Scrivenings

4 Responses to “free thought”

1. kathy aon 05 Dec 2007 at 2:17 pm

   tell the story, please! this must be recognizable to people who have seen it. but i haven’t.

2. anbruchon 05 Dec 2007 at 4:13 pm

   Nice. Is that “generous” above the free thought as well?

3. Scriveneron 05 Dec 2007 at 4:51 pm

   Actually, it’s “generosity” up above, but you have the right idea Anbruch (and Hi! Nice to see you again).

   Oh, Kathy, I don’t know if it’s so recognizable. It’s one of the panels inscribed on the front wall of the Brooklyn Public Library. Here is someone else’s photo of the whole panel. It reads: “The Brooklyn Public Library through the joining of municipal enterprise and private generosity offers to all the people perpetual and free access to the knowledge and the thought of all the ages.” I just really liked the lines and shadows in the inscriptions, so I played around taking photos like this one.

   My 365 pic for that day comes from the panel on the other side of the doors, which is much more poetic: “Here are enshrined the longing of great hearts and noble things that tower above the tide, The magic word that winged wonder starts, the garnered wisdom that has never died.”

4. kathy aon 05 Dec 2007 at 7:57 pm

   wonderful, this and the 365 photo.

   i really love the los angeles central library, restored and renovated after a fire in the 1980′s. the exterior alone is filled with literary references, even on the paving. a fountain is inscribed: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did. It never will.” (Frederick Douglass.) another fountain has phrases from the Bill of Rights.

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