Blowhard, Esq. writes:

As soon as I heard about the fire at Notre Dame, I said to friends that two things would happen: 1) this would kick off a decade of political wrangling over what to do about the damaged structure, and 2) we would be inundated with horrible fucking ideas from the architectural and arts establishments over how the building should be restored. Mere minutes later, writer-director Paul Schrader, last seen beating his breast over the existential threat of climate change, posted the following on his Facebook page:

A great architectural challenge will confront the French in the upcoming months. Fortunately the French are architecturally inventive and will most likely arrive at a creative solution. The options are: (1) reconstruct the cathedral like the Germans reconstructed Dresden. This feels not only wrong but wildly financially unfeasible. (2) Build a small simulacrum in the ruins of the present cathedral–which will have to be reinforced to stay standing. (3) Build a modern cathedral which incorporates the remains of Notre Dame in the manner of the Pompidou Museum.

When you’re a joyless commie, all spaces must be turned into moral and aesthetic vacuums for your authoritarian notions of “progress.” Perhaps Bruce Charlton is right that Notre Dame shouldn’t be rebuilt, because we are not worthy of it. What are the chances that some modernist cancer will not be grafted onto it by our betters?

Related

• L.A.’s city council recently voted to replace the lackluster L.A. County Museum of Art buildings designed by William Pereira with something much worse.