Speaking of ugly. The sculptor of the controversial statue of John Paul II at Rome’s main train station, criticized across the political spectrum, on social networks, and even by commuters, has agreed to make small alterations to the odd depiction . Though the statue was intended to “synthesize, in the posture of the head and body and the draping of the cloak, the way the pope went out into the world,” says Oliverio Rainaldi(the artist), the structure has only won for itself comments such as these:
“That bullet-like head on top, it reminds me of Mussolini.”
It seems inanimate objects do not enjoy the same benefits that ugliness warrants for human beings.
Notes on Anosmia
One morning several years ago, as my wife, Wendy, and I were having breakfast together, I had…
Empire of Unreality
Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…
The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist
It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…