This is wonderful, and I can't thank the reader who sent it to me enough.
The disastrous 9/11 memorial quotation was, evidently, never intended to be more than a high-sounding, stand-alone phrase, never intended to lead visitors to any more profound thoughts or emotions.But whereas Caroline Alexander regrets the truly hilarious inappropriateness of the quote--although, perhaps, considered, it is not so inappropriate as she seems to believe--I would argue that its very superficiality, it's quick-reference Bartlett's character, is entirely in keeping with America's dumb need to memorialize everything and its post-Vietnam Memorial need to do so via increasingly deranged flights of architectural fancy, piling homage atop symbolism atop allegory atop the latest in computer aided drafting--I mean, the goddamn thing looks like a Vegas waterpark; they oughta get rid of the memorial inscription altogether and replace it with the happy-hour specials.
31 comments:
They can do that later. With a banner or a neon sign.
Some families of the victims have criticized the planned memorial because they are offended by the prospect of sharing the resting place of their loved ones with museum-going strangers.
"Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish. These fucking amateurs... "
One has to at least recognize that today's American maudlin hyper-sensitivity and hyper-sentimentalizing of, well, everything involving any suffering on the part of "the right people" (particularly when juxtaposed with complete indifference to the fate of "the wrong people" whose heads our boots are stomping on and whose homes and children are being vaporized by our "smart bombs")... has a certain overall... hilariousness to it... like some kind of late-Soviet era farce (assuming, you know, it could get by the commissar and all.)
If any of this were only actually... funny. [Also... "let's roll" might have been good... except it's... too short...]
Thus the Times:
"The memorial inscription... is an eloquent translation of the original Latin... [But] Anyone troubling to take even a cursory glance at the quotation’s context will find the choice offers neither instruction nor solace."
True enough. But 'eloquent'? "Memory of time" strikes me as a dull, wooly, Fourth of July orator's cliche for the much sharper 'memori aevo'. And 'erase' doesn't seem right for 'eximet' either.
Of course the next bit --
dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum
accolet imperiumque pater Romanus habebit --
-- may be the real burden of the song here, and indeed of the whole 9/11 cult, with its queasy blend of maudlin sentimentality and imperial rah-rah.
Give it, er, time. Even the glorious Taj Mahal seems overdone as a tribute to a seventeenth century harem favorite.
"let's roll" might have been good... except it's... too short
OK, how about, "They died, so that... Let's roll!"
Dryden's version, in part:
Fierce Volscens foams with rage, and, gazing round,
Descried not him who gave the fatal wound,
Nor knew to fix revenge: "But thou," he cries,
"Shalt pay for both," and at the pris'ner flies
With his drawn sword. Then, struck with deep despair,
That cruel sight the lover could not bear;
But from his covert rush'd in open view,
And sent his voice before him as he flew:
"Me! me!" he cried- "turn all your swords alone
On me- the fact confess'd, the fault my own....
Too late he speaks: the sword, which fury guides,
Driv'n with full force, had pierc'd his tender sides.
Down fell the beauteous youth: the yawning wound
Gush'd out a purple stream, and stain'd the ground....
Despair, and rage, and vengeance justly vow'd,
Drove Nisus headlong on the hostile crowd.
Volscens he seeks; on him alone he bends:
Borne back and bor'd by his surrounding friends,
Onward he press'd, and kept him still in sight;
Then whirl'd aloft his sword with all his might:
Th' unerring steel descended while he spoke,
Pierc'd his wide mouth, and thro' his weazon broke.
Dying, he slew; and, stagg'ring on the plain,
With swimming eyes he sought his lover slain;
Then quiet on his bleeding bosom fell,
Content, in death, to be reveng'd so well.
O happy friends! for, if my verse can give
Immortal life, your fame shall ever live,
Fix'd as the Capitol's foundation lies,
And spread, where'er the Roman eagle flies!
What I find amusing is the assumption that anyone, aside from the author herself and two or three other people, is going to know or care where the quote comes from, much less go digging around to put it into context.
"memorial quadrant"
Looks like it'll be a damn sweet place to put some slacklines up, though.
Vegas waterpark
Ever the optimist. I can only envision a sewage treatment plant.
In light of Happy Jack's point, I think the inscription should be, "The transformation of waste is perhaps the oldest pre-occupation of man."
The 25th floor, 7 stories down. That is something special.
Happy Jack---
The sewage treatment plant would be an inspired idea if it wasn't located in insulting proximity to the Park 51 Islamic Center.
That, Inky, is legit hilarious.
Vegas waterpark
Golden....Nugget to...Golden Showers? They'll run out of H20 for the strip in probably less than 10 years--tho will have to transport in for fairways.
Speaking of piss dykes, don't forget the real enemies of subversive freedom--the
unfogged ho's right out of Dallas TX (at least the ISP izz...and you are like where your server is. Arguably).
That's Corporate liberal hypocrisy with a capital C.
The effluence of grief from Lady Liberty's soul respects no boundaries.
FUCK ALL OF YOU! some of us iozsters are a paycheck away from homelessness (aside from America being our home, of course) and can't afford NYT's clickety click (& are lazy and/or don't give enuff of a shit) to hunt down the inscription.
someone, TEXT PLEASE? or ch & verse from publius vergilius...whoever, something about manhood, or maleness, or ares or sumfin...
Aeneid, Book IX, starting around line 400 or so.
You want more Latin, Anon? I got your Latin, right here. English, courtesy of the divine John Dryden, a few comments up the page.
Saevit atrox Volcens nec teli conspicit usquam
auctorem nec quo se ardens inmittere possit.
“Tu tamen interea calido mihi sanguine poenas
persolves amborum,” inquit; simul ense recluso
ibat in Euryalum. Tum vero exterritus, amens
conclamat Nisus, nec se celare tenebris
amplius aut tantum potuit perferre dolorem.
Me me, adsum qui feci, in me convertite ferrum,
O Rutuli, mea fraus omnis; nihil iste nec ausus
nec potuit, caelum hoc et conscia sidera testor,
tantum infelicem nimium dilexit amicum.”
Talia dicta dabat; sed viribus ensis adactus
transabiit costas et candida pectora rumpit.
Volvitur Euryalus leto, pulchrosque per artus
it cruor, inque umeros cervix conlapsa recumbit:
purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro
languescit moriens lassove papavera collo
demisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur.
At Nisus ruit in medios solumque per omnis
Volcentem petit in solo Volcente moratur.
Quem circum glomerati hostes hinc comminus atque hinc
proturbant. Instat non setius ac rotat ensem
fulmineum, donec Rutuli clamantis in ore
condidit adverso et moriens animam abstulit hosti.
Tum super exanimum sese proiecit amicum
confossus placidaque ibi demum morte quievit.
Fortunati ambo! Siquid mea carmina possunt,
nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo,
dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum
accolet imperiumque pater Romanus habebit.
David Post says it means what we choose it to mean.
offended by the prospect of sharing the resting place of their loved ones with museum-going strangers
Trinity Church, Grants Tomb, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Arlington Cemetery, etc, etc, heck, there's not a famous 'final resting place' in America that's not surrounded by museum-going, fanny-pack wearing, obnoxious kid toting strangers (in the summertime).
You want peace and quiet? Get dumped out in that place where they've been finding all the dead hookers.
C'mon, I've had a rough night, and I hate the fucking Eagles, man
Yo Zoz - I've mentioned your slight overuse of "numinous" before - it really doesn't become you at all.
Plus, there's the clear and present danger that you will someday become an esteemed writer as well as a great one, in which case you will have your own Caroline Spurgeon.
In which case, his or her count for "numinous" will assuredly embarass you.
Just sayin ...
If a memorial was never built, did the event actually happen?
"let's roll" might have been good... except it's... too short...
According to the 9/11 Commission, the gentleman in question more likely said "roll it", possibly referring to the drinks trolley the passengers were using as an improvised ram.
So there's that...
"Roll the drinks trolley!"
Nice ring, but that is Flight 93 lore - these guys didn't roll on Shabbas. I prefer "History: don't let it be a mystery."
Off topic, but I hope IOZ has something special planned for the election season; nader2012.com still redirects here.
Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts.
Roll on two! Non-hysterical response walking on the Green Mile!
Dedicated to the brave freedom fighters in Afghanistan
-Rambo III
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