Status Updates From The Voice of the Air

Are we seeing Luca's conniving, plotting side now? And I love Howard's portrayal of Luca's "vision" - seemingly supernatural, though one might just as well say he was imagining the whole thing. This has come up a couple of times, and it seems to me that this visionary aspect of Luca are a critical part of his entwinement with architecture.

It is truly amazing how Howard intertwines Luca with his architecture, how the man's life is a reflection of his building(s) and vice versa, including the demolition of both. He has his "secret stairway", built in the spiral of the public stairway, both in his building and in his soul. Howard's craftsmanship here is spectacular.

Ah, I was wondering when communism would raise its ugly head.

Intriguing how Luca is haunted by his past, and yet as he pushes toward the future(s), he, in some ways, inevitably moves backward, toward it, by trying to move forward. I dont know if this was Howard's intent in writing Luca's story, but this is the impression I get: a sort of "push-me/pull-me" action of past happenings, present action, and future possibilities. Like a temporal slinky toy.

Now we get the view from inside Luca's head. The monologue about ghosts on pages 80 - 82 is a fantastic piece of writing. Too long to quote, but the thread from poetry to postage stamps to sedition to coup to ghosts embedded in the architecture is a thing of beauty, the sort of prose that a writer will devote to study in order to glean some insight into how it was created.

And here, Luca is brought low. I wonder what order these first two novellas were written in? Such a fall from loftier places for Cristian Luca!

Lucas simultaneously acknowledges and preserves the mystery of his fluctuating appearance, vaguely referenced political ambitions, and apartment building, which may or may not have existed in this reality or never existed at all. Because of this, the story ends in a note of sustained tension that plays through the last line.

Fine wordcrafting by Howard.

And there is the intriguing double twist: regime change and the questioning of whether Lucas' greatest architectural achievement (so far) ever even existed. Eerie brought on by weird. Very curious to see how this story finishes.

What is happening to Luca? Is he physically ill or mentally disturbed or in the middle of an existential crisis or something else? The change in him seems sudden and I dont know what to make of it.

It's amazing what a little phrase uttered by a character can don o your perception of them. The phrase I am referring to: "How much can keep on being subtracted?"

There's more weight to this than that carried by the simple words. Much more.

Christian Luca is a complicated character made even more complex by the multiple viewpoints from which Howard examines him, not the least of which is Luca's own view of himself.

As usual, Howard's descriptive prose is evocative and exacting.