Regular readers will recall that I run cold on religion, alternatively passively dismissing all things related to it and actively making fun of those that don’t. And I’m not in line to change my take. But visiting the Duomo in Milan — the impressive cathedral at the heart of the city — I did have cause to ponder, if nothing else, the enormity of the collective delusion.
To construct a building so grand, so impregnated with mythology, so much a part of the city that surrounds it, over the hundreds of years it took to create speaks to something substantial.
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Comments
you would do well to read
you would do well to read Twain’s “Innocents Abroad” for his take on il Duomo. I had the same sense of unreality when I saw it and went inside: how can one person design a building that won’t be complete for 500 years? And what society or institution could follow through? In fact, in Twain’s time, they were still working on it. But even his skeptical heart was moved by the beauty of the work and the dedication of the workers.
In the context you’ve used it
In the context you’ve used it (but then, what context is immune?) you’d be safer with “enormousness” instead of “enormity,” which at least traditionally doesn’t mean simply “big” but “1. The quality of passing all moral bounds; excessive wickedness or outrageousness. 2. A monstrous offense or evil; an outrage.” (AHD2000ed)
Merry Christmas Pete!
Merry Christmas Pete!
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