For the past several weeks, Johns Hopkins has sponsored an exhibit called Harmony to the Eyes: Charting Palladio's Architecture from Rome to Baltimore. The exhibit celebrates Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio's birth in 1508.
As an architect, Palladio used a long known technique called "entasis", which is the slight swelling of a column as it rises. It seems that when a column is constructed with parallel sides, the sides appear to have a slightly inward curve. So, to compensate for the optical illusion of an inward curve, the goal of entasis is, paradoxically, to give the impression of straight lines through the use of outward curves. In a sense, entasis is an example of two wrongs making a right.
I've heard fiction described as a lie that tells a truth. That seems to put fiction on the same metaphysical footing (no architectural pun intended) as entasis. And get this: Palladio's dictum was to, "Build in such a manner and with such proportions, so that all the parts together may convey a sweet harmony to the eye of the beholders." Isn't that how we want to build our fiction too?
One last note. As you know, Ed Perlman recently founded a small literary press in Washington, D.C. And wouldn't you know it, it's called Entasis Press. Visit it
at :
http://www.entasispress.com


Jim K.

Edited: 06/17/2008 at 08:07 PM by Jim Kendrall

Wow! That's something! I'm sure that book publishing is an exact fit for him. M

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marystojak