The happiness of secrets
Today I read this article, and I wanted very much to think it was inexpressibly amazing. It is about the apartment of a New York family, whose designer-architect, unbeknown to them, embedded in it a kind of mystery-puzzle-treasure hunt, all codes and secret compartments and hidden roles for everyday things. Being more than a little fascinated by secrets and mysteries, I kind of think that that that's about the coolest thing ever, and I would surely burst with joy if someone did such a thing for me. All mysteries are exciting, but a surprise mystery is, well, enough to restore your faith in magic.
But.
The apartment to me, despite all the money to lavish on making it beautiful, is in places rather ugly. It speaks of more money than taste, on the part of both the occupants and the designer. It should be stunning in both its mystery and its everydayness, and it seems to just fall a little bit short. Which is sort of sad for such a perfect idea.
And they are such a ridiculously wealthy, privileged family - the apartment itself cost $8.5 million. I'm sure that after being featured in the New York times, the designer is set. But he "absorbed much of the cost in terms of his own billable hours, and relied on the generosity of more than 40 friends and artisans who became captivated by the project. He said he 'begged, borrowed and stole' from them "in the collaborative process".
If I was going to be a fairy godmother, if I was going to do something utterly amazing, incredible, and life-changing for one family, and beg a whole load of other people to do it to, for free, I just don't think I would pick them.
Worst of all, I don't think they deserve it. What kind of a child (or adult) spends months seeing a load of scambled letters every day his bedroom and never once thinks it might be a code, until a friend points it out?
But maybe I'm just jealous.
posted by Eloise @ 4:34 pm
2 comments
2 Comments:
I was really interested to see this, so thanks for linking to it. I think the journalist was also kind of unimpressed by the style of the apartment:
"the apartment is quite attractive and perfectly functional in all the typical ways",
I think that's damp praise by any stretch of the imagination. Also the apartment's owners had lots of hints and just lived in the place without thinking anything was amiss until they got a clue in the post. So poor marks for initiative. The theory of a puzzle built into an apartment is quite bogglingly amazing, but the practice was very rich, fashionable, upper-east-side exclusivity.
I also don't QUITE understand what the denoument was? Was it the poem behind the pannelling? If so, how rubbish! There should have been treasure! At least a big precious stone, or a carved elephant.
Yay, I'm so glad you agree with me and I'm not just a great big killjoy! As you say, the idea is so mind-bogglingly amazing that a less-than-perfect exectution and audience is deeply disappointing. As far as I can work out there were a number of stand-alone huntlets (if you will) but the main denouement was the poem. It's a nice idea, but it could be quite cringingly awful depending on the poem! Treasure is definitely ore reliable, though I suppose dubloons would have bust the budget... but maybe a carved elephant would be OK, and you could fix it so that they couldn't remove it and they'd have to leave it for the next person...
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