The Waterless Sea: A Curious History of Mirages
- ISBN-10
- 1780239696
- ISBN-13
- 9781780239699
- Category
- Nature
- Pages
- 184
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018-05-15
- Publisher
- Reaktion Books
- Author
- Christopher Pinney
Description
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. 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.
Get the book
Similar books
-
Plant Identification: Creating User-Friendly Field Guides for Biodiversity Management
By William Hawthorne, Anna Lawrence... Farjon et al (A Field Guide to the Pines of Mexico and Central America, 1997) and Timberlake et al (Field Guide to the Acacias of Zimbabwe, 1999).
-
Birds of Maine
By Peter D. Vickery, Charles D. Duncan, Jeffrey V. Wells... counts: several hundred annually at Stratton I. and at E. Egg Rock, ... 15 Jan 2014 (R. Timberlake, eBird); Reid S.P. (Lower Kennebec R. CBC): 1 on 20 ...
-
Wasting the Rain (Routledge Revivals): Rivers, People and Planning in Africa
By William M. Adams AdamsMaltby, E. (1988) Waterlogged Wealth: Why waste the world's wet places? Earthscan, London. ... Timberlake, L. (1985) Africa in Crisis: the causes, ...
-
Plant Identification: Creating User-Friendly Field Guides for Biodiversity Management
By William Hawthorne, Anna Lawrence... E. and K. M. Wong (eds) (1995–ongoing) Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak, FRIM, ... Journal of Biological Education, vol 18, pp293–304 Timberlake J., ...
-
Plant Identification: Creating User-friendly Field Guides for Biodiversity Management
By William Hawthorne, Anna Lawrence, Alan Charles Hamilton... E. and K. M. Wong (eds) (1995–ongoing) Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak, ... pp293–304 Timberlake J., C. Fagg and R. Barnes (1999) Field Guide to the ...
-
Happiness, Well-being and Sustainability: A Course in Systems Change
By Laura Musikanski, Rhonda Phillips, James BradburyFrost's meditations: Eudaemonia, the good life: A talk with Martin Seligman. ... 1, 115–135. doi:10.1007/s42413-018-0012-2 Kahneman, D. & Riis, D. (2005).
-
The Texas Landscape Project: Nature and People
By David A. Todd, Jonathan Ogren... section 2, part 2; Texas Water Code, Section 11.085(s)). ... as the “San Antone Hose” and generated a great deal of opposition in the Colorado basin, ...
-
Essential Environment: The Science Behind the Stories
By -. Pearson, Jay H. Withgott, Matthew LaposataThis is the product access code card for MasteringEnvironmentalScience(tm) with Pearson eText and does not include the actual bound book.
-
Birds of Peru: Revised and Updated Edition
By Thomas S. Schulenberg, Douglas F. Stotz, Daniel F. LaneTodd Mark compiled the data on the material at the Muséum National d'Histoire ... Noam Shany provided a great deal of additional information on seabirds.
-
Finding Our Place in the Solar System: The Scientific Story of the Copernican Revolution
By Todd Timberlake, Paul WallaceDetails the science behind the Copernican Revolution, the transition from the Earth-centered cosmos to a modern understanding of planetary orbits.