![]() Partway through, in a chapter titled “Dream House as Inner Sanctum,” Machado recalls a childhood fight with her parents during which she locked herself in her bedroom. ![]() In the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s 1958 book about architecture, “The Poetics of Space,” a psychologist studies children’s drawings of houses to find that the detail of a doorknob makes a house “not merely a constructed house, it is also a house that is lived-in.” It’s a detail “so frequently forgotten in the drawings of ‘tense’ children,” others drawing it too large in scale, “its function taking precedence over any question of size.” The knob is us, conditioned to hold on.ĭoorknobs are a small component of what makes a house, but they’re a big part of what makes a home. Sometimes doorknobs convulse, when being jostled angrily from the other side. ![]() In movies, the silent turning motion of someone trying to enter unnoticed is spine-chilling, the suspense resting on the director’s power to fix our attention on something small, so our imagination can nourish our fears of what’s to come. Then, feeling frustrated, exposed, we consider force a kitchen knife. ![]() Not being allowed access or escape comes as a surprise. ![]() We take them for granted until, for whatever reason, they jam. IN THE DREAM HOUSE A Memoir By Carmen Maria Machadoĭoorknobs can be nerve-racking things. ![]()
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