Monday, January 10, 2011

A mirror is a negative space With a frame and a place for your face

Purists will no doubt cavil at our decision to include, as part of the Riddled Amateur Dramatic Society adaptation of The Golem, a climactic swordfight in the Mirror Labyrinth on Prague's Petřín Hill. Rest assured that this is not about "sexing up" the narrative. There are internal clues within the book that Meyrink did in fact write a duel scene between the characters of Zwakh the puppeteer and Wassertrum's estranged son Charousek, only to have it deleted by his editors. Also it is surely more than a coincidence that The Golem is set in 1891, the year when the Mirror Labyrinth was built.
With these mirrors, it's difficult to tell. You are aiming at me, aren't you?
IMO it is a very exciting and effective scene. Another Kiwi assures everyone that his injuries are only minor. He is inclined to blame the giant spiderweb on the floor [viz. S McG in comments] for tripping him up.
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Ultimately he constructed the familiar arrangement of parallel mirrors, each reflecting diminishing images of an interposed object indefinitely. The interposed object in this case was de Selby's own face and this he claims to have studied backwards through an infinity of reflections by means of 'a powerful glass'. What he states to have seen through his glass is astonishing. He claims to have noticed a growing youthfulness in the reflections of his face according as they receded, the most distant of them — too tiny to be visible to the naked eye — being the face of a beardless boy of twelve, and, to use his own words, 'a countenance of singular beauty and nobility'.

12 comments:

Substance McGravitas said...

Wiping all that spiderweb off your shoes can't have been pleasant.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I don't think SpeedraMan enjoys being blamed for every little thing.
~

fish said...

So derivative

mikey said...

It looks to me as if much of the action is happening above floor level. There's the little naked winged motherfuckers (I can't help but suspect Mossad has a hand in this - they're like little embodiments of Stuxnet) holding elaborately produced steel blades over the swordsmen. Obviously, they're there for a reason. What is their agenda?

Then, still focusing on the mezzanine, the Philosopher King could clearly bring about an end to the pointless, stylized violence playing out in the wire on the floor below. He is, however, restrained from doing so as he is in the custody of The Soldier, who engages the PK in idle chit chat, all the while casually holding his spear in a not-so-subtle implied threat of untimely monarchical succession.

Meanwhile, I've got fifteen dollars on No. 12. I admire the way he fearlessly ignores the immediate threats to strike at the orbs just out of sight above and behind him. No. 13 is too old, and appears to be suffering from consumption, and No. 11 appears to have "pitched a tent" in his bloomers, if you know what I mean and I think you do, so he is likely distracted from the fight at what is clearly a critical moment...

Jennifer said...

Party pajamas have come a long way.

Unknown said...

You used cavil and interposed in the same post.

Smut Clyde said...

I apologisse for failing to include "eschew" and "fritillary".

Hamish Mack said...

I think the little winged dudes are advertising, see how they hover just below the scoreboard/jumbo screens.
I'm having trouble picking a winner but the guy in the second picture with his back to the camera while pointing to a point on the ceiling and hanging his head, like he just don't care, is not going to go much further.
Injuries are minor, thanks for asking everyone. Just a femoral nick, nothing really. Has everyone always had aura's?

tigris said...

I don't think those are screens OR mirrors, I think they are decorative guillotine blades, possibly Rococo.

Hamish Mack said...

The auras do not own anything so they need no apostrophe. I'm just sayin'

fish said...

I've had aura's if you know what I'm sayin' and I know you do.

Unknown said...

It reveals