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PaperclipPerfector  8d ago (text post)   1589 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 28, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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You might get something out of Annals of a Fortress, a fictional history of one particular site in eastern France. It alternates between fortifying and besieging the fortress. Characters on both sides are usually extremely capable. They’d have to be, to get hundreds or thousands of men in position for a siege!

The author was a renowned architect with a strong historical basis. He was also really bitter about the Franco-Prussian war. Understandable, given that he was involved in organizing the final defense of Paris. The last section of the book lays out his theory of the current (circa 1880) state of the art. It’s basically a manual for the kind of strategies which would lead, inevitably, to trench warfare.

Link

While finding that link, I also stumbled across a different work from the same author, How to Build a House. In that work, a fictional architect apparently explains the process of designing an 1870s country house in detail, so it may also match @pusher_robot's desire.

You must know, cousin, that the more rapidly we want a building erected, the more desirable it is that everything should be perfectly arranged beforehand. Remember the trouble your neighbour, Count —— has had, who has been beginning his château again and again every spring for six years, without being able to get it finished, because he could not indicate all that he wanted at first, and his architect had not the courage to insist upon adopting a well-planned design once for all; and because he has listened to all the whims, or rather to all the officious advice which friends of the family did not fail to offer, one respecting the size of the rooms, another about the placing of the staircases, a third on the style and decoration. We have only a year before us, we must therefore not begin till we are certain of not taking false steps; besides, your sister must approve the plan. Let us consider a little; and first let us come to an understanding about the means of construction you decide to adopt. As we are in a hurry we have hardly a choice; we cannot think of building the house with worked stone from top to bottom; that would take too long, and cost too much. We must adopt a method of construction that is simple, and can be rapidly executed. Does that meet your ideas? You introduce columns in your front; for what purpose? If they form a portico, they will make the rooms dark and gloomy; if they are attached to the walls, they are of no use here. And this balustrade on the upper cornices—what does that mean? Do you suppose your lady sister will walk among the gutters? That is for the service of the cats, I suppose. And please to explain this: on the plan I observe that from the entrance-hall you have to go through the dining-room to reach the drawing-room. But if visitors come while you are at table, you will have to ask them to wait at the door, or invite them to see you and your friends eat.

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