Blockbuster

April 25th, 2011

What does the word 'blockbuster' mean to you? Obviously, there's the use of the term to describe an expensive and1 successful film. Then there's the 'blockbuster' bomb. But there's a third meaning I hadn't encountered. Fritinancy explains:

In the 1950s, blockbuster acquired two figurative meanings: the entertainment meaning (1957) and a racial/economic meaning (1959). The entertainment sense gave rise to the name of movie-rental chain Blockbuster [...]

The racial/economic sense is illustrated in this 1967 citation from the British weekly The Spectator:

The 'block-buster' is a figure in American urban life who has yet to emerge in this country. He is a property dealer who by subterfuge introduces black residents into all-white neighbourhoods.2

  1. The producers hope.
  2. According to Wikipedia, the Specatator citation isn't entirely accurate. A 'block-buster' wasn't some stealthy agent of integration, seeking to quietly introduce minorities into previously segregated neighbourhoods. Quite the opposite: the idea was to encourage false rumours that minorities were moving into the area, so as to depress property prices and persuade residents to move out to a nice, white suburb as quickly as possible.

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Going underground

December 20th, 2009

This Swiss Mountain House, half-submerged into a hillside, looks lovely and cosy. A house worthy of a Hobbit.

[Via Swissmiss]

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Nail houses

June 13th, 2009

I've never heard the term 'nail house' before, though as it turns out I have seen photographs of a couple of them.

The house in Changsha, China1 looks especially surreal, not least because in one of the pictures it looks as if there's another remnant of the original street a couple of hundred yards down the road.

  1. The fifth house pictured in the linked article.

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