Taliesin and censorship

Yesterday we went to Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter camp. It’s certainly one of the highlights in the otherwise bleak suburban sprawl of greater Phoenix.

One thing that struck me as odd is how sanitized the standard tour is of any mention of spirituality. Wright was clearly a spiritual man, and his spiritual values influenced his architecture. But, anything outside of the tame, confined to an hour a week mainline Protestantism, tends to be censored in America. Or, if spiritual seeking is mentioned, it has to be ridiculed as part of a cult or as a sort of thing to be ashamed of.

I would have liked to hear more about how Gurdjieff’s ideas influence Wright, how the very idea of a fellowship came about from Wright’s own spiritual journey, and what Wright thought of the direction society was taking at the time of his death in the late 50s. Alas, such questions make a commerce driven society uncomfortable.