Mirror, Mirror. A History of the Human Love Affair with Reflection

449 Pages·2003·4.42 MB·English

by  Mark Pendergrast

HISTORY / SCIENCE
“Want to save $160,000? Don’t send your son to col-
“Pendergrast is an affable guide on a wondrously labyrinthine tour. He explains complex “One of
lege; slip him this book instead. It shoehorns an entire
phenomena with remarkable clarity, in a relaxed tone, and with a sense of humor.”
the top science
—THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER liberal arts education into a cultural history of mirrors.”
books of
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“Mark Pendergrast, the ultimate freelance journalist with an eclectic mind, writes about decep- the year.”
tively narrow topics that in fact have figured in world history for millennia....In Mirror Mirror, •
DISCOVER
Pendergrast gives mirrors the encyclopedia treatment, from the bathroom variety to their use in
M i r r o r
high-powered telescopes....He so plainly wants his readers to become as fascinated in the seem-
ingly mundane as he has become.” —ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
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As our first technology for contemplation of the self, the mirror is arguably as impor- FH
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tant an invention as the wheel and perhaps even more universal. Mirror Mirror is the IRT
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fascinating story of the mirror’s invention, refinement, and use in an astonishing range wR
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of human activities—from the bloodthirsty smoking gods of the Aztecs, to the fantastic th o
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mirrored rooms wealthy Romans created for their orgies, to the mirror’s key role in the EFthe r o r r i M
use and understanding of light. From Archimedes to Isaac Newton to Max Factor to L
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David Hockney, this is the fascinating tale of one of the most remarkable inventions CU
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in human history and its effects on myth, religion, science, manners, and the arts. OA
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“Pendergrast has once again transformed something as ordinary as the bathroom mirror into O
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something magical.” —SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Er

“Pendergrast’s style is breezy and conversational, and he has an aptitude for narrative and an ear
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for legend.” —THE BOSTON GLOBE M
A H I S T O R Y
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“A breezy tour of reflecting surfaces in science, literature, folklore, art, and religion....Great
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fun here.” —HARPER’S of the
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“From showing us ourselves up close to showing us the remote reaches of outer space, the mirror N
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has enhanced human ways of seeing for millennia. Now Mark Pendergrast charts the course of D
its development and usage across time, space, and cultural divides.” —CNN.com E
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G A F F A I R with
“Reflected in Pendergrast’s exposition on mirrors is a succinct history of the world, scientific RM
thought, and culture itself.” —ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE A
S
R E F L E C T I O N
T
MARK PENDERGRAST, independent scholar and science historian, is the author of Uncommon
Grounds; For God, Country & Coca-Cola; and Victims of Memory. He lives in Essex Junction, Vermont.
US $17.00 / $23.95 CAN
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A U T H O R O F UNCOMMON GROUNDS
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MIRROR MIRROR
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ALSO BY MARK PENDERGRAST
For God, Country & Coca-Cola:
The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink
and the Company That Makes It
Uncommon Grounds:
The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World
Victims of Memory:
Sex Abuse Accusations and Shattered Lives
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M I R R O R M I R R O R
A History of the Human
Love Affair with Reflection
M A R K P E N D E R G R A S T
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
NEW YORK
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Copyright © 2003 by Mark Pendergrast
Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Hardback first published in 2003 by Basic Books
Paperback first published in 2004 by Basic Books
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this
book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles
and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South,
New York, NY 10016-8810.
Designed by Brent Wilcox
Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk
purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other
organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets
Department at the Perseus Books Group, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
MA 02142, or call (617) 252–5298, (800) 255–1514, or e-mail
[email protected].
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pendergrast, Mark.
Mirror mirror : a history of the human love affair with reflection /
Mark Pendergrast.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-465-05470-6 (HC) ISBN0-465-05471-4 (pbk)
1. Mirrors—History. 2. Reflection (Optics). 3. Reflecting
telescopes. I. Title.
TP867.P46 2003
535'.323—dc21
2003002544
04 05 06 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To my parents,
Nan and Britt Pendergrast,
mirrors for those who seek peace and
justice in a difficult world.
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The world is full of fools, and he who would not see it
should live alone and smash his mirror.
anonymous french proverb
Strange, that there are dreams, that there are mirrors.
Strange that the ordinary, worn-out ways
of every day encompass the imagined
and endless universe woven by reflections.
jorge luis borges
They gave us things like solid water, which were some-
times brilliant as the sun and which sometimes showed us
our own faces. We thought them the children of the
Great Spirit.
chief cameahwait of the shoshone,
August 1805, upon receiving mirrors from
the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Mirrors symbolize reality, the sun, the earth, and its four
corners, its surface, its depths, and all of its peoples.
carlos fuentes
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CONTENTS
Introduction ix
1 | The Mirror of the Soul 1
2 | Magic Visions 29
3 | Fields of Light 53
4 | The Rational Mirror 81
5 | Looking-Glass Literature 115
6 | A New Way of Seeing 131
7 | Grasping the Universe 159
8 | Kaleidoscopic Light Waves 187
9 | Big Eye 217
10 | The Vanity Business 247
11 | Celestial Radios, Divine X-Rays 263
12 | Beyond Palomar 291
13 | Final Reflections: Illusions and Realities 331
Notes on Sources 371
List of Interviews 382
Acknowledgments 387
Illustration Permissions and Credits 389
Index 395
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INTRODUCTION
Every morning there you are again. It’s a ritual that humans perform
daily, something so commonplace that we hardly notice it. Perhaps
you’re a little bleary-eyed, but that’s you in the mirror, all right, maybe
with a toothbrush in your mouth or a washcloth in your hand, trying
to reorient yourself for another round in life’s everyday affairs. Like
most people, you’ve become so accustomed to this morning routine that
you rarely think about it. Yet it’s almost unique in the animal kingdom,
because the ability to recognize the creature in the mirror as you seems
to be limited to the higher primates and, perhaps, dolphins and ele-
phants. Other animals see only a rival or a friend.
Mirrors are meaningless until someone looks into them. Thus, a his-
tory of the mirror is really the history of looking, and what we perceive
in these magical surfaces can tell us a great deal about ourselves—
whence we have come, what we imagine, how we think, and what we
yearn for. The mirror appears throughout the human drama as a means
of self-knowledge or self-delusion. We have used the reflective surface
both to reveal and to hide reality, and mirrors have found their way
into religion, folklore, literature, art, magic, and science.
Humans have been intrigued with mirrors since prehistoric times.
The ancients—Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, Mayans, Incas, and
Aztecs—buried their dead with magical metal or stone reflectors, to
hold the soul, ward off evil spirits, or allow the body, before taking the
final trip to the afterlife, to check its hair.
Because a round mirror can both reflect the sun and become a minia-
ture imitation of it, early metal reflectors came to be associated with
sun gods. At the same time, however, mirrors as secular objects were
used to apply cosmetics, foreshadowing thousands of years of people
peering into the “flattering glass.”