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Causality:
Time
and
Ruins
Florence M. Hetzler
Abstract-A ruin is defined as the disjunctiveproductof the intrusionof nature upon an edifice
without loss of the unity producedby the humanbuilders. Ruin time, proposedas the principal
cause of ruin, serves also to unify the ruin. In a ruinthe edifice, the human-madepart, andnature
are one and inseparable;an edifice separatedfrom its natural setting is no longer part of a ruin
since it has lost its time, space and place. A ruin has a signification different from something
merely human-made.It is like no other work of art and its time is unlike any other time.
I. INTRODUCTION
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Fig.2. Partof theruinsof Persepolis,Iran,theformerpalaceof DariusandXerxes.Perception
as well
ruinsincludestheexperienceof oppressiveheatandthepresenceof sheep,goatsandshepherds
as theedificeitself.
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Fig. 5. Deception Island (Antarctica) whaling station destroyed by volcanic eruption. In the case of
andthenature-made
do nothavetheunitybroughtaboutby ruintime.
devastation,thehuman-made
gigantic presence of the mountain Huayna
Picchu next to it and the flowers, lichen
and algae on the rhomboidal windows
that look out upon the immense Peruvian
landscape. The Andean terraces here that
were made by the Incas long ago are not
considered as places for raising crops.
These ridges are part of the rhythm and
shape of the ruin and have a new
significance, too, as does the whole ruin,
which often is shrouded in white mist that
makes the ruin invisible, especially in the
morning. When the sun pierces the mist,
then the buildings, lizards and spiders can
be seen as parts of the whole. All aspects
of this city ruin seem to grow together and
may return to the earth together. There is
still the tenacity of the stone and its
struggle with the vegetation. There is a
persistent resistance of stone and shapes
to nature.
III. RUIN TIME
Time creates the ruin by making it
something other than what it was,
something with a new significance and
signification, with a future that is to be
compared with its past. Time writes the
future of a ruin. Ruin time creates the
future of a ruin, even the return of the
man-made part to the earth, which will
eventually claim what is its propertythat is, that from which the architectural
part is made. As articulated by Georg
Simmel:
Whenwe speakof'returninghome',we
meanto characterizethe peacewhose
moodsurroundstheruin.Andwe must
characterizesomethingelse: our sense
that these two world potencies-the
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6.
7.
8.
9.
DanielWieczorek,trans.(Paris:Editions
du Seuil, 1984),p. 119.
3. NathanielHawthorne,TheMarbleFaun
(Boston:Ticknor& Fields,1860).
4. On 17 November 1986 I presenteda
lecture entitled "Exploring Ruins as
Worksof Art" at the ExplorersClubin
New York.
5. See FlorenceM. Hetzler,"RuinsAs a
New Category of Being", Journal of
Aesthetic Education (Summer 1982) pp.
105-108;and "Estetikarusevina:Jedna
Leonardo
Subject
10.
20-Year
and
Author
92 (Spring1985);and DavidLowenthal,
ThePast Is a ForeignCountry(Cambridge:
CambridgeUniversityPress, 1985),pp.
138-182.
13. See Linda Patrik, The Aesthetic Significance of Ruination (Ph.D. diss., 1978),
pp. 64-112; Robert Ginsberg, "Aesthetics
of Ruins", Bucknell Review 18, No. 3,
89-103 (Winter 1970); Roland Mortier,
La PoetiquedesRuinesen France(Geneva:
Librairie Droz, 1974); Mary Carman
Rose, "Nature As Aesthetic Object: An
Essay in Meta-Aesthetics" (paper deliveredat the BritishSociety of Aesthetics,
September 1975); Georg Simmel, "Reflexions sugg6erespar l'aspectdes ruines",
in Melanges de philosophie relativiste.
Contributiona la culturephilosophique,A.
Guillain, trans. (Paris, 1912),pp. 117-125.
14. See Mario Salvadori, "A Meditation on
Ruins" (University Lecture, Columbia
University, 29 January 1979); M.
Chasseboeuf Volney, Les Ruines ou
Meditationssurles Revolutionsdes Empires
(1972) and Volney's Ruins, Burton
Feldman and Robert D. Richardson,
trans. (New York: Garland, 1979);
Philippe Minguet, "IIgusto delle rovine",
rivista di estetica 21, No. 8, 3-8 (1981);
Frederick Golden, "Monumental Effort
in Java", Time (28 February 1983), p. 76;
Florence M. Hetzler, "Art is More than
Philosophy", Proceedingsof International
Congress of Philosophy (Taipei: Fu Jen
University Press, 1979), pp. 197-210; and
Der Fles, Elogio della disarmonia(Milan:
Garzanti, 1986), pp. 117-134.
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