I am writing this the morning after the U.S. presidential election. Confused, sad, grasping for words, and tired already of news outlets’ attempts at explanations and of social media finger pointing.
I keep thinking of Francisco Goya’s work, El sueño de la razón produce monstruos, “The sleep of reason produces monsters”.
I think I first saw the etching in Madrid the same day I stood dwarfed in front of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, which depicts townspeople suffering the horrors of war unleashed by Nationalists. That also seems like a fitting work to contemplate just now.
Today I feel as if reason has been sleeping, and we don’t know what monsters we have unleashed.
Images 1 (public domain) + 2 (fair use) via Wikimedia.
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Thanks for sharing your poignant thoughts and the artwork as well. This stirs all kinds of emotions in me because I totally agree with you, but I actually had an experience in the museum in Madrid years ago that reminds me thinks of life’s little miracles that happen all the time. In the 1980s I studied for a few weeks one summer in Salamanca. One weekend, at the beginning of the trip, I made the 4 hour trip to Madrid. As I wandered through the sprawling Prado museum, I found myself in a room where there was only one other person. It was a man from Ohio who had traveled to Portugal. We had chatted while waiting in line to use the public telephone a few days earlier at JFK airport in NY. So, for me personally, I love that you mentioned artwork in Spain because while this reminded me of our current despair, it also reminded me of those little happy coincidences that often happen in life. We could use some of those about now.
I totally agree, Lori! Love your story!
So fitting, and so disturbing. But fitting. :(
Yeahhhhh…
Oh wow — so spot on. I remember standing in front of Guernica and feeling silent. Right now I feel like screaming.
Makes sense in both cases.
Appropriate image. I’m terrified too.
Definitely strange times.
Looks like reason has gone to sleep in more places than one in recent times :(
Yes, unfortunately, that seems true in many corners of the globe.
Two very appropriate images for our times. I think I am even more shaken by the anger I see among my friends on social media than I am about what’s happening on the national/world stage. After all, it’s closer to me and I feel it more.
Really striking. I’m sure I’ll keep these images in mind as I move through the day. I saw them in Madrid once, as well.
It’s certainly hard to deal with anger close to home – and it can be shocking when it comes from people you care about.
On a lighter note, it’s neat to think that you, Mel, Lori Shandle-Fox and I all stood in front of the same painting at different times.