Books Jan 6, 2016 at 4:00 am

Don't Even Start with Your Knee-Jerk "Oh My God, They're Tearing Down Hugo House, What Is Happening?" Rant

Voted “Building Most Likely to Crumble Before Its Own Demolition,” 2016. Kelly O

Comments

1
Thanks for a thoughtful, eloquent take on an issue that is tough for many to cope with. Change is never easy, especially with an institution as loved and as close to so many as Hugo House. But you're absolutely right to focus on the good, to avoid irrationally glorifying the old simply for the sake of nostalgia, and to remind us that the world is more complex than us vs. them, newcomers vs. old-timers, tech vs. non-tech. Definitely a refreshing and welcome voice during a time of increasing division and enmity.
2
The paragraph on Hugo himself seems unnecessarily hostile. He "never set foot" in the house? He died several years before it was founded. And how is it relevant that some people in Montana didn't like one of his poems?
3
The Hugo House, and the Seattle literary/poetry scene at large, has always been defined by the people, not the structures. I know a lot of the people who've contributed to the programs at the hugo house have also taken advantage of many unconventional spaces throughout Seattle, so I know it will thrive regardless of the shape of its container. There was something slightly romantic about the wine-soaked, sweat-filled summer nights that made us question whether we really loved literature more than air conditioning, but I look forward to this step toward a more climate-controlled future. Hugo House is a treasure, and I hope this change of location only brings new vigour and new people to the organization.
6
I don't usually post comments, but there was a event once at the Hugo House where there were so many writers with laptops the power demand so great the Hugo House lost power. Cathartic for some and deeply emblematic of the recent "march of progress" repeating itself all around Seattle.

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