Shrill Pedantry and the Palisades Fire

‘Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make objects, giving them limit, symmetry, proportion. Beauty halts and freezes the melting flux of nature” — Camille Paglia

I was speaking with a friend last night feeling slammed and blue about the recent Los Angeles fires. Sara mentioned something about the psychic damage the fires have caused. I was so happy to hear that as 1) she used the word “psychic” and 2) I wasn’t crazy. She grounded her statements in the artistic losses. Architectural losses, iconic sites, and (what others seem to miss) the loss of hundreds of thousands of historical documents. No one seems to realize (or are beginning to) that these sites take on the importance of churches or the end of pilgrimage journeys. Underground purveyors of joy and inspiration; the memorable high points and parts of visits to the Southland. (an example being the semi-global sorrow of those who were taken to “The Reel Inn”… a ramshackle fish restaurant known for it groaning puns written on a sandwich board placed near a major thoroughfare.)

I think that is why hearing others analyzing, discussing in pundit jerk-offs, and throwing critical bombs on anything worth blaming is such a punch to the gut. There is a reason why 3 fire trucks are required to fight one house-fire. I am reminded of the post I posted about the conservative explaining the unsexiness…