This project is a Marxist critique of the desire to rebuild Notre Dame.
However, each page serves its own purpose. The page you are currently on (\”The Notre Dame Fire\”) offers background information on the Notre Dame fire and President Macron\’s statements immediately following its extinguishment. The \”Rebuilding Notre Dame\” page examines what drives the desire to rebuild the cathedral and whether such a task is worthwhile, using Walter Benjamin\’s discussion of aura and Guy DeBord\’s theory that society has begun to emphasize spectacle over reality. The \”Donations to Rebuild Notre Dame\” page postulates how some of the wealthy choose which causes they support and that, when doing so, the possibility to make a profit strongly influences their philanthropy. The \”Social Media Response\” page examines the backlash against the donations to rebuild Notre Dame and how social media more generally can act as a tool of the proletariot class. On these two pages concerning the donations to the Notre Dame Cathedral, both galleries contain clickable images if you want to increase their size.
Although each page largely stands on its own, the project flows most smoothly in the order described above.
Background Information
The Notre Dame Cathedral caught on fire on April 15, 2019. Within a matter of hours, flames covered a significant portion of the cathedral. After firefighters had extinguished the fire, it became clear that substantial damage had been done to Notre Dame, with some sections of the cathedral completely destroyed. President Macron immediately tweeted that the French people would rebuild Notre Dame, stating that it was the destiny of France to do so.
And indeed, this was surely the expected response from President Macron and the French government: a promise to rebuild Notre Dame. In an address to the nation the Monday following the fire, President Macron claimed that the cathedral “is the place where we have lived all of our great moments, the epicenter of our lives…It is the cathedral of all the French.” President Macron did not refer to the cathedral as if it were destroyed; he did not assert that Notre Dame “was” the cathedral of all of France but, rather, that it currently is. Even with significant portions of the cathedral effectively destroyed by the fire, it still somehow exists as it did in the past according to President Macron, perhaps with the promise of a rebuilding. This new cathedral, however, will not be the same cathedral that existed prior to the fire and may even look drastically different than this previous cathedral, as the architecture and appearance of this new Notre Dame are currently being debated. This new cathedral will be a 21st century construction. However, it will surely exist in the minds of many as simply “Notre Dame” and as a representation of the history of Notre Dame and, by extension, Paris and France.