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2002-04-26 - 7:00 p.m. 'Copulation and mirrors are abominable because they multiply the human race.'--Jorge Luis Borges 1) Looking into a mirror, he opened his mouth wide, as if initiating a yawn. And true enough, he started yawning. He wondered then about the myth about one person's yawn infecting the other, and wondered whether it was his image or himself that had started the first yawn, and which one of them was the first to close his mouth. 2) On the mirror was an oxide blot, and if she positioned her face right, she would obtain a mole on her right cheek, a mark of beauty. But deep inside she knew that for the mirror the oxide stain was a sign of decay. She felt sad, because if she moved away, she would suddenly unmask the mirror's ugliness. 3) He remembered: his right hand was for handling food, his left for his toilet. For the person in the mirror the rules were inverted; the habits of a defiant apostate. Yet he wondered also what happened in that other world when he wasn't looking; whether food and shit also entered or exited through opposite orifices. 4) There were five mirrors in her house, but only one was her favourite. The mirrors thought that this was ridiculous, because all mirrors are the same, and concluded that the girl was four-fifths away from completely accepting herself. 5) During the Malay funeral, all the mirrors in the house were sheeted, since the departing soul would be shocked by what it would see. Or perhaps, by what it would not see: presence without body, consciousness without form, the madness of not being able to bear witness to the reflection of your own eyes.
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