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Appearances II: items external to the self
Having gone a long way towards uglifying University Hall during the refurbishment process, the university now seems to be turning its uglification tactics onto its academic spaces. Yesterday morning I saw that the black iron fencing outside St Salvator's quad was being painted a hideous rust-coloured brown. I am hoping it is only the base coat for another coat of black paint.
More irritating, though, are the aesthetic crimes happening on the other side of town. As a Philosophy student, I don't spend as much time in St Mary's quad, since it houses the amusing combination of the Psychology, Medical, Biology and Divinity departments, but I do pass through it sometimes on my way home. It's much prettier than Sallie's quad, with more plants, a few trees, and buildings that are not so stark and imposing. It also has some stone ruins in the centre of it, the crumbling remnants of an old gate. They are beautiful too, in a shambolic sort of way, and add to the general grace of the quad itself. It's no wonder that the university should want to protect them, but for most of the past year it has done so by surrounding half the lawn with one of those orange plastic temporary fences sometimes erected around building sites.
I was delighted, then, when I cycled past it a few days ago and saw that the orange fence had been removed, and was being replaced by a short, tasteful black metal fence erected just around the ruins themselves. It's a shame that there should be a fence at all, of course, but at least this one is not so ugly. Or rather, it wasn't, until they finished it off and added stark plastic signs warning "CAUTION: FALLING DEBRIS" and "DO NOT ENTER!" As if a locked fence did not already imply that the space should not be entered! *sigh* And all of this, the construction and the subsequent ruining-via-signage was visible even from the side-road where I cycle past, because the top of the hedge was lopped off at a random (and varying!) point, with too much of the branch exposed to allow the poor bushes to recover.
Enough of this complaining, though. I must return to my essay, which is also about the appearances of things external to the self. That is, about the objects of perception, and whether they are what we think they are, given the possibility of illusions and hallucinations. Oh, philosophy. (But, on a better note, I handed in my dissertation on Friday! Now it is just this final slog to finish this last essay...)
More irritating, though, are the aesthetic crimes happening on the other side of town. As a Philosophy student, I don't spend as much time in St Mary's quad, since it houses the amusing combination of the Psychology, Medical, Biology and Divinity departments, but I do pass through it sometimes on my way home. It's much prettier than Sallie's quad, with more plants, a few trees, and buildings that are not so stark and imposing. It also has some stone ruins in the centre of it, the crumbling remnants of an old gate. They are beautiful too, in a shambolic sort of way, and add to the general grace of the quad itself. It's no wonder that the university should want to protect them, but for most of the past year it has done so by surrounding half the lawn with one of those orange plastic temporary fences sometimes erected around building sites.
I was delighted, then, when I cycled past it a few days ago and saw that the orange fence had been removed, and was being replaced by a short, tasteful black metal fence erected just around the ruins themselves. It's a shame that there should be a fence at all, of course, but at least this one is not so ugly. Or rather, it wasn't, until they finished it off and added stark plastic signs warning "CAUTION: FALLING DEBRIS" and "DO NOT ENTER!" As if a locked fence did not already imply that the space should not be entered! *sigh* And all of this, the construction and the subsequent ruining-via-signage was visible even from the side-road where I cycle past, because the top of the hedge was lopped off at a random (and varying!) point, with too much of the branch exposed to allow the poor bushes to recover.
Enough of this complaining, though. I must return to my essay, which is also about the appearances of things external to the self. That is, about the objects of perception, and whether they are what we think they are, given the possibility of illusions and hallucinations. Oh, philosophy. (But, on a better note, I handed in my dissertation on Friday! Now it is just this final slog to finish this last essay...)
It's health and safety
Similarly, because of the same risk, if they caught you crossing that fence they would be obligated, for your health and safety, to shoot you dead on the spot.
no subject
no subject