What is a monumental monument really about?  [fn.112d] Student:  Unhappy the land that breeds no hero.  [fn.112d] Galileo:  No. Unhappy the land that needs a hero.   (Bertolt Brecht, Galileo)  "Monumentality" comes from the Latin verb: monere: "to remind" -- but also to warn. The monumental monument supposedly reminds us of what it is dedicated to. Examples: The National World War II Memorial [above center] is supposed to remind us of the Americans who fought, suffered and died in World War II. The Lincoln Memorial [above left] is supposed to remind us of Abraham Lincoln. But change the dedication and the monumental monument could be "about" just about any "big event". It is like an abstract picture that you don't know what it's about unless you read the title. What does the monumental monument remind us of, if we just look at what it is? The monument's monumentality reminds us of Power: The Power that could command the building of such a big ("imposing") edifice. The dedication directs us to imagine instead that all that Power belongs to what/whom the monumental monument is dedicated to. The dedication encourages us to imagine we can be "powerful" by participating in Power -- by obeying it just like those to whom the monument is dedicated obeyed (and suffered and died...) before us. The power to obey is only the "power" to suffer. The monumental monument "inspires" us into wanting to suffer for Power. If we identify with the "symbolism", we feel "uplifted"; if we look at what the monumental monument really tells us, we feel intimidated, since the same Power that raised such an impressive building could come down on us. Therefore the monumental monument needs to be dedicated -- dedicated to anything but what it is really dedicated to: imposing on ("inspiring") us to want to subject ourselves to and suffer for the even further empowerment of Power over us. "It's not a civilized situation; it's a heroic one." (quote out of context[fn.60])
Learn	why monumental music (symphonic and choral works) is incompatible with democracy and inimical to human dignity.
See	Mussolini's "Third Rome" (Esposizione Universale Roma, aka E.U.R.).
See	magnificent picture of Saddam Hussein's Mother of All Battles mosque.
Find out	why Postmodernist architecture is 19th century Beaux Arts neo-classical orthodoxy architecture with a face-lift.
Learn	more about proposed National World War II Memorial.
Read	my proposal what to rebuild on site of destroyed NYC World Trade Center towers.
Read	about the peremptory discourse of petty power (parents, school teachers, bosses, et al.).
Revisit	the Tower of Babel.
	In hoc signo vinces.

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http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/monumentality.html Copyright © 2001-2005 Brad McCormick, Ed.D. bradmcc@cloud9.net 02 June 2006CE (2006-06-02 ISO 8601) v03.04 There are buildings that appropriately can be big: libraries and archives, or at least tall, e.g.: lighthouses, which help keep us safe and help us to go where we choose to go in our lives.