The Craftsman is written by Richard Sennett and he is the “…prime observer of society, an American, a pragmatist who takes the nitty gritty of daily life and turns it into a disquisition on morality. His earlier books include The Fall of Public Man, The Conscience of the Eye and The Corrosion of Character. Sennett's knowledge and interests range widely over architecture, art, design, literature and the ever fluctuating social life of cities. The components of the man-made environment enthrall him. He is an enchanting writer with important things to say.”-guardian
Craft work is widely observed in his new book. There is a continuous reference to potters making mugs or Moroccan Leather grainers, I agree such people are involved, but he most resonates with the crafts of making music, cooking, the ‘desire to do things well that (he thinks)’ lives in all of us, the desire to prevail in ones work, has the possibility frustrated and damage once these urges are denied.
Sennett is a professional sociologist-philosopher and also a musician. The Guardian quotes a unique moment in the book, which was an example of “enduring, basic human impulse”. The scene verges on craft mania is a scene in a town’s concert center, and a local orchestra rehearses the string section in pure endurance and desire for perfection in their craftwork, the conductor hardly take notice of their ongoing efforts to satisfy their deeper being. In that scene so rightfully examines the ‘painstaking efforts of improvement of performance’ is a combination of drive and obsession for perfection.
Sennett views the satisfactions of physical making as a necessary part of being human. The slow ‘rhythms’ of grasping a complex and intelligible craft, we need them for enrichment and growth in connection to a craftworks material reality.
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