Acknowledgments
Being a collage of different styles and different texts,
combining inscriptions and poems, musical notation and images,
this book incorporates a number of passages and phrases not from
its author's pen. Among the sources not revealed by the process of
narration are: Joyce's Finnegans Wake, Goethe's Ost-Westlicher Diwan, The Oxford English Dictionary, Baudelaire's Les Paradis artificiels and his Hymne
à la Beauté, from Les Fleurs du Mal. A
list of exact references is
given.
Of the musical themes, the
first is the Teru'ah, a Jewish liturgical call blown on the
Shofar. For the arrangement of the other themes, I am greatly
indebted to Christopher Clouter, to whom thanks is also due for
his having introduced me to Mandeville, for having typed the
manuscript and for the help and encouragement that was offered
throughout. Lastly, I gratefully acknowledge Armin Bardel's
patient formatting, JLQJ's meticulous proof-reading, David
Skinner's scanning of the images and Gerald Ganglbauer's adaption
for the World Wide Web.
In the
Darkroom
"During development, stopping and fixing, tilting the tray from
one side to another will ensure that the paper is evenly exposed
to the chemicals contained within the solutions. After it has been
fixed, the paper should be washed and left for half-an-hour in
distilled water before being dried. A careful record should always
be kept of every variation made in the length of time of
development, for this provides the frame of reference within which
results can be compared and the optimal time of development for
each print can be estimated."
Moving silently over the face
of the water the reflections of the light flickered over the rill
of disturbance that crossed and re-crossed the expanse enclosed
within the form that separated the waters from the darkness of the
void. Only occasionally did the wave betray the regularity of its
motion as, rising up to fill a corner, it would suddenly fall back
to abandon itself in a retreat across the tray leaving behind a
confused flux shown in the twisting glimmers of red light, "Eli,
Eli, lama sabach thani?" They fade away and the rhythm of the wave
returns, discernible by the transient patterns of reflections that
pass over, back and forth, coldly dispersing the warm light into
the darkness of the darkroom.
He is alone, absorbed in the
microcosm that he holds between his hands. As above, so below; and
so in meek obedience the sheet of photographic paper lying on the
bottom of the tray swathed in the red light, moves in accordance
with the ways of the wave and the Torah of the tray. Slightly
curled at the corners the scroll is rocked gently to and fro,
veiled by the dancing patterns of light, an ethereal curve of pink
swaying to the pulse of those primaeval waters;
C6H4(OH)CH3NH.C6H4(OH)2.Na2CO3.Na2SO3.Br(aq)
- as it was in the beginning, when "the word was with God, and
the word was God." But now the soldiers have drawn lots, silver
has been exchanged and a text is forming on the face of the curve,
according to the following general equation:
NaR + AgBr <=> Ag - NaBr + R'
(- where the silver bromide is reduced by the sodium salts of
the reducing agents R, forming metallic silver, sodium bromide and
the oxidation product of the developing agents.)
Swaying beneath its veil of
reflections the initial developments of the photograph are obscure
and uncertain to the naked eye; but at a certain point the eye
detects that the luminous curve of pink has become marred. The
traces of shadows have begun to appear and the unblemished surface
is giving way to a fragile structure of grains. Grey shapes
emerge, whose further oxidisation will reveal a world of textures
and the subtle plays of reflected light that will testify to the
truth of the depiction (INRI).
One's expectations rapidly
assign pictorial functions to classify the developments of the
different areas of the photograph. The lighter area occupying the
"top" quarter of the paper's surface is very quickly labelled as
being "sky", while in that which is assumed to be the
"foreground", dark patches seem to betray the presence of a bulky
form. As developing proceeds, these assumptions are shown to have
been well-founded; that which was assumed to be "sky" is indeed
sky, while the countless shadows and glittering highlights that
fill the middle ground of the composition become the crests and
troughs of waves, adorned with the twinkling of the sun's
reflections.
In the red light of the
darkroom, it is easy to imagine that this might have been an
evening shot, taken soon after the setting of the sun, when all is
tinged with the golden red of evening light. The truth of this
suggestion is, however, only confirmed as it becomes possible to
make out the silhouette of a town jutting out into the sea on the
right-hand side of the picture, separating the sea from the sky
and behind which the sun has just set. Meanwhile, in the
foreground, a wave has broken and is about to recall its
restlessly surging form from the fine texture that denotes the
sandy beach; but the wave shall not only disentangle itself from
the grains of sand but also from the fabric of the clothes that
clothe the man who lies outstretched upon this deserted shore. For
the shadows defining the form of this lonely corpse are in fact
those self same dark patches that appeared so early on in the
development of the photograph, only where they once stopped
abruptly, they now lead on to lighter tones that intermingle with
the highlights as the light flows over the folds, crinkles and
creases of the clothes, picking out the faint imprints of diagonal
lines and criss crosses to expose the weave of the cloth.
With the arrival of these
details the optimal time of development has been reached, any
longer and the sensitivity of the image would be lost, the
fineness of such details deteriorating into porridgey-structures
of coarse grains. So development is stopped and once fixed the
print is suspended over a sink, whilst water is systematically
squirted over its surface to wash away the developing agents in a
trickle that collects at the lowermost corner of the paper. The
age-old promise has once again been fulfilled. Offering
representation (at the push of a button) to all those who believe
in the reduction of silver bromide, the cleansing power of
distilled water and in the all-encompassing perspective of the
Renaissance, the cleansing trickle is the completion of all that
was written in the prophets and in the laws of osmosis.
After it has been washed, the
print is transferred to a tray of distilled water where it is
submerged and sinks, coming to rest among the other images from
the day's session in the darkroom.
Although one can only see the
corners and edges of these prints lying scattered on top of one
another (the latest addition of the body by the sea being the only
image unobscured by any other lying on top of it), these details
and snippets are nevertheless enough to confirm an already dawning
suspicion concerning the location of this distant shore. It is
indeed the Middle East and the waves that break upon its beaches
are those of the Mediterranean. But which of the towns and
sea-ports that follow the undulations of this coastline could it
be? The atlas suggests a number of possibilities: Acre, Al Batrun,
Al Hamidiyah, Al Mina, Arab al Mulk, Ashdod, Askelon, Baniyas,
Beirut, Byblos, Caesarea, Jaffa, Juniyah, Latika, Maratus,
Netanya, Sidon, Tartus, Tyre and Zug Mikha'il. The consultation of
more detailed maps would eliminate some of these entries, for
example Netanya, Ashdod and Askelon, where the coast is almost
entirely devoid of any curvature. Choices would however still
remain between which one would be unable, in the absence of
further reference material or first-hand experience, to decide.
And so it is that for us, the town, the beach and the figure by
the sea must remain suspended in ambiguity regarding their
identity and place in time.
Eli, Eli, lama sabach thani?: Father,
Father, why have you forsaken me?
Prologue | Chapter I | Chapter II | Chapter III | Chapter IV | References | Table of Contents
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