29/03/20

How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency - Akiko Busch

How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it ... you would find yourself under a freer sky, in a street full of splendid strangers.



G.K. Chesterton

Um colega de universidade disse-me que se lembrava de mim porque eu raramente aparecia nas aulas. Esta conspícua invisibilidade não é, penso, intencional. No fundo, gosto de ver ao longe, mas evito participar (os prémios de participação são tão fraquinhos).

Este e outros tipos de invisibilidade são explorados no livro. Busch aproveita memórias pessoais, artigos científicos, artefactos da cultura popular e erudita,  num exercício em que a enumeração de factos semi-interessantes não prejudica a prosa. As partes do livro sobre a natureza são brilhantes:

It’s a wonder I noticed at all the walking stick insect resting lightly on a wisteria branch near the porch railing last summer. Its symmetry, hue, and twig-like lightness all disdained notice. But once I did, I could see that its elegance was not just a matter of its delicate frame and subdued color, but of its slight tremble as well, seemingly less voluntary than the result of a breeze blowing a bit of branch. Its virtuoso reticence came from form, color, and deportment, all of these collaborating in its effort to become an entity of a different kingdom. Calling it an inconspicuous marvel is not a contradiction.

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