The Waterless Sea
A Curious History of Mirages
Published on 1. July 2018
184 pages
978-1-78023-969-9 (ISBN)
Description
Mirages have long astonished travellers and beguiled thirsty desert voyagers. Chinese and Japanese poetry and images depicted mirages as the exhalations of clam-monsters. Indian sources related them to the 'thirst of gazelles', a metaphor for the futility of desire. From the late eighteenth century to the present, mirages became a symbol of 'Oriental despotism', a malign, but also enchanted, emblem. But the mirage motif is rarely simply condemnatory. More commonly it conveys a sense of escape, of fascination, of a desire to be deceived.
The Waterless Sea is the first book devoted to the theories and history of mirages. Christopher Pinney navigates a sinuous pathway through a mysterious and evanescent terrain, showing how mirages have impacted politics, culture, science, and religion, and how we can continue to learn from their sublimity.
The Waterless Sea is the first book devoted to the theories and history of mirages. Christopher Pinney navigates a sinuous pathway through a mysterious and evanescent terrain, showing how mirages have impacted politics, culture, science, and religion, and how we can continue to learn from their sublimity.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
File size
14,17 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-78023-969-9 (9781780239699)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2018
Reaktion Books
€29.50
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Person
Christopher Pinney is Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at University College London. His publications include Camera Indica (1997), Photos of the Gods (2004) and Photography and Anthropology (2011), all published by Reaktion.
Content
- Cover
- Title Page
- Imprint Page
- Contents
- Prologue: Chasing Mirage
- 1: Strange Visions Under a Cliff in Central India, October 1829
- 2: A World History of Mirages: The Thirst of the Gazelle
- 3: 'Fallacious Evidence of the Senses'
- 4: 'Mocking Our Distress'
- 5: Cold and Hot: The Geography of Mirage
- 6: Mirage and Crisis
- 7: Oriental Mirages and 'Spectatorial Democracy'
- 8: From Clam-monsters to Representative Democracy
- 9: The Halted Viewer and Sfumato
- 10: Memory and Modernity
- 11: Theatrical Mirages
- 12: The 'Mirage Medium of Fancy'
- 13: Mirage and Oriental Despotism
- 14: Keeping Mecca and Medina Invisible
- 15: Inside Abdul Hamid ii's Head
- 16: Mirage Pharmakon: Wild and Domestic
- Epilogue: Real, But Not True
- Glossary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Photo Acknowledgements
- Index
