Life is such an adventure. If it isn’t one thing, it’s the other one.
The reason architecture is interesting to the scholar of metanarrative—see what I mean, it’s one damned thing after the other—is the intrinsic importance of a culture’s structures to its values. What people build says something about those people. The more important the structure, however you wish to measure importance, the more that building is saying.
I bring this up as some corollary material to Caveman that I’ll be adding in over the short term. I talk a lot about architecture, but pretty much elide the 19th century, which makes sense in terms of the Caveman theses, but does leave a pretty big gap in the architecture narrative. What I talk about in early times is mostly cathedrals, the primo structures of pre-rationalist western civilization. But cathedrals do not stand alone. There’s the buildings of governments, which by the time we reach the post-Renaissance start rivaling religious buildings on all counts on a regular basis. And then, starting in the Industrial Revolution, the buildings of businesses, which start rivaling religious and governmental buildings. The Woolworth Building, after all, was described as a cathedral of commerce, the tallest building of its day (and still pretty cool). What I need to put into Caveman is a clear explanation of why I’m concentrating as much as I am on architecture, to demonstrate that I’m not just riding my hobbyhorse. Additionally, it’s a lot easier to “read” a building than it is to read, say, Wittgenstein (unless you start him early, like 4th grade, if my friend Herman M is to be believed). Cultural studies, which is to some extent merely the attempt to understand what’s going on in the world, can be approached many ways. One can be all pomo and semiotic and parochially dense, or one can be general and sociological and, well, sensible. This is not to say that pomo doesn’t make sense—I am not educated enough to make that determination—but rather that it is far from intelligible to the average schmegeggie, and at the point where some other approach to the same material is intelligible to the average schmegeggie, go with that other approach. And if the VCA isn’t composed of one average schmegeggie after another, I don’t know what is.
I did manage to upload a new Nostrum last night. I’m sort of in the groove now. I’ll do the architecture corollary tonight or tomorrow, and just keep on truckin’. Oh, yeah, and the Bump edits. I’d like to have that ready real soon, so that I can open registration the beginning of September without having to worry about it again.
The bullpups have let it be known that the way to the Omni is not the way to the other tournament hotels; I know that I was flummoxed by them originally as I scoured through the New Haven hostelries. But I’m not interested in changing at this point. Our place sounded quite nice, it’s substantially cheaper with guarantees on all the necessary bedding, and the only hassle will be driving in those couple of times. Hardly the end of the world. And I’ve even managed to acquire our own Ms. Im as a judge (we need the speecho-American coverage badly), which will be a little more economical than not having her. August being next week—NEXT WEEK—means that the summer is just about over. They’ll be releasing the new topic any minute now.
Great galloping gophers!
Tik pronounced teek came through the op with flying colors. The vet said that he had to give him way extra drugs to knock him out—no surprise there. When he came home he was supposed to be groggy and sleep through the night, but mostly he was wobbly and poking around into everything Tik-style, intimating that while he may not fill his pants with quite the same elan as he did a couple of days ago, he is no less demented than he ever was. The bottom-lobotomy, in other words, was only successful on one level. Oh, well. What did we expect? If he wasn't demented, he wouldn't be Tik pronounced teek.
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