Dartblog

Detail from Landing of Columbus, John Vanderlyn, 1836.

Schoolchildren in the thrall of schoolmarms with directives from some underground vulviform base where schoolteachers’ unions congregate and gin up fresh mediocrities, now know everything about Christopher Columbus other than his historical significance. They can tell you that the clash of two civilizations, when Columbus lighted on North America, was at times bloody (though oddly they appear to have chosen a side in the ancient conflict, and moreover seem to believe the clash something unique); they will tell you all about Leif Ericson, the Norseman whose men landed in Newfoundland long before Columbus but who made no discernible impact whatever on North America besides a lasting distaste for lutefisk.

Gone, though, are the glittered pipe-cleaner turkeys and cardboard Santa Maria whose erection was an excuse for letting children in on the story of Columbus and the tremendous energy he unleashed by weaving together resources, in the one place, and civilizational and scientific development, in the other. A tremendous moment in the history of the human race—and one we justly call a “discovery.”

What faith in man must in our new world beat,
Thinking how once he saw before his face
The west and all the host of stars retreat
Into the silent infinite of space!