Maureen and Paul on the Memorials
Every day the editorials grow bigger teeth. Here's Maureen Dowd:
Unbearable Lightness of MemoryThe ugliness of Al Qaeda's vicious blow to America is obscured by these prettified designs, which look oddly like spas or fancy malls or aromatherapy centers. It's easy to visualize toned women with yoga mats strolling through these New Age pavilions filled with waterfalls and floating trees and sunken gardens and suspended votives. Mass murder dulled by architectural Musak.
and Paul Goldberger:
The New Yorker: The Talk of the TownOne of the best ideas proposed after September 11th was to preserve the twisted and burned shards of steel from the facade of the twin towers, but that seems to have been forgotten, as if these relics were too specific, or too painful. We have opted instead for designs that could be commemorating any sadness, not the particular horror of the World Trade Center disaster, and most of them have the bland earnestness of a well-designed public plaza.
I'm a little concerned that they both ask for using the tower debris to evoke horror. That seems just as short-sighted as making pretty shopping-mall plazas.
* Ray, 12/01/2003 09:53:33 AM
