Parthenon endures a probing by 'Nova'
Chicagoans love architecture, but I have to admit a new PBS "Nova" episode on "Secrets of the Parthenon" is a hard sell even here on WTTW Channel 11.
"Nova," of course, is now in its 35th year of making science seem interesting and accessible on PBS. "Secrets of the Parthenon" would figure to be a natural. After all, as the hourlong documentary points out at 8 p.m. today on Channel 11, the Parthenon is "the very symbol of Western civilization" and "the most copied building in the world."
Yet it's been copied in style and effect only. In its unique sense of detail, the Parthenon is inimitable. Although it built on many architectural advances and was responsible for many more, it's not just a building, put up according to plan the way they are today. In fact, it was constructed piece by piece in a manner that made it "less a construction site and more a sculptor's studio," as the narrator puts it.
It's a magical, almost mystical element, but somehow "Nova" doesn't bring it to life; instead, if anything it gets bogged down in explaining the science behind it.
The story of the Parthenon is naturally engaging. Built by Pericles as the symbolic center of Greek democracy, it eventually became a Christian church, then a mosque after the Ottoman Empire took control in the Middle Ages. Used as an ammo warehouse, it was blown up in a mortar attack by the Venetians in the 1600s, leaving only the outer frame. Later, in the early 1800s, Thomas Bruce, the earl of Elgin, plundered its statues and took them back to Britain. The Greek government is still trying to get them back.
One can well imagine Channel 11's own architecture expert, Geoffrey Baer, telling the same story with his offhand style, beginning with a reference to how it was designed by the Athenian architecture firm of Iktinos and Kallikrates and going on from there to a stop at our own Parthenon restaurant in Greektown. Opaa!
"Nova," however, begins with a sharp computer-generated depiction of the Parthenon and the Acropolis in its heyday and then delves into the science. Part of it is entrancing, and it does get off a wonderfully simple explanation of how the Parthenon's graceful proportions are quite likely related to the mystical, mathematical "golden ratio," which Leonardo Da Vinci would later depict as the relation of a man's arm span to the frame of his body (a remarkably consistent ratio usually approximating 1.6-to-1).
Fine and dandy, but somehow the presentation here comes off a bit dry. "Nova" goes into the mystic, only to end up chipping away at hard rock to depict how remarkably sophisticated Greek tools enabled them to build it in a fraction of the time it would take today.
Now, nitpicking "Nova" over being too scientific is like taking issue with "The Wire" for being too realistic. It's not quite fair, because after all science is what it's selling. But at the same time I don't know. The Parthenon is such a beautiful building and such an aesthetic marvel, it diminishes it to break it down into ratios and proportions. It's like the comparison Mark Twain made between dissecting humor and dissecting a frog: You might find out how it works, but not without killing what made it alive in the first place.
The Parthenon has survived centuries of misuse, however, and it will no doubt survive "Nova," thanks in large part to the Greek government's Acropolis Restoration Project "Nova" goes into in detail. But I can't say that enlivens the documentary either.
So thanks, "Nova," for the erudite, informative look at the Parthenon and its foundations as well as its future. Viewers should just be sure to prepare themselves for a show that is, in the end, a PBS science series. In short, the more fascinating a viewer finds the Parthenon in the first place, the more disappointed he or she might be by watching it.
In the air
Remotely interesting: WGN Channel 9 anchor-reporter Valerie Warner begins a "Teacher of the Month" series on the 9 p.m. newscast Wednesday with a profile of David Levine of the Al Raby School in Chicago.
PBS cuts in on the current TV dance craze with the debut of "America's Ballroom Challenge" at 8 p.m. Wednesday on WTTW Channel 11. … The first season of the FX summer hit "Damages" is out on DVD today with a list price of $50.
End of the dial: Thanks in large part to the Bears, WBBM 780-AM unseated WGN 720-AM as Chicago's top-billing station last year, according to the accounting firm of Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co. 'BBM-AM grossed $47.5 million in ad revenue, WGN-AM $43.5 million. WTMX 101.9-FM, WGCI 107.5-FM and WUSN 99.5-FM filled out the top five.