Tag Archives: Notre Dame

A Flashback to Petit (A Video-Game Story)

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So, this past week, one of my favorite videogame franchises, Assassin’s Creed, released the newest installment in the series: Assassin’s Creed Unity. I was understandably excited and, as soon as I sat down to play it, my first instinct was to explore the absolutely breath-taking rendition of Paris that the game was set in. These were some of the best graphics I had ever seen ever! Ubisoft, the franchise’s developer, is known for constructing the settings as close to real life as possible, using the actual blueprints.

A rendition of Notre Dame in Assassin's Creed: Unity.

A rendition of Notre Dame in Assassin’s Creed: Unity.

Now, as anyone familiar with Assassin’s Creed will know, the game involves a lot of climbing, clambering and parkour. As I was traversing the rooftops of Paris, I spotted a particularly high cathedral; only when I had gotten to the top of one of its two towers, did I realize that this was none other than the great Notre Dame cathedral itself! This virtual rendition had taken almost close to two years to construct and was one of the most accurate models in the entire game! As my character sat atop the tower, another thought raced across my mind: these two towers was one of the places that Phillipe Petit, on his wire-walking adventures, had crossed. Although I have never visited Paris, this beautiful rendition of Notre Dame had given me an entirely new perspective on one of Petit’s walks; there was an intense sensation of wonder to the entire moment and led me to appreciate not just the amazing hard work that the designers of the game had put into creating such a historical structure, but of the history that was attached to this building that we, the players, were allowed to experience.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral- Christopher Chong, Justin Roach, Lucius Seo

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St. Patrick's Cathedral 1

 

“There exists in this era, for thoughts written in stone, a privilege absolutely comparable to our current freedom of the press. It is the freedom of architecture.”

-Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris

Some people say that the cathedral is built large so that we can feel the great distance between God and us. Some people say that the cathedral is built so beautifully to show the political power of the Catholic church. Some people say many things in front of the cathedral, watching the edifice in fear, like the way the Romans would mutter their quibbles at profanum, lurking around the boundary between what they hope to be sacred and what they hope to be vulgar.

Cathedral tells a story. It is not built magnificent to drive away people who, as Socrates would put it, speak as they do in the marketplace. Back in the time when not everyone had the privilege to learn, cathedral was a great building which told stories to the illiterates. It is an experiment ground on which many things can happen; the very first of all civil rights movements and one of the greatest petitions for freedom.

The beauty of all cathedrals that broke the boundary between the vulgar and sacred, common and noble, rich and poor, is also seen in the story of St. Patrick. Although he was once captured and enslaved in Ireland, he chose to come back to the so-called barbarians. He did not force the people into belief through violence; he took the shamrock, which was a sacred plant to the people who lived there, and explained the concept of Trinity.

St. Patrick's Cathedral 2St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in that sense, is exemplary. It was a shelter for the Catholics in New York. Its foundation is the same as that of America: freedom, equality, coexistence, harmony, and all traits thought to be admirable and American. The true art of St. Patrick’s Cathedral is not from the aesthetics, but from the value and motive, which still lives today.

Taking a look at the Cathedral’s architecture, the building has a neo-Gothic style structure. The Cathedral started it’s construction in 1858, but didn’t finish building until 1878, which was in part due to the Civil War. Today, the church is open to public visits daily, except when mass is being held. It is located on 5th avenue, between 50th and 51st street at the heart of Midtown Manhattan.

We really believe that a visit to St. Patrick’s is worth anyone’s time. Currently it is under a massive 5-year renovation project, but it is still open. If you ever take a stroll through midtown and have the time, do go visit.

 

~Christopher Chong, Justin Roach, Lucius Seo