The Rich Get Richer; the Rest of Us are Blind - Part I

I once had a friend in high school, Patrick E-----------, who seemed to possess that top-tier comedian’s talent for provoking a laugh even before the punchline.    It seemed like every single observation he made in Mr. William’s Health Science class drew forth giggles.  Especially from the girls. 

Without question, this biracial, not short for long kid with the sloping cottony afro and kinda long, kinda foreign name was charismatic and witty.   He was affable and good natured but, really, when you compared him to other folks, he was neither comedian nor clown. 

He just never seemed to try too hard.  And that effortlessness, along with what seemed to be outsized reactions, was a bit puzzling to me.

Real conversation:

“Yo, Pat, these girls be crazy. They laugh at everything you say.  Man, if you said, “Carrot”, they’d be like, ‘Hehehe.  He said car-rot!’  If I said carrot, they’d be like, ‘Uh, ok.’”

 “I knowwww!”  he agreed, smiling widely. 

So, with every comment Pat’s stature as someone really humorous grew.

This memory came to mind recently as I was walking through Paris and realized that while the number of charming and awesome things about Paris is really innumerable, and while in so many ways its reputation is well deserved, still it and many of its “artifacts” can be, to varying degrees, overhyped.  Not only that, but the hype tends to further enhance the status of that to which it is applied.

Look, the Eiffel Tower!

Look, the Eiffel Tower, again!

Eiffel Tower again, again

Did Pat “deserve” all those giggle?  Was his every comment equally mirth inducing?   I don’t think so, but what he had was, “a reputation.”  And that reputation was like a Visa with which he gained purchase into the hearts and funny bones of many a Valley View High 9^th grader. 

The same dynamic is at play with Paris.  In both cases, you might simply call it another iteration of, once again, “the rich getting richer.”

  

First, the Mona Lisa

Every year, over 6 million people flock to the Louvre Museum to snatch a glimpse, and now many a selfie, of the woman with the half smile.  It is the most famous painting in the world and as cavernous as the Louvre is, crowds cram into this one viewing hall. 

It took three quarters of an hour for the midday Monday crowd to shuffle inch by inch to come finally face to bulletproof encased face with this beauty for the ages.

You’re in the vicinity of “the greatest painting ever, Dude!” but hey, you’ve got to pass the time: 

I’m no art historian, but I’ve seen a painting or two in my day, and I wonder, does this portrait deserve all the renown?  

The man who put Mona Lisa on the map is unequivocal here.  In 1867, Walter Pater wrote: 

“Hers is the head upon which all “the ends of the world are come,” and the eyelids are a little weary. It is a beauty wrought out from within upon the flesh, the deposit, little cell by cell, of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions...”

Yeah, but were you alone, Mona Lisa, really worth an hour of my time?

Her reputation however, is enough to draw throngs and, I wonder how many really desire a second visit.  Isn’t that really the test of the highest art, the desire to take multiple bites, to keep coming back?

The Louvre Museum

The museum in which the Mona Lisa is housed, the Louvre Museum, also ascends higher that it might should, in great part owing to it’s reputation.

It’s massive, labrynthine and displays thousands of art pieces.   For an artwork, getting selected by the Louvre is like induction into the Art Hall of Fame.  Yeah, maybe the local museum in Scranton, Kyoto or Amsterdam, has “retired” your number.   But inclusion in the Louvre, that’s the ultimate rejoinder to “You’ll never amount to anything.”    The halls dedicated to European art are the most trafficked, but it holds art from around the world. 

In many ways this volume and diversity is a virtue.  But how many medieval Christian are pieces does one really need to see?  It's all subjective, but hardly any of them took my breathe away.  And getting from one hall to the next was itself a small trial.  

Compare the Louvre to the much smaller Musee D’Orsay, which houses Monet’s Water Lilies, Van Gogh’s self-portrait or if you’ve been there, that one of the tall, draped Moor with sword in hand, lording over his bloody beheaded rival.  

Which museum is better?  I don’t think it’s simply a matter of perspective.   Maybe the paintings in the Louvre, and the stories they tell are central stars in major constellations of Western, Greco-Judeo Christian or even world history.   After all, the pharaoh sculpture and below is pretty dang cool.

But, piece for piece, the art works in the Musee D’orsay, shine more brightly.   And if you disagree with that assessment, then the museum-going experience itself -- 1 hour entrance lines, cramped viewing halls, disorientation throughout --  calls for the Louvre to consider making a few changes.   Ignore the hype and if you are visiting Paris, make the Musee D’Orsay your FIRST stop.

Next on trial, Paris

Third, the visual experience Paris itself.  It’s definitely not as overhyped as The Louvre.  But somehow, I became indiscriminate in my picture taking as every view seemed, well,  picturesque. 

Look, the limestone facades glisten modestly in the sunlight.  The ironwork balconies and roof crests add form and detail.  The boxy trees reach wide and high; they always seem to reach as high as the rooftops, but that’s really just greenery seemingly hung from every balcony.  The greenery seems to be a type of jewelry adorning ever corner of the city.  Yes, Louis XIV set out to make a capital city befitting the greatness of France and he succeeded wildly.

My building

Yeah, random doors "be like, Whoa"

Balcony close-up; designs are myriad

And besides the basic architecture you have a river running through the city, historic landmarks  on every block, and innumerable statues that say, “Stop.  Here standa man or woman who made history.  Behold.”  

Because, sunsets

Everyone says, Paris is the most beautiful city!  But really, Is Paris the Helen of Troy of cities, the most beautiful men have ever set their eyes upon?  Is it more “beautiful” than Amsterdan, 

Lisbon 

or Rio?

Possibly.   But if so, only because like so many other things that matter, beauty is itself constructed.   The visual arts, namely movies and photography have set Paris – its geography and geometry – as the template, and manufactured stories that add to the legend.  What you get is a virtuous -- or from a different perspective, unfortunate -- feedback loop.  

Not just Paris, or Paintings. 

And it’s not just Paris.  It happens with people too.  In the next post a few reflections in the field of education.