Astral Codex Ten

Taj Mahal

3 min read

Taj Mahal

Article

Taj Mahal is a recurring venue in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between September 23, 2021 and October 04, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as “ruined buildings of our own civilization - St. Peter’s Basilica, the Taj Mahal”; “pietra dura work on the Sheikh Zayed mosque is very similar in both style and quality to that of the Taj Mahal”. It most often appears alongside China, French Revolution, Google.

Metadata

  • Category: Venues
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: September 23, 2021
  • Last seen: October 04, 2021

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Whither Tartaria?
September 23, 2021 · Original source
Imagine a postapocalyptic world. Beside the ruined buildings of our own civilization - St. Peter’s Basilica, the Taj Mahal, those really great Art Deco skyscrapers - dwell savages in mud huts. The savages see the buildings every day, but they never compose legends about how they were built by the gods in a lost golden age. No, they say they themselves could totally build things just as good or better. They just choose to build mud huts instead, because they’re more stylish.
This is the setup for my all-time favorite conspiracy theory, Tartaria. Its true believers say we are those savages. We live in the shadow of the Taj Mahal, Art Deco skyscrapers, etc. But our buildings look like this:
Inline links: Tartaria
I predict you could buy clothing that looks like this for less than the cost of a nice suit, but nobody does. Is this connected to nobody making buildings that look like the Taj Mahal anymore? …As A Result Of The Split Between Art And Mass Culture
Inline links: this
Highlights From The Comments On Modern Architecture
October 04, 2021 · Original source
I want this one to be true, because it exonerates our civilization. If we could make things like the Art Nouveau furniture above, or the Taj Mahal, relatively cheaply and easily, then the question of why we aren’t doing that demands an answer. If it’s just a quirk of basic economics, then our civilization is fine, and maybe we can hope that stoneworking technology advances to the point where we can do this kind of thing again cheaply.
I'm sure there are other examples as well, but these were the first two that came to mind. Both are very very impressive IRL! In particular, the pietra dura work on the Sheikh Zayed mosque is very similar in both style and quality to that of the Taj Mahal.