When it comes to fine art and antiquities, is it better to have a plain building that contrasts the masterpieces on display, or is it better to have an ornate building that helps the artwork to create a full sensory experience? It seems to me that an ornate building might distract from the artworks, but at the same time, a plain building is a plain building, and we should build better things for our cultural treasures than bunkers that look like middle schools, prisons, or both.
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“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” -- Joseph Heller, Catch-22
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