Larry Buchanan's NYT essay "Can You Imagine Supreme Court Justices at a Backyard Barbecue?" (2022-10-31) raises wonderful questions of symbol and society. It points out how the US Supreme Court is often shown, in major news media, via photos of its building rather than images of any Justices themselves.

What other concepts are seen as such concrete abstractions? Books, for instance, can represent Knowledge; Light may stand for Good, and Darkness Evil; the Ocean is the Infinite, the Word is God. Victor Hugo argues (in "This Will Destroy That", Book V Chapter 2 of Hunchback of Notre Dame) that the printing press replaced architecture as History.

And next ...?

^z - 2023-03-31