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The Spirit of Communication

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Prometheus98876

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I recently found out about what I consider to be a pretty wonderful peice of art that AT&T have put up in their Dallas headquarters ( apparently it used to adorn one of their other buildings on Broadway NY). Thanks for bringing this to my attention Old Toad :)

"Golden Boy" or "The Spirit of Communication," is about 28-feet high, "soaring bronze statue of a winged man clinching lightning bolts with a raised arm" ( as phrased by a recent Dallas News article). Some are also calling it the "Genius of Electricity", which I think is rather fitting :).

The statue was sculpted in 1916 by artist Evelyn Beatrice Longman.

I trust some / a lot of you will really like this, so here you are:

Golden%20Boy.jpg

And here is the news article I found out about this from:

http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archive...bronze-stu.html

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Yes I am sure those are meant to be electric cables if I remember what I have read about it so far.

I had forgotten at the time that the other name I provided for it was its original name...oopps! I think its a better name, though perhaps less fitting for a statue in the foyer of a telecommunications company.

Thanks for the enlarged shots eficazpensador.

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I dont see what is wrong with the wings, they seem reasonably well done ( not quite symetrical from the angle of the original picture perhaps...) to me and seem to help create the desired effect...

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They do not do that for me. They might be meant to be "platonic" and to "invoke angels" as you suggest...however I do not think so. I think it is more to do why the guy in the picture below has wings:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/images/new_pro...nifesto-Big.jpg

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I don't like the wings either. They are hopelessly platonic and invoke angels. They state electricity is a gift from God. Aside from the wings the statue is good, and very golden.

Did calling the main character of Anthem "Prometheus", invoke mysticism?

Did the Atlas Shrugged references to Atlantis imply some sort of conspiracy theory?

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It's just awesome! I think the first picture shows it best, you can't see the flaws there and the bright glow of light reflecting off of it enhances the spirit of the sculpture. It's in honor of man and his technological achievement not done in a hokey manner, which is very hard to achieve. It looks timeless.

I too have reservations about the wings. I think I'd prefer it without them, but if I think of them representing upward progress as K-Mac suggests, then they aren't so bad.

It represents things as they could and ought to be!

Again, just awesome!

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They do not do that for me. They might be meant to be "platonic" and to "invoke angels" as you suggest...however I do not think so. I think it is more to do why the guy in the picture below has wings:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/images/new_pro...nifesto-Big.jpg

It is not the wings per se. There is a big difference, in my perception anyway, of wings which are on the arms and wings which are on the back. Prometheus crafted his own damned wings, the only way right way to fly!

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It is not the wings per se. There is a big difference, in my perception anyway, of wings which are on the arms and wings which are on the back. Prometheus crafted his own damned wings, the only way right way to fly!

And the man in this statue genetically altered himself to have wings in his back. Another right way to fly. :lol:

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I just found the picture a bit crowded, because of the wings. I can't speak about the statue, I haven't seen it live.

But I do agree, those wings look like the ones Matt Damon had in Dogma, rather than Icarus's.

Did Prometheus have wings? :lol: Why didn't he fly away, when he was condemned to eternal torture for bringing fire to mankind?

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Yes it is Icarus that had the wings ( but he flew too high on wings made of wax apparently and his wings melted and he fell to his death, according to the myth), and is quite different to Prometheus from a mythological point of view.

I like how Kelly put it, that was pretty much what I had in mind :).

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I don't like the wings either. They are hopelessly platonic and invoke angels.

Jeez, I think you've been looking at way too much Christian stuff. Platonism is absolutely the last thing that would come to my mind looking at that statue!

I hope my avatar doesn't remind you of Christianity as well ... I mean, it has wings on it! :)

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This is a beautiful sculpture. I think the wings add to it by invoking a sense of flying into the heavens. Even invoking the concept of an angel isn't necessarily bad, after all they are meant to help human life in various ways, are morally perfect, have immense power, and come from heaven (an ideal world). Sounds like a description of a great inventor or businessman, or John Galt. Even mystical references can be uplifting and supportive of human life. Just because it came from a mystical background doesn't mean it can't be changed to be pro-life, as in the redefinition of the feelings of exaltation, reverence, etc. in Objectivism from their corrupt religious meanings.

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  • 1 month later...

Evelyn Beatrice Longman is a favorite of Lee Sandstead. He was writing a book on her and has done a lot of research. He has gathered a lot of photographs of her work, and especially this one, see

http://www.sandstead.com/images/genius_of_..._communication/.

Lee had a great series on the Travel Channel called Art Attack. Apparently, they haven't renewed it.

He is traveling the country giving lectures. Look at his schedule.

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