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Napoleons Tomb
Posted by Stillthinking • 5/13/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: st's series on her paris vacation continues
I have a new post on my visit to Napoleon's tomb at the Hotel Des Invalides.
I found myself wondering about the contradictions of a nation like France. In the same land where they executed their aristocracy in pursuit of a just republic, less than 1 generation later, they installed a megalomaniac general as Emperor. It was a fascinating visit to a place that is dripping with the LEGEND of Napoleon rather than the TRUTH about Napoleon.
It's architecture as propaganda, which is something every nation has utilized in creating it's great capitals.
Washington DC is a city that deliberately evokes Greek antiquity as the birthplace of Western democracy. All those white, neoclassical buildings are deliberately designed to evoke feelings of stability and strength. The city is a giant example of non-media oriented political propaganda.
What other ways to we utilize propaganda without the media?
www.studio307.blogspot.com
User Comments
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Much of what you saw in Paris is due to the fact that they installed a second Emperor, Napoleon III, in 1848 (he didn't assume the title of Emperor until 1852). He and Baron Haussmann had the streets and city redesigned so it would be more difficult for revolutionaries to set up barricades.
However, in terms of "propaganda without the media" - there's a big one coming up out here: the Olympics. On a pure cost to benefit basis, the Olympics make no sense - China spent $40 billion on their facilities, which were used over two weeks and are unlikely to be used again. They sent the People's Liberation Army wading into the rowing concourse to pull out weeds. It all was to show that China is a modern nation and has superior organisation skills. Britain should NOT be bidding for the Games, but we did - why? In order to deny it to the French, of course.-
Interesting, because Chicago is one of the 3 finalists for the 2016 Summer Games. Most Chicagoans (including myself) are HUGE supporters of the games as it will have a ripple effect of new construction and new retail. Being awarded the games may be just the bump Chicago business needs. Especially in construction related fields, like architecture.
Also, Chicago already has many of the facilities for the actual events. From what I understand, any new construction has a post games plan. -
@Still
I hate to say this, but many of the cities that had those (very good) intentions ended up disappointed. Montreal, host of the 1976 Games, only paid off the bill in 2006.
I hope you're right, I really do. London otherwise is going to be left with a larger mess than it has already. -
There is a vocal minority who does not want the Olympics to come to Chicago, stating the same reason you just did.
I, however, have seen the Olympic plans and just can't help but feel a rush of excitement that the world will get to see just how gorgeous our city is.
Chicago is still not an international city. It still has the reputation of being a regional city, and I think most of the world isn't even aware that it's perched on one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world or that it's skyline is more beautiful than NYC or that Chicago completely eclipses LA in number of theatres.
In a recent article listing the top 50 restaurants in the US, Chicago restaurants outnumbered NYC and LA. -
@Still
You're a natural advocate for your city.
At the same time, this does indicate the role that the Olympics play in the city wanting to talk about itself. Propaganda need not be inaccurate to be propaganda....sometimes it's just labelled marketing. 
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I don't think there is a bigger advocate for Chicago (or a more controversial one) than Chicago's own little Napoleon and megalomaniac mayor, Richard Daley.
He's the man who would be King of Chicago and is the single, largest driving force behind bringing the Olympics here.
Nothing gets done in Chicago without his approval. -
@Still
My gut instincts tell me Rio is going to get it, because it would be the first Olympics in South America, and also would recognise Brazil's increasing importance. -
Ah, but the US has it's first African American president who hails from Chicago.
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@Still
That's the counter argument. However America has had the Summer Games last in 1996 (Atlanta - everyone wanted to forget that) and 1984. Plus there was Salt Lake City in 2002. The IOC does consider such things. -
Yes, yes. I know. Have you been to Chicago in the summertime? It's glorious!
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@Still
I mention my last visit in this post:
www.whirledpeas.eu/2009/04/09/review-chicago-by-alaa-al-aswany/ -
Great review, and as a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, I can tell you. I have never seen a large population of Egyptians or Muslims there. Not on the quad, not in the student center, not in the medical facility.
There were a lot of Koreans, Indians, African Americans and suburban white kids. -
@Still
That makes Al Aswany's book all the more perplexing, then. -
Of course, I graduated in 2001, so it's entirely possible that the population has changed since then.
Also, it is possible the author wasn't aware that Chicago has 6 major universities all located within the city, all with prestigious medical schools. -
@Still
I'm aware of the universities; I've applied for an Assistant Professor role with one of them. -
I wasn't referring to you, I was referring to the writer you reviewed Al something.
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@Still
Alaa Al Aswany - yes, his novel is a but of a puzzle, he set it in Chicago, but it's like he has never been there. -
Entirely possible. I have seen TV shows, read books, and seen movies all claiming to be set in Chicago but displaying no actual knowledge of the city.
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double post.
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Another way architecture is used a propaganda is that a lot of government buildings have penis shaped structures on them. Take the Nebraska State Capitol building in Lincoln for example
www.starcitymall.com/webcam/statecapitol.html
It looks like a big old giant penis jutting up into the sky. It is often referred to as The Penis of the Plains. It kind of sends a not so subtle subliminal message that men hold power and are in charge.-
This is actually more because male architects build penises, female architects build vaginas. It's true. Just take at look at some city plans. Not only does it show up in the buildings, it shows up in the boulevards.
Now that there aren't major cities to build in the US, it shows up in shopping mall plans and they way they lay out parking lots islands. -
People are always finding penises in architecture...I'm not convinced that it's subconscious propaganda or anything like that...I'm sure that most of the time it's just the most appropriate shape.
There's a feminist classicist who wrote an essay on how the Romans had designed the forums to be phallus-shaped (they are rectangular) to subliminally oppress women...she seemed to have forgotten that most Romans didn't get a birds-eye view of the forum and that if the ancients wanted to portray a penis they didn't do it metaphorically...people wore phalluses as good luck charms! -
I don't think it's conscious. I think it's unconscious and it happens when the buildings or city plans are just drawings.
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But if you've got a small area in which to place a building surely there's not much else you can do but have it that shape?
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That makes sense, but they didn't have to place a bulbous tip at the top. They did it subconsciously.
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haha!
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I guess I haven't noticed any vag architecture.
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That's because females are still in the minority, but as a graduate of architecture school, I can tell you. There were a lot of Vagina houses during final critiques.
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that's the ugliest building I've ever seen!
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i was just talking about the silver part
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Frank Gehry is a man. I was thinking more along the lines of Zaha Hadid.
inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/zaha5.jpg
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I have lived in areas that were s*@tholes, though, but I don't even want to think about who designed those.
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ROTFL!
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There's a building in Hong Kong called the "Thousand A**holes", actually.
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Sounds like my cup of tea -
For the life of me, OP, I cannot figure out how to post on your blog.
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if you click on the individual post there is a link at the bottom saying 'post a comment'
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Also there is a comment button to the right of the headlines.
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The complex also houses the Army Museum, a centre for retired or convalescent soldiers and the housing quarters of the Army Chief. The fascination with Napoleon remains intact, it is the Revolution which is questioned, if I can get my bearing right in my discussions with the French.-
I have this theory that it isn't so much a fascination with the man himself, but rather a fascination with the idea of a French empire and France as superpower.
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I think there are similar concepts of national heroes everywhere. Boudica is a good British/feminist example...the way everyone treats her like a freedom fighter and a powerful idealistic woman...she was a thug who murdered more Britons than oppressive Romans.
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Abraham Lincoln is a good example in the US. The legend of him overwhelms his life. Yes, he was one of the greatest president's in the history of the United States. Yes, he was a great orator and eloquent writer. Yes, he was a man of genius and vision.
But at the Lincoln memorial, he sits in the place of where Zeus sat in Greek temples. He has been deified.
www.phys.ufl.edu/~tschoy/photos/CherryBlossom/Lincoln_Memorial.jpg
www.thedctraveler.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/lincoln-memorial-flickr.jp... -
You just reminded me of the "Greatest Briton of All Time" (as voted for by the Great British public) Winston Churchill...who was responsible for the Gallipoli disaster and when notified of the Bengal famine in 1943 he said "If food is so scarce, why hasn't Ghandi died yet?"...someone to be proud of...
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*snorts*
I shouldn't laugh, but I am. -
naughty...
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Like you didn't laugh, just a little.
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I'm far too serious to laugh at famine-related jokes...
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*puts on sober face*
Yes, quite tragic and awful. Bad man. Bad man.
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And speaking of Non-media propaganda
www.dqd.com/~bmayoff/South_Dakota/Mount_Rushmore/FOLDER01/07%20Mt%20Rushmor... -
Nothing happens when I hit the comment button.
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That is so weird. Green and Mtyler left me comments today, so I think it's working. Did the other comments from other people pop up?
Let me take a quick look.
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Nothing happens when I click on the post and then click comment, either. I am not sure why, as I have posted on blogs today with no problem.
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You have to turn off your pop-blocker. It opens in a new window. If you go to my blog and click on comment button directly to the right of the headline, you should get a new window.
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OH.
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