hm ok so interestingly, bdubsβs courthouse is built on an odd number of blocks. note the roof of the facade coming to a point, but more importantly, the nine pillarsβ¦.
you donβt use an odd number of pillars. like ever.
let me get this out of the way first: i get why youβd build with odd numbers in minecraft. i usually do it myself, to not run into problems like double doors or two-wide pointed roofs or frustrating spacing/symmetry between decorative elements. however. to not even out the design of something so unequivocally done in every other example of columns and pillarsβ¦. fascinating implicationsβ¦
every other example guys. every other building with columns like this has an even number of them.
doing so sets the line of symmetry at an invisible point between two pillars, an even number on each side. but an odd total number of pillars makes the central pillar itself the line of symmetry. this does a couple things.
one, it upends the sense of community and equality. which i know sounds crazy, but really, a group of columns are all put there to hold up a structure. thereβs no focus on one because they are all are working as supports.
symbolically, at least when first used in ancient greece, pillars represented people. and it makes sense for courthouses, especially, to want to show an even, fair, equal number of people on each side. no focus on any one, no inherent bias right off the bat just looking at it.
with an odd number of pillars, though, one will always be placed front and center.
and THEN. and then you walk in the courtroom itself (also odd-numbered blocks) and you are immediately opposite the judge, bdubs, located exactly centrally. and true, courtrooms are often set up like this anyway. but bdubs ups the ante and reaffirms that no, focus is on him by staging it all as a daytime court show, boom mic just over his head, cameras pointed in, spotlights on him.
literally by design, it was not built for justice. itβs built for show, for entertainment. and just look at the credits to know exactly what sort of message youβre supposed to be getting from this show.
the biblical story he used, with king solomon. itβs about king solomon. isnβt really about the trial itself, or the babies, or the women. itβs about showing (off) how wise and just he is. thatβs the point. hm. interesting.
now, getting to the second point that etho also picked up on: it feels like a prison.
itβs not just the color palette. when your eyes naturally draw to the center point, you arenβt seeing an open space. instead of feeling like an arch or gateway or otherwise some kind of opening, the pillar there makes it feel closed off. the overall effect is that of prison bars. not pillars lining the entrance to a place of order or a temple. bars of a cage, a cell.
imagine the lincoln memorial were set up with 11 or 13 pillars. heβd look so much more trapped in there.
having a central pillar blocks the entrance. itβs not welcoming. you have to go around it; itβs immediately inconveniencing you. and when you go to leave, itβs there blocking you again.
this courthouse was not designed and built to be fair, nor accomodating, nor equitable, on any terms. even if unintentional, i wouldnβt call it so much coincidental as i wouldβ¦ subconscious.
after all, yβknow. form follows function.
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