Oh, Brilliant

The German government commissioned an American architect to design a Holocaust memorial for the Jewish victims that, I guess, opened this year. A proud moment for Americans, as always. The memorial is described as a field of stone steles, spaced one yard apart, all of different size but up to fifteen feet tall, and leaning in at irregular angles. The architect said that the intended effect was to recreate the feelings of fear, uncertainty, and confusion of the Holocaust victims as they were entering concentration camps; that the memorial should feel like slipping and falling and getting sucked into an abyss. He literally used the word abyss.

I'm not one to pass judgment on a work of art before I see it, but when I heard this report, I said to myself, "That's retarded! This memorial sounds like an eyesore."

A minute later my suspicions were confirmed, when the news report said that the memorial was already drawing criticism for being a waste of money, insensitive to the non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and, of course...ugly!

Great. A fine way to honor the memory of the victims of such suffering: erect a new horror for them, one that no one would want to go near.

Really, sometimes we moderns have too much faith in that Romantic notion of the genius of an artist. Just because you can chisel a stone does not mean you're a genius. While I don't think that public tastes should be the touchstone of merit, maybe it wouldn't hurt to give them some say in things like this, once in a while.