That's the last line of the previous post, the one about the possibly oversized statue of Trump and Epstein, which got toppled yesterday. (I thought statue-toppling was the signature of the left, but apparently not.)
I got the feeling plinths have loomed large enough in the archive of this blog to want to prompt Grok to review all my plinth-related posts and to structure the material for me to write a long essay — or book! — about the last 21-years of notable plinths. Giving this post my "unwritten books" tag, I will reprint Grok's outline of my long years of plinth observation [below the jump].
ADDED: I was able to find all the relevant posts. I had a distinctive search word, "plinth." Grok was able to summarize all the posts individually. That wasn't too helpful, because the posts were relatively short, and I wrote them, so I'd rather rely on my own writing that to decipher the machine's paraphrasings. But Grok did not discover any mysterious interconnections among the various plinth-related incidents — plinthcidents, if you will.
1. Artistic Mishaps and Misperceptions
- Story/Observation: A plinth (a slate base with a tiny wood bit) gets selected for a Royal Academy exhibit by mistake, while the actual laughing-head sculpture is rejected. The plinth "thought to have merit" on its own.
- Post: "About that plinth." (June 20, 2006)
- Argument: Galleries breed confusion—viewers mistake fire hydrants or trash cans for art, valuing "durable" everyday objects over crafted works. Ties to broader art-world absurdity (e.g., janitor tossing "trash" art).
- Post: Same as above.
- Story: Couples stage a "protest kiss" on the charred plinth of a toppled man-and-woman kissing sculpture in Iraq's Azadi park, sparking copycat photos and backlash from Islamic groups.
- Post: "Protest kissing in Iraq — on the charred plinth of a vandalized sculpture of a man and woman kissing." (October 25, 2013)
- Observation/Argument: The act defies cultural norms but invites legal charges for "behavior out of accepted social norms." A quip: "A charred plinth is not a slippery slope."
- Post: Same as above.
- Story: During Madison riots, the Hans Christian Heg statue (abolitionist) is toppled; vandals carry the head away from the now-empty plinth, caught on camera.
- Post: "Bring us the head of Hans Christian Heg!" (January 10, 2021)
- Story: The "Forward" statue (Wisconsin's female personification of progress) is torn down in riots, leaving an empty plinth on the State Street path to the capitol—still unrestored months later, evoking outrage.
- Post: "Who Said It: Cuomo or Your Ex?" (August 11, 2021); cross-referenced in "9/19/21 - 9/26/21" archive (September 2021)
- Argument: In cancel-culture debates (e.g., renaming schools after flawed figures like Lincoln or Feinstein), empty plinths beat statues—let people "imagine whoever or whatever you want." Better than flags or anthems too.
- Post: "Until the San Francisco Unified School District board..." (January 29, 2021)
- Observation: The unrestored "Forward" plinth symbolizes delayed reckoning with history.
- Post: "9/19/21 - 9/26/21" archive (September 2021)
- Observation: Plinths inflate statue "heights"—e.g., Michelangelo's David is 5.17m sans its 2.5m plinth, skewing comparisons to modern giants like the Statue of Unity.
- Post: "Approximate heights of various notable statues." (November 13, 2020)
- Argument: Sculptors distort features (e.g., larger heads/shoes on MLK Jr. statue) for plinth-elevated views; historical precedent in Parthenon columns or removed Forrest statue.
- Post: "Some critics have pointed to the statue’s disproportionate..." (August 16, 2025)
- Story/Argument: London's Trafalgar Square fourth plinth—meant for William IV's equestrian statue but vacant 20+ years—hosts temp art (e.g., blue cockerel, transgender skull rack) that's often panned as low-quality or "anti-monument." Rumored "reserved" for Queen Elizabeth II (maybe on horseback); critiques hidden imperial narratives.
- Post: "The understanding is that the fourth plinth is being reserved for Queen Elizabeth II." (September 17, 2022)
- Story: First female figure (golden, lotus-emerging, in RBG's lace collar) adorns a Manhattan appellate courthouse plinth, ousting patriarchal male lawgivers (Moses, Confucius, Zoroaster). Fills spot vacated in 1955 by Muhammad statue after embassy protests over depictions.
- Post: "A new sculpture has become the first female figure..." (January 27, 2023)
- Argument: Highlights absent female lawgivers; the new work as "resistance" to patriarchy, but quasi-religious (lotus/demonic hair) like the males. Questions if imagined female justice feels "otherworldly."
- Post: Same as above.
Section | Purpose & Length | Key Posts/Materials to Draw From | Suggested Weave/Transitions |
|---|---|---|---|
Introduction: What Even Is a Plinth?(10–15% of total) | Hook with definition (base = stability, but often ignored); your "plinth obsession" origin story. Tease as metaphor for shaky foundations in art/law/society. End with thesis: Plinths reveal what we elevate—and decapitate. | All, lightly (e.g., David's plinth skewing heights). | Playful opener: "I once blogged a plinth that fooled the Royal Academy..." Transition: "But when plinths char or empty, the real art begins." |
Part 1: The Accidental Masterpiece(15%) | Explore plinths as "art" via errors/perceptions. Build to argument: In galleries, the base steals the show—mirroring how we misread cultural icons. | "About that plinth." (2006); heights post (2020) for scale irony. | Chrono start; playful tone on hydrant "art." Transition: "If plinths fool experts, what happens when vandals 'curate' them?" |
Part 2: Scorched Earth Bases(20%) | Chronicle vandalism tales; serious dive into expression vs. norms (Iraq legal threats, Heg/Forward beheadings). Argument: Charred plinths as sites of protest—free speech on literal ground zero. | Iraq kiss (2013); Heg (2021); Forward (2021/archive). | Story-cluster: Iraq's kiss as spark, Madison riots as echo. Legal angle: Prosecutions as "norm enforcement." Transition: "Emptied plinths linger longer than heads—inviting us to refill or leave bare." |
Part 3: The Void That Speaks(15%) | Examine empty plinths as commentary. Playful: "Better than bad statues?" Serious: Ties to cancel culture (school renamings as proxy for monument purges). | SF schools (2021); Forward archive (2021); Trafalgar temps (2022). | Argument build: Empties force imagination vs. imposed icons. Transition: "But when we do fill them, proportion—and politics—matter." |
Part 4: Elevated (and Distorted) Ideals (20%) | Analyze representation/scale. Legal core: Lawgiver plinths (patriarchy, religious removals); proportion as "optical justice." | Female sculpture (2023); MLK distortions (2025); heights (2020). | Thematic pivot: Muhammad's void to RBG-inspired fill. Playful: "Big shoes on plinths—literal and figurative." Transition: "History reserves spots, but futures demand whimsy." |
Part 5: Reservations and Reinventions(10%) | Speculate on futures: Trafalgar's "QEII slot" as template. Playful visions (horseback queen, corgi horde); serious: Temp art's pitfalls vs. permanent risks. | Trafalgar (2022). | Forward-looking: Weave reader ideas (e.g., motorcycle QEII). |
Conclusion: Standing on Solid(ish) Ground (5–10%) | Reflect: Plinths as legal/artistic "precedents"—what bases endure scrutiny? Call to action: Your next plinth-spotting walk. | Cross-all; end with 2025 distortion as "timely capstone." | Tie back: Playful close on "plinth principles" (stability amid chaos). |
Posts
21 comments:
Don't overlook snaths.
Statue toppling... Now it must be punished.
Always has been.
Don't forget Trump's "Executive Order on Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes."
Blogged here: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/07/it-shall-be-policy-of-united-states-to.html
The White House page for the executive order — https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-building-rebuilding-monuments-american-heroes/ — has gone dead.
There is no viewpoint discrimination under the regulations, which seem hopelessly out-of-date given the prevailing petulance in the nation's capital.
In other words, I guess Trump's antagonists forgot about "Donnie Bone Spurs"?
§ 12.3 Definitions.
The following definitions apply only to the regulations in this part...
Commemorative monument means a monument, tablet, structure, or other commemorative installation of permanent materials to honor more than one veteran.
§ 12.9 Commemorative monuments.
(a) Application.
(1) A person requesting authorization to erect a commemorative monument shall submit such a request to the Director. The Director's approval should be obtained prior to fabrication of the commemorative marker since approval for installation is conditioned upon compliance with other specifications found in this section and all applicable provisions of this part.
(2) An applicant for authorization to erect a commemorative monument shall include the following information in the application:
(i) A list of the persons to be memorialized and the other data desired to be inscribed on the commemorative monument; and
(ii) A scale plan depicting the details of the design, materials, finish, carving, lettering and the arrangement of the inscription proposed for the commemorative monument.
(b) Specifications.
(1) The Director may only authorize a commemorative monument that conforms to the type, size, materials, design, and specifications prescribed for the historic design of the individual cemetery section in which it is proposed for installation.
(2) The Director may not approve a commemorative monument that bears an inscription that includes the name of the person(s) responsible for its purchase or installation.
(c) Expense. A commemorative monument approved by the Director may be installed only under the conditions that there be no expense or liability incurred by the National Park Service in connection with its purchase, fabrication, transportation, delivery and erection.
(d) Title to a commemorative monument vests in the National Park Service upon its acceptance by an official representative of the Director.
I got the feeling plinths have loomed large enough in the archive of this blog to want to prompt Grok to review all my plinth-related posts and to structure the material for me to write a long essay — or book! — about the last 21-years of notable plinths.
Plinthy the Elder.
@Althouse: "(I thought statue-toppling was the signature of the left, but apparently not.)"
Trump is not on the right. He's a 1990s Democrat defector and aligned with the old-school left. Spend. Activism. Protectionism. But, Trump is way more sane than today's nominal left.
"Don't overlook snaths."
Yes, don't. Snaths are very important. Without proper snaths we couldn't scythe our grain unless we owned a combine harvester with GPS and air conditioning.
There are many variant spellings of snath, though some different spellings denote slightly different scything techniques and situations. For example, there's snaith. That's a snath used by a Quaker. Then there's a sneath, a snath for scything kelp. Last and best is the sneed, a snath that doubles as a putter while the grain is still green in the field.
A page aborted is a progressive work of art. Will it be resurrected or permanently sequestered under a black rock, in a clinical grave? The problem is the artist's ambiguous advocacy for a sexual orientation (i.e. pedophilia) that is legal under Democratic law, but incongruent in polite company.
Bitter clingers revisited. The handmade tales are being narrated, published.
So is it to be all about the plinth?
Actually it is about the lies and the violence.
People are getting tired of people telling lies to justify killing other people. People are tired of the laughing vicious nature of the lies.
It’s all water down the drain…
Potential New Chapters
Is Mt. Rushmore a Plinth?
or
The Potent Plinth
Is Mt. Everest a Plinth? Mt. McKinley?
These mpuntains commemorate Everest (whoever he was) and McKinley in stone so they are statues (Unshaped stone, but that could be said of a lot of statues. ) But are they not also plinths to their statues? Yet, if so, named mountains must be non-binary plinths, neither plinth nor statue but rather both plinth and statue and hence something more profound than a simplistic identity assigned at unveiling as either plinth or statue Namely, non-identity as identity.
Another Chapter
Have We the People become a plinth for our elites? which certainly have stony heads and hearts?
Don't forget the infamous Ozymandias, by Shelley. He (Ozy) has words on his plinth (pedestal):
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert…. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
It would not surprise me at all if the Park Service employee was in on it, and was asked "How do I get my statue removed so that I can scream censorship?" and she provided the suggestion and played along, all knowing that media coverage would support their narrative and simply omit the part about not meeting the permit. Which also explains why she didn't mention it when the Post called. Or she might have, and the Post simply lied. That's also very possible.
I had to memorized Ozymandias in high school. I'm glad for it. The poem always comes back to me when my wife and I are vising the ancient ruins of Italy, Greece, Egypt, and elsewhere.
At least Donny Bone Spurs was not an advocate of world wars the way Joe Six Deferments Biden was.
"Statue-toppling [of white American historical figures is] the signature of the left."
"Don't forget the infamous Ozymandias, by Shelley."
Thanks. That's a poem I memorized recently. I blogged about it here: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2024/03/under-policy-called-slant-sit-up-lean.html
I was interested in it for a few reasons, one of which is that's it's in "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" (a favorite movie of mine).
The Post may have emailed for further comment and then immediately published the article to ensure that no response was received. Relatively common journalistic dirty trick.
Plynth (Water Down the Drain) - Jeff Beck w/ Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, others: https://youtu.be/eEANX-L1dEg?feature=shared
Plinth - a fine and memorable word.
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