Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Mr. Frost Shall Return

Mr. Frost (left) having a dialog with Miss Emily (right) last winter
Mr. Frost taking a nap Thursday morning

Robert Frost will soon return to take up dialogue with the Belle of Amherst, a supporting role he has filled admirably since 1996.  On Thursday morning he was found torn from his foundation and turned in to the DPW.

The public artwork "A Poetic Dialogue" by Michael Versi depicting a hypothetical interaction between Amherst' s two most famous residents was a tad controversial when first installed almost 20 years ago.

When dealing with sacred icons you are almost guaranteed to ruffle a few feathers.  But at least it's not like that whole "Muhammad" thing, where a critical cartoon can bring on bearded dudes with AK47s.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Larry,

America is famous for having violent punishments for non-violent crimes. We have millions of our kids in prison for just this reason.

Your last paragraph does not fit. Amherst police would likely be glad to use violence to lock up the person that did this non-violent crime. In fact, there are 100s if not 1000s of things a person can do in amerhst that are non-violent and they will receive a violent reaction from the government. For example, they could move a couple towns over and thus stop registering their dog in the old town - bam - police raid. Take a $2 loaf of bread, get IDed, bam police raid. Homeless and need to take a poop in a coffee shop, bam police raid.

Silly to take the cut out, more silly to call it an icon or have icons, but way odd to relate this to the authorities in other parts of the world that act very similar to authorities in our town - violent.

Bottom line, such activities do bring out the violent storm troopers in any societ because we don't know how to react in proportion - ask any 5 year old. An in our society, they get to beat up anyone they want too (police and 5 year olds). More similarities than differences between the bearded dudes and those that never have beards, why - it is human nature.

Anonymous said...

Torn from his foundation... as in vandalized? RM

Larry Kelley said...

Yes Richard, that would be my guess.

Wednesday night (Thanksgiving eve) was a tad rowdy.

Anonymous said...

I always thought these were on the same creative level of those silhouettes of busty women that you see on semi truck mud flaps. Totally cheesy.

Larry Kelley said...

And you are of course one of our more renowned art critics, in a town overflowing with the highly educated.

Anonymous said...

I might not know anything about art, but I know what I like.

Anonymous said...

Oh. I was wondering what America is famous for. Now I know.

Anonymous said...

That's what I say about porn! Lol