"A great demolition is also an act of creation, so long as its execution is bold and impressive enough, so long as it clears out the dead wood and opens up the terrain. It's the ethos that links Pablo Picasso to 1970s punk, Shiva the Destroyer to the anarchist hero of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. Rip it up and start again. Or rip it up for the pure thrill of the ripping."
"In Graham Greene's short story The Destructors, the schoolboy vandals of the Wormsley Common Gang systematically unpick a Christopher Wren-designed London house, working from the inside out so that it dissolves into rubble the moment a supporting post is pulled down. The crime's one adult witness, a lorry driver, guffaws at the sight. I'm sorry, I can't help it, he tells the home's distraught owner. There's nothing personal, but you got to admit it's funny."
"Raf, the angel of destruction who haunts the wings of James Meek's graceful, death-haunted domestic drama, is likewise drawn to the work of Wren although his project is conceived on a much grander scale. Raf is a professional demolition man, a gifted young engineer and natural born radical, easily moved to laughter or tears and effortlessly dazzling everyone in his orbit."
"For his PhD project, he has been granted free run of St Paul's Cathedral in order to test the old building's resistance to modern traffic vibration. He drills discreet holes in the masonry to install movement censors. But he also packs the cavities with Semtex. It's no spoiler to reveal that Raf never actually completes his masterpiece. At the start of Meek's novel he's confined to Belmarsh prison, held without charge and refusing to speak with the authorities, while the narrative doubles back and pitches camp next door, viewing the ripple effect of this would-be terrorist on his unofficial adoptive family."
Demolition can act as creation when bold execution clears out dead wood and opens new terrain. The ethos of destructive renewal links high art, punk, mythic destroyers, and anarchic impulses. Schoolboy vandals systematically unpick a Christopher Wren-designed London house from the inside so it collapses when a supporting post is removed, and an adult witness laughs at the spectacle. Raf is a gifted demolition engineer and natural-born radical who tests St Paul's Cathedral for vibrations while secretly packing cavities with Semtex. Raf is imprisoned before completing the plot, and the events create ripple effects across his adoptive family and community.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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