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Darth Vader Sculpture on Washington National Cathedral
Michael Breeden writes "Star Wars has apparently taken another step in becoming part of our national history. The Washington National Cathedral, during its expansion, has placed a sculpture of Darth Vader's head into the carvings around one of the exterior arches. This space is normally reserved for grotesques (gargoyles), and ol' Darth seems to have fit the bill. "
The line I got when I toured the cathedral several years ago is that the architects of future expansions were planning to incorporate icons and images from americana into the design of the cathedral. Darth Vader is distinctly American, I suppose.
The woman who gave the tour also said that there were other modern images and characters on the exterior of the structure, though I forget what they were.
Never underestimate the potential of Human stupidity. -Heinlein
One of the few medieval churches in Norway, nidarosdomen, was restaurated many years ago, and some people have noticed that the figure of the archangel Michael bears an uncanny resemblance to someone...
And this year the artist admitted it: it IS in fact Dob Dylan.
(It's true! Pity I don't have a link)
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
In principle, this is no worse than "the green man", a folk-religion symbol that is often insinuated into the carvings of old English churches. (e.g. Chiseldon, nr. Swindon, Wilts).
But in a Christian church, a bit silly.
Does anyone know if this Star Wars fascination is as big in Europe, specifically the UK, as it is in the US? I really think it fulfills some kind of "missing race memory" or something here, the US missing out on the Dark and Middle Ages and all. Coup Sticks and Dreamcatchers are all very well and good, but they don't hold a cathedral candle to long swords and grail quests.
If we had our own, *real* King Arthur (or as real as King Arthur was, anyways...) would we be clamoring so much for George Lucas' pre-fab techno Arthuriana?
I actually went to school there and learnt a lot about the Cathedral. Being interested in sculpture, it was a great place to be.
Darth is definitely on the Cathedral. They have a whole lot of other secrets everywhere in that building. It would make a nice coffee table book.
From my understanding all cathedrals have small little secrets like this. They are sort of like "Easter Eggs" in programs. Something spiffy and neat if you know where to look for it.
My favorite story about the National Cathedral (and 100% true)is that the faces for the "Genesis" sculpture on the front center doorway were modeled after strippers and waiters from an old Georgetown strip club.
I saw this over 7 years ago. It is really nothing new. If you want to see something really cool, look for the stained glass of the apollo landings.
Found it!
http://forum.mur.at/terminator/
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
This is old stale news. I believe their was a contest to come up artwork for one of the gargoyles back in the late 70's/ early 80's, and darth vader was the winner.
If you visit the cathedral, they have a printed self guided tour of the gargoyles with some history and locations of some of the more interesting ones.
There is nothing wrong with a Church recognizing a head of state, even a head from an evil empire. A church can also endorse or suppress the U.S. government, within the limits of law.
The U.S. government can also give money, tanks, cheese, or anything else to churches. But it has to do so without preference to any single church.
This is one fallacy often used in discussions about government programs which might give money to private or church-operated schools. Most common is a "voucher" system, where parents get a voucher for a child's education, and they can give that voucher to whatever school they want the kid to attend (and the school then gets the specified amount of money for the service). If a parent chooses a Catholic, Jewish, or SubGenius school, that is no more relevant than if the money goes to a public or private school.
Another oddity recently showed up in news reports: a Catholic church leader urging tax increases for funding of "social programs". Well, a non-profit agency doing lobbying is not allowed. Also, if a church wants to have the State take money from people then that church should stop accepting donations and use only that money from the State which is considered to be so important that it must be taken from people by force rather than being donated. But the U.S. government can not show preference -- so all churches would get such funds. I haven't heard that church leader considering the effects of forcing people give money.
Does anybody remember the flak when Cathedral sculptor Frederick Hart sued about the Devil's Advocate using his sculpture Ex Nihilo?
In the movie the people in the sculpture get a little randy, and "the National Cathedral denounced the film as a grotesque distortion of sacred art."
I suppose if they have Darth in a choirboy outfit leading the procession, Lucasfilms might have a similar case.
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
Anyways: gargoyles on cathedrals, besides serving the essential function of spouting wainwater off the roof, are meant to embody the culture's fears, like bogeymen. Darth is up there (on the North side, very high up) in part because he was kinda a bogeyman circa 1980. There are a couple other "gargoyles" of people wearing gasmasks, etc., reflecting more modern anxieties.
In a related story, one of the stonecarvers about the same time wanted to immortalize his just-deceased wife in a sculpture, nowhere prominent, just out of the way somewhere. The higher-ups vetoed the idea, stating a policy of not having private memorials in a public building (or something along those lines). So the stonecarver took her ashes and mixed them into some mortar, making her remains part of the building itself. Or so I heard, anyway....
But come back later in the week for your Darth-as-gargoyle fix. I wonder what architectural historians a few centuries from now will think of it.
The ratio of people to cake is too big.
"Centuries ago, on our cathedrals, grotesques were intended to symbolize the evil that existed outside the church. Today, Darth Vader is an excellent example of evil in our times."
This is incorrect. The gargoyles were designed to scare away evil spirits. Darth Vader was evil, and that is a concept that's completely different, and therefore not consistent with the traditional gargoyles.
Hmm... if they did it without his helmet, you could perhaps make a case that it is sufficiently grotesque!
bp
Read Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. I think you would be very surprised how the Founding Fathers criticized christianity, and all religions. Their reasons are very contemporary.
One could EASILY argue that the American Revolution lead to Emerson's transcendantal ideas, which inspired Nietzsche to create the modern criticism of religion as a tool of enslavement.
I don't read or respond to AC posts