Aerial Views of The Enormous Room
Back view of the three-building complex from the air. The
"chapel" is on the left; the Enormous Room was on the top floor, right (Kennedy,
Dreams 150).
The three-building complex seen from the town of La Ferté-Macé.
At the bottom of this photo is the Place Neustadt, formerly the Place du
Château. Following the line of the main street just to the left of
the Place (the Rue D'Alençon), we come to an open space, the Place du Midi (now Place du Général
de Gaulle), the "species of square" (157) that Cummings and other inmates
visited on journeys to "catch" water for the cook.
The Enormous Room buildings are on the far side of the Place du Midi—the
wing of the Enormous Room is the most clearly visible, fronting the square.
Next on the right is the middle portion of the building-complex, and further
right, partially obscured by trees, is the church. Beyond, we can see the
fields where, one day near the end of his detention, Cummings saw snow "falling,gradually
and wonderfully falling,silently falling throught the thick soundless autumn"
(232). This photo is courtesy of the now-vanished site "La Ferté-Macé, hier,...
par les cartes postales anciennes."
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Enormous Room page
Gill, "Windows of Nowhere"
"an iron contrivance . . . " (page 1) and "an iron contrivance . . . " (page 2)
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