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The Waterless Sea : A Curious History Of Mirages
Hardback Edition: 1
Mirages have long astonished travelers of the sea and beguiled thirsty desert voyagers. Traditional Chinese and Japanese poetry and art depict the above-horizon, superior mirage, or fata morgana, as exhalations of clam-monsters. Indian sources relate mirages to the "thirst of gazelles," a metaphor for the
futility of desire. Starting in the late eighteenth century, mirages became a symbol in the West of Oriental despotism--a negative, but also enchanted, emblem. But the mirage motif is rarely simply condemnatory. More often, our obsession with mirages conveys a sense of escape, of fascination, of a desire to be deceived.
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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.
Pages : 184
Publisher : Reaktion Books
Publication date : 2018-08-01
Subjects: Non-fiction, Published in the UK, Humanities, Science And Technology, History, Earth Science, Meteorology & Climatology