Back to real time

The next you'll hear from me on this blog will be this Thursday, the 18th.

And that will be an entry written Thursday. This is the last of the pre-scheduled doohickeys.

Since yesterday's entry compared subway maps with medieval art, we might as well continue that throught today.

Here's a well-written passage from the pen of Henry Adams, speaking of Gothic art and architecture in general, although with Chartres in mind especially.

"No two men think alike about it, and no woman agrees with either man. The Church itself never agreed about it, and the architects agree even less than the priests. To most minds it casts too many shadows; it wraps itself in mystery; and when people speak of mystery, they commonly mean fear. To others, the Gothic seems hoary with age and decrepitude, and its shadows mean death."

For himself, and for his receptive reads, Adams says a little further on, "our amusement is to play with it, and to catch the meaning in its smile; and whatever Chartres may be now, when young it was a smile."