The Mirror Spied Upon Us
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
My first moment of the realization that I was an
individual happened when I was around 6 when I looked at myself in a mirror. I silently
thought, “That is me.” Since then mirrors have been a big part of my life.
I remember my mother trying, with futility, to attach
false roll so she could have her trademark bun. She did this in front of the
mirror and lost her patience.
I remember my father using one of those special cups that
he pressed on his eye, and then on the other. It was small and it was made of
dark blue glass. My guess was that he removed his eyeball so as to wash it well.
He did this in the bathroom mirror of our Buenos Aires bathroom.
Since I was 20 I have been reading all of the output
(that I could find) written by Jorge Luís Borges. He wrote many poems about
mirrors. One of his most famous short stories is the one that I reproduce below
both in Spanish and in English.
Of late I have been taking pictures of the people who
pose for in my home studio getting themselves ready in the guest bathroom. It
is small but I manage to include myself in these double selfies.
In 2008 while teaching at Focal Point I had two very good
students. One was from Mexico the other was local. They had unusual looks. As
soon as they were no longer my students I inquired about taking their pictures.
The Mexican girl posed for me for a couple of years and we explored themes that
were part of our memories and nostalgia about Mexico.
The other young woman (both were very good photographers)
was named after one of King Lear’s daughters. She posed for me twice and then
lost interest. Of her I took (over 100 exposures) some of the best photographs of my life using
mirrors and or taking pictures of her taking her own picture in front of an Ikea
mirror. Alas! I cannot show the majority of those pictures and you can salivate
in your imagination. I did manage to photograph the two together with the Ikea mirror (see below).
We were not aware that we were preceding with style the
age of the selfie.
Both at Focal Point and in my studio I had a very
beautiful wide margined wood mirror (the only quality stuff I ever bought at
Ikea). When I closed my studio four years ago my son-in-law was able to bring
my psychiatric couch in his Toyota Liftback. But he stepped on my mirror and
that was the end of it.
I hope to return to the subject soon.
I owe the discovery of Uqbar to the conjunction of a
mirror and an
encyclopedia. The mirror troubled the depths of a corridor
in a country house on Gaona Street in Ramos Mejia; the encyclopedia is
fallaciously called The Anglo-American Cyclopaedia (New York, 1917) and is a literal
but delinquent reprint of the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1902. The event took
place some five years ago. Bioy Casares had had dinner with me that evening and
we became lengthily engaged in a vast polemic concerning the composition of a
novel in the first person, whose narrator would omit or disfigure the facts and
indulge in various contradictions which would permit a few readers - very few
readers - to perceive an atrocious or banal reality. From the remote depths of
the corridor, the mirror spied upon us. We discovered (such a discovery is inevitable
in the late hours of the night) that mirrors hare something monstrous about
them. Then Bioy Casares recalled that one of the heresiarchs of Uqbar had
declared that mirrors and copulation are abominable, because they increase the number
or men. I asked him the origin of this memorable observation and he answered
that it was reproduced in The Anglo-American Cyclopaedia in its article on Uqbar
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, Jorge Luís Borges
Debo a la
conjunción de un espejo y de una enciclopedia el descubrimiento de Uqbar. El
espejo inquietaba el fondo de un corredor en una quinta de la calle Gaona, en
Ramos Mejía; la enciclopedia falazmente se llama The Anglo-American Cyclopaedía
(New York, 1917) y es una reimpresión literal, pero también morosa, de la
Encyclopaedia Britannica de 1902. El hecho se produjo hará unos cinco años.
Bioy Casares había cenado conmigo esa noche y nos demoró una vasta polémica
sobre la ejecución de una novela en primera persona, cuyo narrador omitiera o
desfigurara los hechos e incurriera en diversas contradicciones, que
permitieran a unos pocos lectores -a muy pocos lectores- la adivinación de una
realidad atroz o banal. Desde el fondo remoto del corredor, el espejo nos
acechaba. Descubrimos (en la alta noche ese descubrimiento es inevitable) que
los espejos tienen algo monstruoso. Entonces Bioy Casares recordó que uno de los
heresiarcas de Uqbar había declarado que los espejos y la cópula son
abominables, porque multiplican el número de los hombres. Le pregunté el origen
de esa memorable sentencia y me contestó que The Anglo-American Cyclopaedia la
registraba, en su artículo sobre Uqbar.
The conjunction of a mirror
Memphis Britannica
¿Porqué nací entre espejos?
Espejismo
Rain is a thing that happens in the past
Espejos
Mirrors are not more silent
El espejo
Los espejos
 |
| My two ex-students & the Ikea mirror |
The conjunction of a mirror
Memphis Britannica
¿Porqué nací entre espejos?
Espejismo
Rain is a thing that happens in the past
Espejos
Mirrors are not more silent
El espejo
Los espejos
