Mirror

The mirror, like the camera, has flipped from object to idea — from optical instrument to a backward self-image. But the mirror was water, bronze and gold before it was metalized glass. These quicksilver discs are flatter and whiter than ever, but that isn’t you in your reflection. Narcissus too was tricked by the distortions in these tiny backwards worlds. It should be enough to know that what you see in the mirror is not what others see. The cleaner the mirror, the better you see, the less you know. The worst crime in our history was not putting the material gold onto fingers,¹ the felony was its polished refinement: our reflection. This flat technology makes the schizophrenic tick look natural, showing images that don’t exist to people trained to see them.