April 21st, 2019: Loss

[xoxoxoBruce]

If you aren’t aware of the fire at Notre Dame last Monday night, how the hell are you getting internet under that rock?
The reactions have ranged from hair cutting and sack cloth, to animated rage/sorrow/both, to Ha Ha French bitches.

This linusrowe Tumbler was brought to my attention...

To me, some of the responses to the Notre-Dame fire seemed very short-sighted. It’s neither the end of the world nor something to be celebrated. I was listening to two Syrian men being interviewed about the destruction in their country, and they said ‘it’s controversial, you could see it as selfish to look at the loss of some stones and not the loss of people - but it’s still a sadness.’

It’s a kind of regret, it’s not the same grief as when people die. The feeling of sadness is even greater when you realize the country has not been only losing its future, but also a significant part of its past.’

It’s ok to feel grief and loss when a part of a people’s history and shared heritage is lost, and I don’t really think it’s excusable to mock anyone who mourns these events, or celebrate them happening because of the wrongs that have been committed, historically and in modernity, by some social or political elements of the same society. That kind of black and white thinking plays exactly into the same repeating narrative of retribution, blame and further loss.

In light of what I have heard and read the past few days, good and bad, I have made a post to highlight some of the other lost, ransacked, gutted, broken buildings and monuments, great and small, from other cultures across the world.

Speaking of the Dresden Frauenkirche, after the fire-bombing of WW II Dresden was like a wasteland. My father was in Germany
with the 82nd Airborne at the end of the war and mentioned he was impressed with the people who were out with shovels and
brooms trying to clean up some of the rubble. At first they said didn't have the money to fix the Frauenkirche, but would leave the
ruins as a war memorial ... of course the commies aren’t big on churches anyway.



But in 1992 they got permission to restore the church as a symbol of the reunification of Germany. Work started in 1994
and finished in 2005, costing about 200 million dollars.



So fear not for Notre Dame, they had already collected pledges of over a Billion dollars by Thursday. It’ll be back.

[Carruthers]

If I could add one more to the list above.

In 1984 York Minster suffered a severe blaze which was believed to have been caused by a lightning strike.

As at Notre-Dame, the main structure of the Minster was saved after part of the roof collapsed, allowing firefighters access to the source of the flames.
In contrast, the collapsing of the Minster roof in 1984 was deliberate: firefighters aimed water-jets on the burning timbers to bring them down.

The fire happened two nights after David Jenkins was consecrated as Bishop of Durham in the Minster.
He had caused a fuss inside the Church and out by questioning the literal truth of the virgin birth or miracles such as Jesus walking on water.

Given the Bishop's less than mainstream views, some of his critics were quick to make a connection between them and the lightning strike.



How the rebuilding of York Minister offers hope for Paris's Notre-Dame | ITV News

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Another angle on the plans for restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral:

AN ECCENTRIC English aristocrat is sending 50 oak trees to help rebuild Notre-Dame – because he feels guilty about his family’s history of “killing French people’’.

Sir Benjamin Slade, 72, said he felt compelled to help rebuild the stricken cathedral in Paris to “make amends’’ after years of his ancestors battling nobility in France.

One family member, Sir Thomas Slade, designed Horatio Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory which led the successful attack against the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

The 7th Baronet, who made his millions as a shipping magnate, said he would transport 50 oak trees to France from his 2,000-acre estate at Maunsel House in Somerset.

The Grade II-listed ancestral home is believed to have been built in the late 14th century, and it is thought that Geoffrey Chaucer wrote part of The Canterbury Tales while staying there.

Sir Ben said: “I was shocked at the news about Notre-Dame and I feel a bit guilty about how my family has treated the French over the centuries, especially as one of my ancestors designed Nelson’s ship the Victory and built it out of English oak, so I thought this gesture might help to make amends.”

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[xoxoxoBruce]

Hopefully they'll use steel instead of oak.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Hopefully they'll use steel instead of oak.

I read something the other day, (can't remember for the life of me where) which suggests that using steel would alter the acoustics of the cathedral and that it would have a negative effect on the sound made by the organ.

I'm no scientist but I suspect that there's probably something in that theory.

[Gravdigr]

I only know there's a positive effect on my organ when wood is involved...



...TIHAW, try the funky-strung mother.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Carruthers

I read something the other day, (can't remember for the life of me where) which suggests that using steel would alter the acoustics of the cathedral and that it would have a negative effect on the sound made by the organ.

I'm no scientist but I suspect that there's probably something in that theory.

OK, I'll buy that, but in this day and age that can be faked electronically. Somebody has to make a decision, is this a national monument, a church, or a concert hall.
Yeah yeah, it's all three, but one has to take precedence. Rebuild a better/stronger/safer building, or try to faithfully reproduce the regularly deteriorating firetrap?
Since the state is doing it and they're already pissed at the church, maybe they'll do it right. Then again the state means politicians so probably no, they'll screw it up.