Norumbega is "an online feuilleton and news portal collected from a traditionalist perspective" (see here for an explanation of "Norumbega" and "Feuilleton"). Edited by Andrew Cusack, the heart of the publication is a series of readable, thought-provoking articles which will sometimes be controversial - but because they are original and intelligent, not simply because they set out to "shock".Andrew Cusack sent me notice of a recent article: An Architecture of Continuity which looks at the Universidad Laboral, constructed from 1946 in Franco's Spain to provide a second level institution to teach vocational and technical skills, supported by communities of the Jesuits and the Poor Clares. of the architecture, Cusack comments:
The Universidad Laboral presents us with an architecture that is a continuation of history, rather than a rejection of history. Its components exhibit a classical symmetry but, like the human body itself, are arranged in a somewhat asymmetrical but nonetheless orderly form. It is the largest building in Spain but is broken up into smaller portions to prevent it from overburdening the inhabitants. It exhibits a natural hierarchy of forms, with the Church at its very heart. The Laboral is proof that there is another way of doing things: that one can be at once modern and traditional. That is a lesson that certainly needs to be understood by architects, but surely also by the rest of society as well.
9 comments:
Controversial indeed - it includes a tribute to Ian Smith, a man who was famously opposed to black majority rule in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe...
Does it actually praise him for that particular thing or for other things he did?
...and look where that rule got them.
Oh dear. The close association between traditionalist elements in the Church and Fascism rears its ugly head again ...
Anyone who has a nodding aquaintance with the traditionalist scene in France, Italy and Spain should stop and think.
Those who read French will find a lot of food for thought in "le forum catholique" - which routinely praises the most extraordinary rogues' gallery of right wing dictators (Franco, Pinochet, etc) while apparently ignoring the fruits of their political philosophy (habitual resort to torture and mass murder, to name but a couple of blots on their records).
Those who visit the abbeys of Le Barroux and Fontgombault will find (alongside the most magnificent liturgy you will see anywhere) some surprising reading material set out for the edification of guests - in Le Barroux when I visited a few years ago, the French history section of the guests' library contained only a few works. All apparently considered Vichy France under "Le Marechal" (Petain) as something close to the ideal modern state, apparently led by someone close to sainthood ... The same books played down the Revolution almost to the point of denying it had happened (let alone exploring the causes), and empasised a rather curious and unhistorical sense of continuity with an idealised, monarchical France of ages past.
Fontgombault and Le Barroux, and no doubt other traditionalist abbeys in France, are places of enormous political controversy in their communes. The "Front National" in both communes is now a force to be reckoned with, as a direct result of the weight of votes (cast under heavy-handed abbatial direction) of the monks. If you get into conversation with the monks, even on a fairly superficial level, you will probably hear a fairly salty racist diatribe which, even though couched in elegant French, would not disgrace a south London boozer. My last conversation with the then guestmaster of Le Barroux consisted of a monologue (from him) on the virtues of corporal punishment for most offences. He has now left and joined the SSPX, Le Barroux apparently being not right-wing enough for him.
Handle with care. Franco was not a saint, even if he was a Catholic. Some may consider the "Laboral" the expression of an ideal educational establishment. Others may find its architecture overbearing and oppressive, and its underlying political philosophy deeply unpleasant.
My own position on all of this is deeply ambivalent. I have regularly made retreats in the traditionalist French abbeys over a period of some 15 years. I have never reconciled myself to some of their more outlandish political positions. Indeed, I have never understood why they have adopted those positions in their extreme form - the abortion issue is often prayed in aid, but there are plenty of anti-abortion candidates who are not members of the FN. If pressed, I would say that I go to Fontgombault, Triors and Le Barroux for the beauty of the liturgy and try to ignore the rest of the political baggage which goes with it. Is this an adequate answer? Can we rediscover a "hermeneutic of continuity" which does not imply blind acceptance of far-right political philosophies? These seem to me to be important questions, which deserve some thought.
I certainly don't advocate the blind acceptance of far right ideology. at the same time, I think that it is inimical to sensible discussion that one cannot praise anything at all in Franco's Spain without being accused of fascism by association, as it were.
In fact, I hesitated a little about this post but then decided to put it up anyway because if focussed on architecture and an interesting social project.
Fascism is a left wing phenomenon not right.
You have to remember that both Franco and Pinochet where dealing with violent rebels trying to overthrow the government through civil war, I would not be so quick to judge them personally, the liberal media very rarely tell the full story about such people and it is a mistake to judge their times by your own experience of the current ones.
I do not consider myself a fascist or even right wing, but it is the Primary Duty of government to maintain the Unity of Peace, Law and Order as St. Thomas among other Catholic theologians makes clear, if violent rebels are trying to destroy these things then the government has every right to kill them if they cannot be convinced to stop and lie peacefully.
Governments cannot afford the luxury of sentimentalism, they must make their decisions rationally if they are to be any good to the people whom they serve.
Franco's Spain was better than todays socialist Spain in my opinion, there was no Mass murder of the innocents as there is now in both Spain and the UK. We cannot condemn anyone while we allow this vile killing of thousands and thousands of babies to take place.
Interesting building! They even have a sports arena attached!
Or, is that a copy of the Globe Theatre?
;^D
Quite right, Commenter! I'd only query the word "ugly". (How about "noble"?)
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