By the end of the [18th] century the ‘window attitude’ of women marked their status. Upper-class women were not to be seen at the front of the window or to be seated in an open window, acts from which lower-class women were not yet restrained.
– Manfredo Di Robilant, Niklas Maak, Rem Koolhaas, AMO, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Irma Boom, ‘Gendered Window’, in ‘Window’ (2014).
Miss Brodie stood in her brown dress like a gladiator with raised arm and eyes flashing like a sword. “Hail Caesar!” she cried again, turning radiantly to the window light, as if Caesar sat there. “Who opened the window? said Miss Brodie dropping her arm. Nobody answered. “Whoever has opened the window has opened it too wide,” said Miss Brodie. “Six inches is perfectly adequate. More is vulgar. One should have an innate sense of these things. We ought to be doing history at the moment according to the time-table. Get out your history books and prop them up in your hands. I shall tell you a little more about Italy. I met a young poet by a fountain.
– Murial Spark ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ (1962)
Somewhere on the periphery of Glasgow the Mental Health Care Centre where my friend works was redeveloped last year, resulting in him and his colleagues losing their windows. They have doors, of course, through which they can arrive and depart but no windows with which to frame the world, their thoughts or their moods. And what of the people they care for the health of, their thoughts and their moods?
– Sarah Tripp ‘Windows’ from ‘You are of vital importance’, (Book Works, 2014)
It is 12:35pm. The silence is amplified by the cold air gathered beside the window. I can have this silence, more of a stillness, within this room, the branches looking in, for an hour or two. And this stillness I have is a value. Is vaulable. Wrong word. Is owned. I can have the stillness and remember to go and find it, to stop and take it again just by writing it down. Putting it down. Laying it down gently. The booth has three glazed vacuums. Are you okay Chloe? Teaching. Learning how to teach. I hope you are not trying to make your lectures perfect. Birds are nesting. I have to breathe through my mouth.
– Sarah Tripp ‘Guitar!’ (Book Works, 2020)
