A Tale of Two Piazzas

“By contrast, it seems that Government Center wants to grasp we homeless moderns by the lapels, and shake us into a sense of “identity” and “presence””

This sentence sums up the arrogance of so many modernist architects and urban planners, who despise the same people they profess to serve. It’s essentially onanistic.

Mr. Cusack,

That you would even consider linking to this half-baked, dilletantish tripe shows that your site, like everything else in this muddied world, is in decline.

Ah well. Sic transit gloria and all that.

See you tomorrow?

IMC

Quite so, ‘Concerned Reader’, barring the unforeseen.

Amusing to see Mr Corbin poking gentle fun at himself.
But in fact his article is an excellent one, despite the occasional infelicitous turn of phrase (that plague WE humans??) or the telling historical error (there was no Via della Conciliazione in Bernini’s time, nor for centuries afterwards).
I tend to be more trenchantly prejudiced in my judgements: to my eyes the Boston City Hall and its wind swept Plaza were always nothing more than an obvious act of revenge upon the city’s cultured if supercilious Brahmins on the part of that (then) newly powerful but enduringly brutish and vulgar sub-race: the Boston Irish.

It’s not merely an infelicitous turn of phrase. It’s a grammatical error, and he commits it twice in rapid succession. Some careful editing would improve this substantively fine piece of work.

I hope you will forgive us young folk. Remember that we are among the first of the generations never taught proper grammar in school.

Not an excuse, I’ll concede, but an explanation.

Kind and learned gentlemen,

Thank you for your charitable comments on my (admittedly frivolous) piece, and your avuncular grammatical admonishments. One does appreciate the grand old men of letters shuffling out of their dens now and then, slipper-shod, to offer enlightenment in the ways of the English language, lest mere syntactic chaos be loosed upon the world.

You may be pleasantly surprised to learn that I do understand the difference between subjects and objects, even when applied to the tricky world of pronouns. The editor of PD is, similarly, sensitive to such arcane distinctions. The choice was intentional.

The historical bit, however, should have been handled better. I know that the arms of the colonnades were not, at the time of their construction, opened onto the Via della Conciliazione, but I can see how the article gives that impression. Mea culpa.

Regards,
Some young turk

“The choice was intentional”?
This grammatical crime was committed (twice!) with malice aforethought?
I am thunderstruck, sir, and hope that you will favour us with a reasoned explanation.

As for the other matter: your apology is graciously accepted.

I have been waiting for the opportunity to show you this.