Fascinating discussion around the groaning Thanksgiving table (sometimes the cliches work the best) about public art. It was a table of actors and artists, so it got quite vehement. My father is opposed to public art. His reasons are quite good. But Hunter said, “You’re against public art? Why??”
I said, “Dad, tell the story about the library.”
My father is a librarian at a large university library. The library commissioned a local stone-engraver to design and execute a new facade to the building’s entrance. Actually, “local” stone-engraver is not the correct term at all. This man happens to live in the state, but he is the premier engraver in the country. He has done monuments in the capitol, etc. He is a big big deal.
So his idea for the library was quite wonderful, actually. He would engrave on the walls and on the front of the building quotes from various (unattributed) sources, quotes having to do with learning, knowledge, books. Dante is up there, Wordsworth, a ton of great people.
Hunter said, “Did he work with an editorial board in choosing the quotes, or…?”
Dad said, “No. He had someone proofread the quotes, but no. It’s public art, you see? It’s his artistic expression.”
I have seen the facade of the building, of course. And it is gorgeous work. Truly. But a couple of things went wrong. Very wrong.
One of the prominent quotes in the front was from Malcolm X. In order to be a good blogger, I should probably have the exact quote to share with you, but I don’t. Here’s the jist of the quote: “I love learning and knowledge. If I could, I’d spend all my time in the library.” That is a ridiculous over-simplification. My apologies to the literate and expressive Malcolm X. But that is the idea behind the quote. I will provide the actual quote as soon as I am able, I promise!!
So the building facade is revealed when it is completed, it is highly admired, all is well.
A couple of years later, a black man (who was not a student at the school, but basically a person who hung out all the time on the campus) notices something odd. Something that makes him sit up and take notice. There is something wrong with that Malcolm X quote up on the wall.
This man looks through The Autobiography of Malcolm X, searching for the quote. Clearly, the man had to scour the text with a fine-toothed comb in order to locate it. But find it he did. Good for him! Integrity personified! And here is what he discovered:
The actual unedited quote in the text was along the lines of (and again, I apologize…I will get the real quote): “I love learning. If I could take some time out from fighting whitey, I would spend all my time in the library.”
A couple of things: there are no ellipses in the engraved quote, indicating that something was omitted. The stone engraver just liked the quote, but knew that he couldn’t put the whole “whitey” section on the library walls. So he took it upon himself, because it is HIS artistic expression, to edit Malcolm X, to EDIT MALCOLM X, and use the quote anyway. I find this disgusting. You just don’t do that. Malcolm X said what he said for a reason. I may not like it, I may not agree with it, but he is allowed to say what he wants however he wants. To take the quote, chop out the offending words, and not acknowledge that you have done this by at LEAST putting in an ellipses, is vile. Stupid. Unintellectual. (Not exactly the vibe you want to have as you enter a university library.)
It reminds me of the recent furor about the edited texts in the regional tests for high school students. Taking existant work, by well-known authors, and smoothing out anything that might offend anybody at any time. Even words like “fat”, or words like “Hispanic”. Even (and this one pissed me off the most): editing “California wine and seafood” down to “California seafood.” Prudes!! Unintellectual scaredy-cats! My GOD, what a debacle.
I am sure that Malcolm X said other things about education which could have been completely appropriate. Use that! But you sure aren’t going to put anything like “I wish I could use the library, but whitey won’t let me through the door” over the main entrance at a university building! So why even use the abbreviated quote at all? Malcolm X was saying exactly what he meant with that unedited quote. “If I didn’t have to spend all my time fighting whitey, then I might be able to spend more time in the library.” That is EXACTLY what he meant to say. It’s gross to have some stone-engraver snip out the essence of the quote (however racist or offensive it might be), and put it up on the wall, as though that was all that Malcolm X said or meant.
So this black man, after having found out the truth, (God bless him) creates an enormous controversy about the edited quote on the library facade. My father told me that he got a bunch of other pissed-off people, and they marched around the campus, they called the media, they made a ton of noise about what was done to Malcolm X’s words.
But since this facade was “public art” … he was commissioned to create the library facade, but after that, it was his own personal expression … nothing could be done. The controversy raged, and now everybody in the state knows the truth: that the quote by the main door at the university library is actually an inflammatory racist statement by Malcolm X, edited by the artist to make it palatable for all. This is enough to turn me off public art as well!
The second issue with all of these engravings is that the artist chose to put directly over the front door the Latin word which had presided over the library in Alexandria before the fire destroyed it, lo, those many millennia ago. Again, I don’t know the exact word, but the context in ancient Greece was clear. It meant: “a healing place for the soul”. Lovely. A lovely way to think of a library.
But of course, in modern times, the same Latin word (and the stone-engraver would have KNOWN this if he had ASKED somebody who was an AUTHORITY) means “nuthouse.”
The Latin word for “nuthouse” sails above the main entrance to the university library. And right inside, is a lovely and beautiful quote about learning by Malcolm X, which left out the words: “If whitey would get off my case, I’d love to come to the library…”
But hey. It was only the expression of the ARTIST. Nobody is responsible for it. It is what HE felt like saying, what HE felt like creating.
Actually, we all were crying with laughter as my father and my sister Jean told this story in tag-team fashion.
