pye takes Ruskin to task for, in Pye's view, a number of inaccurate statements about art and craftsmanship. Pye may be correct, but his discussion on these points suffers from his style as usual (as well as an oddly peevish tone). It also doesn't benefit from comparison with Ruskin, since, when I read a bit of the Ruskin quoted by Pye here, I'm reminded of how I miss succinct, pithy writing as I ready Pye's own contributions. Ruskin: "But, accurately speaking, no good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a misunderstanding of the ends of art. . . . In all things that live there are certain irregularities and deficiencies which are not only signs of life, but sources of beauty." Even if this is wrong in some respects (as Pye likes to explain at length), Ruskin here is such a refreshing change of pace. Better wrong and interesting than correct and dull. A few of the Ruskin quotes were the only things I marked in the whole book.
Well, maybe it's just me, but I found this book tedious and rather a disappointment.
Rating: 5
Summary: A great book that lives up to expectations
Comment: In this book David Pye accurately and concisely differentiates between hand craftsmanship and modern machine done work. He writes his philosophical yet practical, personal ideas on craftsmanship. It is a great discussion for anyone interested in fine workmanship. It attempts to answer questions (or at least provide an entry point into discussion) of why hand workmanship is important, why it appeals to us, and want makes it fundamentally different from machine build crafts. It does not focus on any specific craft (thought Professor Pye is a woodworker himself), but is meaningful and accessable to anyone interested in crafts and hand workmanship. This is a great book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Lucid, practical, a classic
Comment: I love this book. Pye, in concise and often beautiful language, defines the idea of workmanship as he sees it -- its history, its implications, how it might develop. He gives interesting commentary on the Arts & Crafts movement vis-a-vis Ruskin and Morris as well.
Pye really is a master of the old school, and I would encourage anyone to buy this book for both its own ideas and for a look at a wonderful mind. A great companion to Krenov.
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Title: The Nature and Aesthetics of Design by David Pye ISBN: 0964399911 Publisher: Cambium Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Cultivated Wilderness: Or, What is Landscape? (Graham Foundation / MIT Press Series in Contemporary Architectural Discourse) by Paul Shepheard ISBN: 0262691949 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: What Is Architecture? An Essay on Landscapes, Buildings, and Machines by Paul Shepheard ISBN: 0262691663 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 10 February, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Furniture-Making Techniques: The Best from Furniture & Cabinetmaking Magazine by David Charlesworth ISBN: 1861081251 Publisher: Sterling Publishing Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Unknown Craftsman: A Japanese Insight into Beauty by Soetsu Yanagi ISBN: 0870119486 Publisher: Kodansha America Pub. Date: 01 January, 1990 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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