Aesthetically, what do you think about the new 9/11 Pentagon memorial?

[arcadian]

I think it is ugly. And it invokes imagery of a plane or several planes slamming into the Pentagon again and again. Essentially, it's a park bench for every victim at the Pentagon. Why are memorials to dead people always chairs? I mean, memorials to commonfolk dead people at least. If it was a bunch of generals who died I'm sure the memorial would have been phallus shaped and reaching skyward 200 feet or so.

[rucky]

1. Sorry to say that it looks like an airport runway to me.

and I'm not sure I like where it ends.

[AlCzervik]

2. diving boards?

[Ediacara]

3. Like shark fins

[WorseBeforeBetter]

4. Hard to tell detail from a photo...

but interesting observation re the planes. I wonder what material the benches are. At night it may be impressive with the illumination, but what about during the day? I'm curious about the landscaping -- it's very stark. I can't tell what trees were planted and whether that's grass or some sort of steppable.

Honestly, the benches look like diving boards or giant staplers. I'll be in DC next week and will plan to see it since now I'm curious.

[arcadian]

7. Steel polished by an Iraqi immigrant.

[Forkboy]

5. "Well I think it looks like a gigantic lavatory!"

[arcadian]

8. "The world's stupidest bottom burp?"

:rofl:

[Forkboy]

19. Best show ever.

:D

[DemoRabbit]

6. Coffins... that's what I thought of when I saw it during the day

and it was quite depressing

[catnhatnh]

9. Visually Disorienting....

...emotionally barren, and intellectually incomprehensible....But on the bright side, I bet that puppy wastes a shitload of fossil fuel to power up every night forever.

[boppers]

10. I like it, myself.

As far as choices in statuary and decoration, there's a long history about this... soldiers with a horse lifting a hoof means one thing, horses on all fours another, etc.

Oh, and FWIW, Captains, Commanders, Specialists, Lieutenant Generals... they got benches.

Out of curiosity, were you thinking of Oklahoma City? That's the only other site the springs to mind that uses human-scale chairs...

[arcadian]

16. Ever been to a National Park?

State Park? Hell, even a city park, they will all have benches with a plackard memorializing somebody, several usually.

edit: that notion about equestrian statues is false.

[boppers]

17. Benches, paving stones, building stones, flag poles, lawns...

Heck, the Washington Monument has tons of inscriptions on the bricks.

I just don't recall a lot of sites that use a chair device as their *primary* memorialization item. Instead, they seem to sell everything, including the benches.

On the statues and horses, color me red, I just looked it up in snopes and wikipedia, it appears to be a convention more so than an actual consistent tradition.

[arcadian]

20. No you are correct.

I was thinking primarily of OKC when I made this post.

[ColbertWatcher]

11. Is it another attempt to recreate the Oklahoma City memorial? n/t

[Mnemosyne]

12. I thought it was the parking lot. Ugh. n/t

[alfredo]

13. Refrigerator door handles.

[Sabriel]

14. It looks like a bitch to mow

Is that grass in between them?

And I'm totally not in favor of that light pollution.

If they'd wanted a real memorial, they should've torn down that fucking Pentagon and put up a Department of Peace building.

[libodem]

15. they look like plane wings to me

and the hell of it is I read a reference to 'not finding any wings' at the crash site at the Pentagon. Apparently it is part of a conspiracy theory. Well, there are the missing wings. Weird.

[GrizzlyMan]

18. It's a borderline ripoff of the OKC Bombing Memorial

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[ogneopasno]

21. It looks like the rapture, with graves opening.

Odd.

[LanternWaste]

22. I like it...

I like it. It looks serene and calming to me-- at least in the photograph supplied. But then again, I'm the first to say that I don't know anything about art.