Window, obligation
Linnea has published something very fine about living with forgotten people, which follows upon recent comments on convalescing. I would borrow her words, because they cannot be improved, but it's obligatory to use one's own to commend her statement to readers here. I'm grateful that she accepts our mode.
I have an impression she does not put forth, that what is seen beyond a window is assimilated by means we associate with the operation of memory, interpolated by the pane, possibly intensified by the frame. It follows that beyond a window - as through a lens - there is a readily recognisable element, whether we've taken that view before or not, to which we bear a virtually remembered relationship. I believe our universal resort to windows, that shared experience, allows us more than a hypothetical aperture to recognise each other. All that is needed to see another, is to see his window. Our morals, enjoining respect, ought not to deprive us of sight.
Trying to see is the most important thing. It can never be done well enough, I believe, but trying is what matters. Thank you
ReplyDeleteSince your viewing of this entry, it has been edited to include the villa within the villa (a design exhibit in Milan) and the final portrait, a self-portrait by a young student.
ReplyDeleteWindows as a portal to memory, or rather reflection. Interesting thought, observation.
ReplyDeleteI love the corner windows in my apartment. I stand there to watch the world, to distinguish here from there, me from them. Windows for me are more a divider; yes, behind which I am protected.
Among the premature postings at this blog, this one will claim innocent but honourable mention, I don't doubt. The idea-in-progress is distinctly this: not that memory is a window, but that memory operates with a window, which I think everyone can pretty well accept, simple-minded as the concept is. Seeing behind (i.e., through) windows sets up a perceptual and also a cognitive experience which one would have to be Wittgensteinishly strict with oneself not to analogise in feeling, to the operation of memory. The act also tends to free that impression.
ReplyDeleteNow, corner windows: Yes! I would be very interested to know, however, if protection and division are reduced or enhanced or unaffected, by glazing at right angles. Thank you for coming forward to volunteer this experiernce. I note, however, there is no clafoutis ..