[lbo-talk] Imperial Chickens Come Home to Roost

Chuck Grimes c123grimes at att.net
Mon Nov 15 13:38:20 PST 2010


Just remembered what I spent a lot of time looking at in books. Notre Dame.Take the portals for example, they are are carved Christian cosmology. The arches form a bower like dome of heaven made of saintly figures. In the center making up some of the horizonal support is a vertical column with the queen Mary and baby Jesus.Above the first row of the choir, is the resurrection. Above the ressurection (hard to tell) is Mary and Jesus on their throne in heaven, the highest level of hierarchical society.. etc So it is a merge of religious and secular authority.Another portal has Jesus on a throne passing judgement with the Cheron below guiding the damned away...

Above the portal arches is a long row of figures, the row of kings... It goes on and on. The cosmological symbolism of ND is pretty phenomenal....The structure and lay out of the interior is just as complex. It is in effect what Victor Hugo called a universe: theology-philosophy in stone. These deep linkages have not gone away, We still build our monumental buildings with a blend of design, religion, philosophy: Chyrsler building, Empire State, or Johnson's AT&T neoliberal dementia whatever.

CG



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list