13th century – Cornucopia City

A Day out in Canterbury

A teacher reported this week that she noticed a child pretending to eat from an empty lunch box. A 10 year old boy in Ukraine, wearing a green hoodie, is floored by a piece of a cluster bomb hitting him in the head. A young woman in Iran is beaten to death by the moralityContinue reading “A Day out in Canterbury”

Chez nous, chez nous…le Notre Dame de Chartes

The more time spent inside, outside and in the environs of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres the more puzzling it all becomes. Different theories exist about how the cathedral was built, what the iconography and images represent and whether it expresses a sacred geometry. The building is the result of several building campaignsContinue reading “Chez nous, chez nous…le Notre Dame de Chartes”

Towards a taxonomy of Gothic

I was once told that if you are struggling to write something it’s because you haven’t done enough reading. So it is with trying to write about ‘Gothic Marxism’. As a starting point, Gothic architecture. This in itself went through many phases and developments but I find the study of built environments brings history alive.Continue reading “Towards a taxonomy of Gothic”

The bus to Swingfield Street

There can be a certain camaraderie on an early morning bus. Today it was the driver, myself, a large man with a walking stick, two women in their sixties or seventies and a younger man covered in tattoos who spent the whole journey ‘doing something’ on his phone. Buses take you on journeys through aContinue reading “The bus to Swingfield Street”

Miracle Window – Jordan, son of Eisulf

Canterbury Cathedral is an enormously complex artifact in many different dimensions of time, space and thought. Guides and guidance are needed to understand it. But not all guidance is the same. Even the ‘facts’ are often disputed and there are multiple layers of analysis often at tension and contradiction with each other. This is oneContinue reading “Miracle Window – Jordan, son of Eisulf”

Canterbury Cathedral

The cathedral itself is currently closed, but the precincts and the cloisters are open. There was hardly anyone else around. I sat for a long time, within the stone, alone. It was fantastic. It will take many visits and a great deal of study to properly work out the political, social and architectural history. TodayContinue reading “Canterbury Cathedral”

‘Let us now transport ourselves…

…from Robinson’s island, bathed in light, to medieval Europe, shrouded in darkness. Here, instead of the independent man, we find everyone dependent – serfs and lords, vassals and suzerains, laymen and clerics. Personal dependence characterizes the social relations of material production as much as it does the other spheres of life based on that production.Continue reading “‘Let us now transport ourselves…”