Literature Appetizer
Ben Kusserow
A Northern Appalachian's Journey

Recently I just finished Appalachia North by Matthew Ferrence. In it, he recounts the complex relationship he still has with the land as a Northern Appalachian. Typically when I finish a book I write a Literature Appetizer to get people a taste of what they will find. Since his book is such a personal journey, I would not do it justice by recounting his life.

Many of his experiences reflect my own experience growing up in Western PA. So instead of condensing his journey, I thought I would condense mine.

The Hero’s Journey is a common literary structure where the hero of the story departs home to do a great act, and then returns victorious. My Northern Appalachian Journey is a bit different, but has a similar structure of three parts; Living in Water, Succeeding by Leaving, and The Mountains are Calling.

A Northern Appalachian's Journey

architecture

Literature Appetizer: How to Read Bridges by Edward Denison and Ian Stewart

Literature Appetizer: How to Read Bridges by Edward Denison and Ian Stewart

One of the main reasons I picked this year to study architecture is because of the City of Bridges: Pittsburgh. While most cities around the globe have them, Pittsburgh has the most at over 400! With this book I wanted to, as the title says, understand more about these amazing structure.

But I can't lie, even though it doesn't have too much "architecture jargon," this book is quite dry. Short, but dry. While there were plenty of cool tidbits, one made me look at bridges in an entirely different light.

Biomimicry: Coping Nature's Homework

Biomimicry: Coping Nature's Homework

Plagiarism is terrible, every time. We should never use an idea and claim it as our own. But engineers, makers, and architects are often told to study others' work to get inspired for your own design. It can be as simple as asking the person next to you to designing the David L Lawrence Convention Center off of the Pittsburgh Bridges.

But if we are counting how much research and development all of humanity has done, it pales in comparison to the millennia to experimentation that life overall has had. This idea of mimicking life and our greater ecosystems, or biomimicry, is best explained by Vox and 99% Invisible below.

Life Time Liberal Arts: Architecture

Life Time Liberal Arts: Architecture

One of the reasons why I was drawn to Allegheny College was the Distribution requirement. Basically all departments were divided into three divisions:

  • Humanities: Think music, arts, literature
  • Social Science: Think histories, psychology, education
  • Natural Science: Think biology, chemistry, physics

To graduate, I needed to have my major in one field (social science w/Environmental Education), minor in another (humanities w/Music Theory) and take two classes in the third (geology, forest management, etc). This meant that I didn't have "general elective classes" that I was forced to take but I still was able to experience a wealth of human knowledge that is key to a liberal arts education.