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The critique is presented through a study of the networks that link two families, two locations, two time frames, two construction technologies, and two acts of family violence: the Loud and Woodford Families; Avon, Connecticut, the residence of the Woodford family, and an Avon prefabricated house, the residence of the Loud family; 1845, the year of the Woodford murder, and 1972, the year of the Loud family live televised break-up; Early American ax carpentry of the Woodford house, and the pre-fabricated carpentry of the Loud house; and the ax violence in the Woodford family, and the TV violence in the Loud family. The two families and the corresponding events present two extremes of privacy and public-ness. The critique utilises Freud's essay on the uncanny and the metaphor of a hinge to structure the text and the construction. The author argues that Freud, in The Uncanny, constructs a hinge that brings together, makes identical two opposites, yet maintains their separation and tension. He utilises the hinge to overlay maps of relationships between the two families in space, time, technology, behaviors and events.
The hinge simultaneously unifies the two sides and opens a tense space for the interplay of their differences. The hinge allows us to see the absolutes of closure and open-ness in relation to one another and in their totalising effect.