I saw a documentary once about the effects of western tourism on places environmentally unsuited to coping with it – specifically national parks in Africa. A hundred yards from the tourist hut, which was nicely constructed in the local style, was the smoking midden. It contained the remains of used tampax, metal food cans, broken kettles and mirrors.
At the edge of the midden was one of the native gibbons with a fragment of mirror, changing the angle, changing expression, looking at his face edgewise, side-on, frontally…
That's us. Ourselves watching mirrors, lenses, screens; watching ourselves side-on, frontally; changing expression, changing personae (who am I now?) Beyond the mirror the midden growing.
At the edge of the midden was one of the native gibbons with a fragment of mirror, changing the angle, changing expression, looking at his face edgewise, side-on, frontally…
That's us. Ourselves watching mirrors, lenses, screens; watching ourselves side-on, frontally; changing expression, changing personae (who am I now?) Beyond the mirror the midden growing.
No comments:
Post a Comment