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Alfred Gingold and Helen Rogan

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from: Alfred Gingold

Museums: Sticking to Objects Is Best

Posted Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2001, at 1:57 PM ET

Helen,

You betcha, and what better day to inaugurate the project than the 38th anniversary of MLK's "I have a dream" speech? And the museum you speak of would have been great to visit after our son Toby, on learning that I was present for the speech, asked if I also knew Harriet Tubman.

At the same time, I would rather see the money go to existing organizations rather than to some shiny new place, likely to become a legislative football and cause more congestion on the Mall or the Museum Mile. To me, the best historical museums are little and local; they're created by devotees, sometimes even fanatics, and they reflect that kind of commitment. Give the money to the Weeksville Society in Bed-Stuy, or to the Lott House Restoration, where the first physical evidence of domestic slavery in New York City was found last year, alongside evidence of the Underground Railroad. And I'm sure there are many institutions equally worthy of support that aren't in Brooklyn.

Besides, I'm not sure it's such a good idea for museums to move beyond objects to ideas. A case in point is the Holocaust Museum in Washington. It's got some artifacts, but the main point of the place is ... what exactly? You could say education, but the children's exhibit tells too little for all but the youngest and the main halls really require both previous knowledge and the patience to wade through plenty of text. What's left? The passport, the scary elevator, the walk through the freight car: entertainment, like a ride at Disney World. I'm not saying the exhibit isn't stirring, because it is. But enlightening, I'm not so sure. The photos and object spoke to me, but the setting and the trapping were too theatrical and artificial: Holocaust Lite. That's my misgiving about a national slavery museum. I would rather see Harriet Tubman's house get repaired than wait online in Washington to experience a virtual Congo Square.

We received a CD from New York City mayoral aspirant Mark Green in today's mail. For a moment I feared he was launching a recording career. (Somehow I feel he would sound a lot like Neil Diamond.) No singing on it yet, but I haven't gotten very far. That's because the thing doesn't boot automatically. You have to open the drive, find the setup button and double-click, then you get a watery skyline and smilin' Mark, whose opening spiel sputtered and died. Maybe he's talking too fast for QuickTime to keep up. Whatever the cause, it doesn't bode well for his ability to keep the streets clean and the squeegee men where they belong (Elba?), does it?

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Alfred Gingold

Museums: Sticking to Objects Is Best

Posted Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2001, at 1:57 PM ET
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Alfred Gingold has written eight books (including three with Helen Rogan) and for numerous magazines and Web sites. Helen Rogan, his wife, is the executive editor of My Generation, the AARP's magazine for baby boomers, and has written books and magazine articles.
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[Notes from the Fray Editor: Reparations and museums were the hot topics here. There was news from Tony Adragna that there is an African-American museum in DC. Elusive Fray poster Amyntas started a splendid discussion on reparations and taxcuts here, featuring posts titled "A nonsensical argument" and "Typical disingenuous twaddle." A high moral tone, and criticism of young women, were the common themes in two posts: a most unusual view on the Chandra Levy affair, here, and one on Tea Leoni here.]


The ambiguity of the reparations debate is what I like most about that entire issue. Whether reparations ever get paid or not (I suspect that they won't), to the extent that national attention gets focused on this issue, we'll be talking about basic moral issues.

Any serious discussion of this issue will involve questions of duty and obligation, culpability, history, values, rights and wrongs. In short, it will be (finally!) a public debate worthy of a democratic nation. Whatever conclusions we reach, either individually or as a nation, it seems likely that we will be better for having thought about these matters in depth

--Thrasymachus

(To reply, click here.)


 The CD-ROM thing is scary. How's Bloomberg going to top it? Will he try to make his hologram appear in all our living rooms?

--Claude Scales

(To reply, click here.)

 (8/28)

Didn't it ever bother anybody else that the Weathermen took their name from a line in "Subterranean Homesick Blues" that implied that a weatherman is superfluous under the circumstances? Is this part and parcel of the Marxist-v.-Leninist- historical-determinist conundrum? (i.e., that if historical/economic forces are pushing toward an inevitable result, why do they need me to help them along? As it is sometimes put, if Marx didn't exist, it would be unnecessary to invent him.) That felt good--somebody call me a jackal, it really brings me back...

--Ex-Fed

(To reply, click here.)


 I happened to walk by the site of the Village explosion the morning of the event. The exposed apartments, with their wall clocks and tables precariously clinging to the ordinary around the gaping proof of anti-civic rage; the apartments seemed like a stage set for some kind of apocalyptic Beckett drama. The scene was mute, webbed with the yellow crime scene tapes of the municipal police. A mix of fear and curiosity animated the passers-by. I stood and stared, hearing the news in bits and pieces. Suddenly I noticed a sign, hand lettered, pinned to the police sawhorse. I looked closer and saw a few others, same hand, same posting method. In repeated, and therefore intentional orthography, the phrase "nothning is free" was scrawled in black marker on typing paper.

The phrase burned itself into my subconscious. I have never seen it since, nor heard it mentioned in the context of the Weathermen or other underground groups.

Nothning is free. Even if it has escaped justice. Especially if it has escaped justice.

--Zeitguy

(To reply, click here.)

 (8/31)





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