Nice Place to Visit
. . . and I would want to live there.
Just came back from seven days of cruising around the Mediterranean with 912 children, 911 of which were not my own. Took a bus every day into various countries to stare at old things and take pictures. (Personal plug: the entire journey will be serialized this week at my site.) So, like everyone who has looked out the window of a tour bus, I am now able to speak with some authority about Europe. It’s a lovely place and everyone seems to be doing fine; don’t know what all the fuss is about.
Except. Except for the suburban London firefighter with a skinful at the bar one night, describing how the Trip of a Lifetime he’d planned for his children was almost cancelled at the last minute because the firefighters were told they might have to stay on if the riots continued. (There were many English folk on the ship, and their contempt for what happened in London was uniformly thick and brackish.) Except for the remarkable amount of graffiti in the French train, thick crude scrawls in the same handwriting as American vandals, a sort of universal script for the disregard of young men for the society that gave them trains and cities. Except for the sad words of the tour guide in Mallorca: “we are able to go into the cathedral today because it is a museum.”
The beaches were pristine and packed; the cafes jammed; life on the Mediterranean is as close to paradise as you get on this globe. The climate! The sun! The fine pastries, the exquisite portions of coffee and gelato, the comforting continuity of civilization expressed in the ancient stones of the street and the classical buildings that march for blocks in every direction. As solid an edifice as you can imagine, ennobling and serene.
But take away belief in the values that built this world, and the culture that sustained it, and you have a theme park. I was struck again and again by the modern art in the churches and piazzas - compared to the extraordinary accomplishments of the past, it looks like the work of pampered children told since birth they’re just terribly clever. It’s not that they can’t match the work of the past - they don’t even try.
The most popular item I saw in Florence was an image, repeated on postcards, T-shirts, boxer shorts, keyfobs, and so on: Michelangelo’s David. But not the statue. Just the groin.
Question: what has Europe produced in the last 50 years? I'm curious what come to mind for you.
Besides a sobering example.
- Comment (24)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (4)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments :
Sep '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
James Lileks
But take away belief in the values that built this world, and the culture that sustained it, and you have a theme park. I was struck again and again by the modern art in the churches and piazzas - compared to the extraordinary accomplishments of the past, it looks like the work of pampered children told since birth they’re just terribly clever. It’s not that they can’t match the work of the past - they don’t even try.
I must be feeling very sentimental this morning; this paragraph just about made me cry.
Jul '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
RU486, bien sur. Tres dolore.
Mar '11
Re: Nice Place to Visit
“(W)e are able to go into the cathedral today because it is a museum....But take away belief in the values that built this world, and the culture that sustained it, and you have a theme park."
Set aside for a moment the implication that one would not have been able to go to the cathedral had it still been a cathedral, for that is a separate conversation about the decline of religion in Europe. I was in Avignon in 2001 and visited the papal palace. It had been turned into a "museum" where the art resembled that which I see in my granddaughter's kindergarden classroom. There was very little to remind one of the struggles that went on in the Church hundreds of years ago, there didn't even seem to be any curiosity about the incongruous nature of the "artistic" displays and their surroundings.
Edited on Aug 22, 2011 at 10:20amAug '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
Beatles. But they all moved to America.
Jun '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
We could write a great deal on the subject of cultural decadence. Suffice it to say that bread and circuses have been replaced by lattes and extended vacations (not to mention retirement at age 52 on a government pension!). And yet Gibbon reminds us that when the Goths approached the gates of Rome, the able-bodied youth of the city refused to man the walls. The populace was subsequently sold into slavery by the silk stockings who cut a deal with the barbarians to save their own skins. Sound familiar? Multiculturalism means living on your knees because you're too cowardly to die on your feet.
Edited on Aug 22, 2011 at 10:31amMay '11
Re: Nice Place to Visit
~Paules: SNIP
Multiculturalism means living on your knees because you're too cowardly to die on your feet. · Aug 22 at 10:30am
Edited on Aug 22 at 10:31 am
I like that line. I'll have to remember it.
Feb '11
Re: Nice Place to Visit
J.K. Rowling and her wonderful books. The hyper-efficient container port in Rotterdam that allows just about anyone in any urban area or college town access to lovely Belgian and German pilsners to our grocery stores. Swift, nifty trains that we can lust after.
Jun '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
James Lileks
Question: what has Europe produced in the last 50 years? I'm curious what come to mind for you.
An entire continent whose military has fewer teeth than Gabby Hayes.
Mar '11
Re: Nice Place to Visit
Peace. In mainline Europe anyway.
Mar '11
Re: Nice Place to Visit
"Mainline Europe" which doesn't include say, the Muslim arrondissments in Paris, the Dutch parliament or anywhere in London over the past several weeks?
Jul '11
Re: Nice Place to Visit
That was a gift from Uncle Sam.
Jan '11
Re: Nice Place to Visit
Quite a few cultural historians have investigated the dichotomy of "the sacred and the profane." Europe has lost its anchor in the sacred; there's little sacred about it anymore.
The immediate impact is on the Catholic Church, which was once the focus of the sacred for much of Europe. The Church gave the sacred a vocabulary; it brought it into flesh and blood, into day to day life. However, as much as its critics would like to blame the Church for the loss of the sacred, I think the phenomenon goes beyond mere religion.
Europe was once the summit of civilization. Then, twice in the last century, it ripped itself apart. In the second catastrophe, it committed a historic atrocity against humanity and especially against the Jews. Then, it lost even its importance in the Cold War. The countries of Europe became pawns in someone else's game.
It's almost as if Europe blamed the sacred for not preventing them from their own self-destruction.
Jun '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
KC Mulville: Quite a few cultural historians have investigated the dichotomy of "the sacred and the profane." Europe has lost its anchor in the sacred; there's little sacred about it anymore.
The immediate impact is on the Catholic Church, which was once the focus of the sacred for much of Europe. The Church gave the sacred a vocabulary; it brought it into flesh and blood, into day to day life. However, as much as its critics would like to blame the Church for the loss of the sacred, I think the phenomenon goes beyond mere religion.
Beautifully said. Theodore Dalrymple, on the contribution of religion to our civilization: "To regret religion is, in fact, to regret our civilization and its monuments, its achievements, and its legacy. And in my own view, the absence of religious faith, provided that such faith is not murderously intolerant, can have a deleterious effect upon human character and personality. If you empty the world of purpose, make it one of brute fact alone, you empty it (for many people, at any rate) of reasons for gratitude, and a sense of gratitude is necessary for both happiness and decency.”
Aug '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
Forgot one . Chimay , maybe the best beer in the world ....
Mar '11
Re: Nice Place to Visit
flownover
Forgot one . Chimay , maybe the best beer in the world .... · Aug 22 at 12:41pm
So the circle is complete.
Edited on Aug 22, 2011 at 12:57pmMay '11
Re: Nice Place to Visit
Margaret Thatcher and the Beatles (just barely). Nothing else comes to mind.
Aug '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
Three of the four best team sports (credit to the New World for baseball).
Oct '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
Having lived in Switzerland for twenty years, may I cite?
Oh yes, and this Web thing they're all talking about.
Edited on Aug 22, 2011 at 3:52pmNov '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
James -- you missed out on stopping in Prague and witnessing this marvel of aesthetic splendor. It stands outside the Kafka museum bookstore.
https://picasaweb.google.com/102539937495871143941/Prague#5482086095535119794
Oct '10
Re: Nice Place to Visit
I actually was pretty impressed by Amsterdam. The local culture is remarkably free of the sort of moral breakdown associated with that city (mostly to attract tourists). Of course the Netherlands is one of the few economically-healthy economies in Europe (comparatively speaking). There were also a fair number of obviously liberal (in the classical sense) Muslims. The women always seemed to travel in three-generation bunches: a grandmother, heavily covered; a mother, only sporting a head scarf; and teenage daughters, who more often than not wore normal clothes.
Actually, now that I think about it those were Turkish immigrants, so I guess that makes sense. I absolutely loved their bakeries.