In the department of 'this really didn't happen' the Cathedral hatched a startling idea. It would hold a competition for children to design decorative sculpture for the Cathedral. As the cathedral approached completion, the west towers rose towards the sky, striking toward heaven a Darth Vader Drawing Word of the competition was spread nationwide through National Geographic World Magazine. The third-place winner was Christopher Rader, with his drawing of that fearful villain, Darth Vader. The fierce head was sculpted by Jay Hall Carpenter, carved by Patrick J. Plunkett and placed high upon the northwest tower of the Cathedral.
To Find Darth Vader you have to leave the building through the ramp entrance. This is located at the northwest corner of the nave, through the double wooden doors of Lincoln Bay. Go down the ramp, and step into the parking lot. Then, turn around and look back up at the tower closest to you.
He is almost impossible to see without the assistance of binoculars. Almost at the top of the tower is a gablet, or small peaked roof, located between the two huge louvered arches. At the bottom of each slope of this gablet is a carved grotesque. Darth Vader is on the north, or right-hand, side. There is a carved skull situated on a gablet much closer to the ground which many people often mistake for Darth Vader. From this skull, Darth Vader is up and to the left. For more info see Darth Vader Self-Guided Tour. So now the liturgy will begin:
The Lord Vader be with you!
And Also with you.
Or maybe
The force be with you!
and also with you
[The "National Cathedral" is not part of the Roman Catholic Church]
1 comment:
Flannery O'Connor said that she wrote about the grotesque because she still recognized it. Clearly, she had an advantage over the postmodernists at the National Cathedral. The National Cathedral is a great accomplishment, and very beautiful anyway, but something has been lost.
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