‘Translated from the French by Meria Jolas
Gaston Bachelard
Foreword by Btienne Gilson
Bescon Press « Boston1
th se
from ela a ara
in soins oe at
4 ts pot de a mon qui iene reppert
Ue porte omvere om ere
‘ne ors frmde wn ene
Lemonde bat de ante cl dems fort,
Les Amaemens Nate, p37
(Atte dor of he hoe who wil oe Knacking?
‘An open doe, weenter
‘Aeledoor 2 den
‘The wr pe bas beyond my door)
‘The howe, quite obviouly, isa privileged entity for a
phenomenological study of the faite values of inside
Space, provided, of eoure that we ake i in both its unity
fd is compleaiy, snd endeavor to integrate all he epi
‘rales in one fondamentl value. For the house frnihes
1 disper Images and body of images atthe same dime.
In both eases Tall prove tht imagination augnenes the
‘valves of rai. A wort ofstration fr images concentrates
them about the howe. Trantending our memories ofall
the houses in which we fave found abel, above and be
yond all the houses we hive dreamed se lived in, can we
Folate an intimate, concrete ewence that would be ja
fcation ofthe uncommen value of all of ur Sages of
protected iotinacy? Thi, then, isthe main problem
"mn order toslve it, isnot enough to conde the howe
1 an “object” om which we can make our judgments and
aydreams react. For 2 Phenomenologist, 2 peychoanalst
ora pryhologist (Deve tne points of view being named4 he pono space
sn the order of decreasing eficacy, I is not a question of
‘ering houses or enumerating their pictnesqu features
oe Mnauing for which reans they aze confortable. Oa
the contrary, we murt go Beyond the problems of dexciption
hether tis dexcipton be objective or subjective, hati
“Whether it give fact of impresionin order wo attain 19
The primary virtues, chow hat reveal an‘atachment that is
tative in some way to the primary function of inhabiting.
1X geographer or an enographercan give 3 descriptions
eckecy sted type of dwellings In each varie, the Phe
fomenologist makes the effort needed vo size upon the
sre, immediate wellbeing it enclos.
Errevery dvelling, even the richest, the Sot task of che
‘henomencogit i to Gad the original sel
Dut the related problems are many if we want to deter
mine the profound reality of all the subtle shadings of out
‘tachment fora chosen spt. Fora phenomenologist thee
‘SReings mont be taken atthe fest rough outlines of 2 py
Seloskal phenomenon. The shading is no an additonal
‘SAperical coloring. We should therefore Have to sty how
webabie our viel spl, i accord with all the dialect
Url Bow we take root, day alter day, ina “corner ofthe
world”
For our house is our corner of the word. As as often
‘peee al tis our fst universe, a real somos in ery
Sea of the word. IC we lok att inimately, the humblest
seine bar Bevery, Authors of books on “the humble
rue" Sten mention this feature of the poets of space.
artis mention is much too soccine. Finding Wille to
‘unre in te humble home, they spend ite time thers
sethey exe it as italy 1 withost really experi
Bish ts primidivenes, a primitivenes which belongs to
{Et deh and poor alle if chey are willing to dream.
put our adult life wo dspowesed of the esential bene:
‘guts sathropocomnie ts bave become v0 sac, that we
Sriooe feel Ge Geet atachment in the universe of the
fe net there fa no dearth of abstract, “workt