Mies van der Rohe's famous guiding principle of architectural design, a central tenet of the International Style which emphasizes honesty and simplicity in design and construction, and the corresponding lack of ornamentation or useless decoration.

Contrast to more is more.

Ironically enough, there was more to this than I thought.


"Well, less is more, Lucrezia: I am judged."
Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto


I read weroland's writeup on apple pie spice and thought about how I hate cloves unless there's but the tiniest hint of them. I thought about perfume and aftershave lotion and how the same principle applies. From eye-watering in a lift (yes, there's a story, but…) to flattering a body's natural scent. It apparently doesn't take much for our sensorium to get overloaded.

So anyway, briefly. Robert Browning was the first to use the phrase, and it became a guiding principle of many artists, writers and architects. Think of Philip Glass, Robert Bresson. Think minimalism. In writing, I think of folk like Ernest Hemingway and Charles Bukowski. Of course, these people often exist in a special and rarefied space and their impact on most people's live is minimal and we tend not to think of their influence as we bumble around our lives.

In the arena of architecture, the principle can be both beautiful and shocking. Minimalist interior design to me appears stark and stripped. In cooking, the art of subtlety is difficult to achieve and can be immensely rewarding. In music, I've admired Michael Nyman but not so much Glass. Hemingway masters the simple to communicate his thoughts. Dash it, I can't forget haiku, to me the very essence of "less is more".

Before I get caught up in story, I will stop. Because





Iron Node 3

$ xclip -o | wc -w
249

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