kendrastrand's review
4.0
I like the idea of rhythm — movements, patterns and repetition, both cyclical and linear— as a key to understanding the relationships between space and time. everything else about Lefebvre’s world view is based on binaries, which is not surprising considering his context but still makes for a strange and often awkward contrast to this complex and otherwise dynamic discussion of rhythm and what/how it can make meaning.
steveatwaywords's review against another edition
4.0
The last line of one of the appendices reads "To be undertaken." And that feels a just summation of this work, a book of promises and perspectives, occasional near-profound ideas and the argument for a transdisciplinary approach to understanding the world through the not-metaphor of rhythms. If we choose to become reflective analysts (not a contradiction) and perceive that the dialectic is not limited to binary and social discourse, we fall into a necessity (or definition of justice) for building a healthy society through the alignment of the layers of our creation with those of the planet itself. Lefebvre's idea is alluring, though perhaps insurmountable for our limited cognition, and I'm not certain from this text that he foresees a kind of determinism in the outcomes that would work in opposition to free will and Marxist thinking. Too, it seems equally possible for a simplification of his ideas to fall into a sort of mysticism. Neither of these preferable, his own forays into applications of the idea (in a very brief and intentional introductory work) offer no insights that point to pragmatic use.
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