عنوان

The waterless sea :

(Number (ISBN

1780239327

(Number (ISBN

9781780239323

Title Proper

The waterless sea :

General Material Designation

[Book]

Other Title Information

a curious history of mirages /

First Statement of Responsibility

Christopher Pinney.

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

London, UK :

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Reaktion Books,

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2018

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

©2018

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

184 pages :

Other Physical Details

illustrations (some color) ;

Dimensions

22 cm

Text of Note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-168) and index.

Text of Note

Prologue: Chasing mirage -- Strange visions under a cliff in central India, October 1829 -- A world history of mirages: the thirst of the gazelle -- 'Fallacious evidence of the senses' -- 'Mocking our distress' -- Cold and hot: the geography or mirage -- Mirage and crisis -- Oriental mirages and 'spectatorial democracy' -- From clam-monsters to representative democracy -- The halted viewer and sfumato -- Memory and modernity -- Theatrical mirages -- The 'mirage medium of fancy' -- Mirage and Oriental despotism -- Keeping Mecca and Medina invisible -- Inside Abdul Hamid II's head -- Mirage pharmakon: wild and domestic -- Epilogue: Real, but not true.

0

Text of Note

"Mirages have long astonished travelers of the sea 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 despotis,' 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"--Dust jacket.

Meteorological optics-- History.

Mirages-- History.

Fata Morgana

Meteorological optics.

Mirages.

Number

Edition

Class number

Book number

Pinney, Christopher

Date of Transaction

20200823052900.0

Cataloguing Rules (Descriptive Conventions))

rda

Electronic name

[Book]

Y