As someone who has lived in ghettos and basements, I almost immediately disagree with his first statement that the "house [...] is a privileged entity", having both "complexity" and "special value" (3). The mere existence of a shelter, is not a "privileged entity"—a lone house, especially a house with an apparent mechanical variety of doors, as the introductory poem posits—does not necessarily or consistently "transcend" one’s memories. His continued position that, "Finding little to describe in the humble home, they spend little time there; so they describe it as it actually is, without really experi­encing its primitiveness, a primitiveness which belongs to all, rich and poor alike, if they are willing to dream." (4) is somewhat disturbing to me—I don't want to have to dream in order to enjoy my surrounding "primitiveness". I'm, ironically, attached to materialism. However, as Bachelard wraps up this first chapter, he redeems himself with, "Thus we cover the universe with drawings we have lived. These drawings need not be exact [...] Space calls for action, and before action, the imagination is at work." This is a beautiful concept, beautifully articulated, as he combines both the universe and the physical space we interact with.

Topoanalysis seems to be our memory of emotionally signficant places like homes, analagous to psychoanalysis, for our minds—topoanalysis essentially studies the "shelters and rooms" of our mind (12).