CYCLE THIRTY

1. As I hope to have established, some cycles ago, that squares and circles are noumenal contents deriving from noumenal straight and curved lines, while rectangles and ellipses are their phenomenal counterparts with a similarly phenomenal derivation, we should have no difficulty in equating buildings with one or another of these options, according to their overall shape and height.

2. Hence we should have to distinguish tall buildings of a square or a circular design from those buildings which betray, in their rectangular or elliptical constructions, a phenomenal as opposed to noumenal integrity.

3. I would not hesitate, therefore, to equate skyscrapers or other tall buildings of a square design with the noumenal objectivity of metachemical materialism, reserving for circular skyscrapers an equation with the noumenal subjectivity of metaphysical idealism.

4. Neither would I hesitate to equate squat buildings of a rectangular design with the phenomenal objectivity of chemical realism, reserving for elliptical buildings an equation with the phenomenal subjectivity of physical naturalism.

5. We should now have a basis from which to evaluate buildings not only according to whether they conform to a noumenal or a phenomenal status, but, in addition, to the alpha or omega of each, the metachemical no less antithetical to the metaphysical where towering buildings are concerned ... than the chemical to the physical wherever squat buildings prevail.

6. Hence we can distinguish those buildings which, in their rectilinear designs, correspond to the objective, and hence female, side of life from those corresponding, in their curvilinear designs, to its subjective, and hence male, side.

7. The square towering building is no less behind the generality of rectangular buildings ... than the circular towering building stands beyond the generality of elliptical ones.

8. Which is equivalent to saying, in elemental terms, that whereas tall, square buildings correspond to fire, their rectangular counterparts 'down below' correspond to water - the former effectively diabolic and the latter feminine.

9. Likewise, we would have to maintain that whereas elliptical buildings correspond to vegetation, their circular counterparts 'up above' correspond to air - the former effectively masculine and the latter divine.

10. Hence we have a metachemical/chemical distinction between the objective absolutism of square buildings and the objective relativity of rectangular buildings, as between materialism and realism, evil and good.

11. Hence we have a physical/metaphysical distinction between the subjective relativity of elliptical buildings and the subjective absolutism of circular ones, as between naturalism and idealism, folly and wisdom.

12. Clearly, it makes a lot of difference which kind of architectural design a building conforms to, since the linear content to which a structure most pertains will determine whether it can be regarded as paralleling fire, water, vegetation, or air, with all due considerations as to its basic gender, ideological, moral, or cultural significance.

13. Broadly, the drift from rectangular to square architectural designs is equivalent to a progression or, rather, regression from objective towns to objective cities, as from phenomenal extensiveness to noumenal extensiveness, good objectivity to evil objectivity within female parameters.

14. Equally, the drift from elliptical to circular architectural designs is equivalent to a progression from subjective towns to subjective cities, as from phenomenal intensiveness to noumenal intensiveness, foolish subjectivity to wise subjectivity within male parameters.

15. Towns are always broadly phenomenal and cities, by contrast, largely noumenal, even when, as above, we distinguish the objective from the subjective on the basis of a rectilinear/curvilinear divide.

16. Villages and communes (country houses, castles, etc.) are rather more the traditional or ancient parallel to towns and cities than their subjective counterparts.

17. There are certain towns and cities which are architecturally androgynous, combining a variety of objective and subjective features within themselves, whilst other towns and cities maintain a bias towards either the objective or the subjective types of architecture, depending on whether they have been conditioned by female or by male criteria overall.

18. It is inconceivable, in this world, that only one type of architectural style should prevail in any given town or city, considering that style is to some extent conditioned by function, as well as by cultural and/or ethnic factors.

19. The triadic Beyond to which I subscribe as a self-proclaimed Messiah would not be partial to only one type of architectural style, even if the emphasis would be on circular towers in conformity with Centrist criteria, as that which is deemed most suitable to the cultivation of noumenal subjectivity.

20. For the circular tower is commensurate with metaphysical idealism, and hence with the leadership, through noumenal subjectivity, of spiritual being.

21. Yet that would not exclude the probability, lower down the triadic hierarchy, of elliptical and rectangular styles of building, where naturalism and realism would have their masculine and feminine places, albeit in deferential acknowledgement of the hegemonic standing of metaphysical idealism.

22. Logically, the writer, unlike the artist, is likely to be more 'at home' in a rectangular building than in a square one, while the musician, unlike the sculptor, is likely to be more 'at home' in a circular building than in an elliptical one.

23. It could be argued that the best type of building for a philosopher to work in would be, if not a circular tower (more suited to the metaphysical per se?), then at least a rectangular building that deferred to the circular in some significant way, thereby effectively bending water towards air.

24. The writer who is accused of living in an 'ivory tower' at the expense of everyday life is obviously at fault from a strictly rectangular, and hence objective, point of view, since writing, with its fluidal means traditionally, is fundamentally a feminine art form; but when he is a genuine philosopher, then the 'bovaryization' of writing towards music, of water towards air, is only to be expected, and requires an 'ivory-tower' existence if the necessary metaphysical or, more literally, quasi-metaphysical elevation over the common phenomenal run of things is to be achieved.

25. Hence, although used in a metaphorical way, the term 'ivory tower' connotes with that which is above and beyond the World, and that is precisely what the philosopher, even if not literally secreted in a circular tower, should be, insofar as it is his duty to climb beyond the mundane realm of terrestrial endeavour in his pursuit of wisdom, which is, of course, an extraterrestrial, or airy, virtue.

26. Only the philosopher who works at an 'ivory-tower' remove from the common run ... is of any consequence to philosophy; for the pursuit of wisdom, of enhanced being through essence, cannot be carried out 'on the ground', but demands a noumenal elevation above the phenomenal relativity of polyversal literature, meaning, principally, novels and plays.

27. In this respect, the philosopher stands at the opposite extreme from the poet, who should also be above 'the crowd', if from an anterior, and effectively fundamentalist, rather than from a posterior, and transcendentalist, point of view.