{"id":20913,"date":"2013-04-20T05:02:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-20T05:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=20913"},"modified":"2013-04-20T05:05:02","modified_gmt":"2013-04-20T05:05:02","slug":"a-boston-doublequote-via-jim-friedrichs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=20913","title":{"rendered":"A Boston DoubleQuote, via Jim Friedrich"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — the subject of interest is in the details ]
\n.<\/p>\n

My friend Jim Friedrich<\/strong>, an Episcopalian priest and artist, posted a thought-provoking juxtaposition of images on FaceBook<\/a> yesterday, which I have resized and cropped to fit my own DoubleQuotes format:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fr Friedrich’s comment:<\/p>\n

This photo snapped Monday in Boston is like Brueghel’s “Fall of Icarus.” The critical subject in each is, from the viewer’s position, just a small detail practically lost in the totality of the scene. Very strange to look at, and to think about – ethically, existentially, theologically…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

**<\/p>\n

Also worth recalling in this context is WH Auden’s poem, Musee des Beaux Arts<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

About suffering they were never wrong,
\nThe old Masters: how well they understood
\nIts human position: how it takes place
\nWhile someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
\nHow, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
\nFor the miraculous birth, there always must be
\nChildren who did not specially want it to happen, skating
\nOn a pond at the edge of the wood:
\nThey never forgot
\nThat even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
\nAnyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
\nWhere the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse
\nScratches its innocent behind on a tree.<\/p>\n

In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
\nQuite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
\nHave heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
\nBut for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
\nAs it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
\nWater, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
\nSomething amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
\nHad somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

**<\/p>\n

I hope to post something tomorrow on the Mahdist video that Tamerlan Tsarnaev<\/strong> “liked” on FaceBook<\/a> and added to his “Islam” folder. In its own way, that’s a minor — yet significant — detail, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron — the subject of interest is in the details ] . My friend Jim Friedrich, an Episcopalian priest and artist, posted a thought-provoking juxtaposition of images on FaceBook yesterday, which I have resized and cropped to fit my own DoubleQuotes format: Fr Friedrich’s comment: This photo snapped Monday in Boston is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[384,385,526,497,627,210,741,687,211,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-art-history","category-charles-cameron","category-christianity","category-doublequotes","category-islamist","category-poetry","category-specs","category-terrorism","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20913"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20928,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20913\/revisions\/20928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}