a. natasha joukovsky
extracts blog
After Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, where he tracks allusions to whales and cetology, I keep a running list of references to recursion, innovation, mythology, and glamour.
Young the Giant | MIRROR MASTER
“Look in the mirror
Familiar figure
Staring right back at me…”
Virginia Woolf | A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN
Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.
George Eliot | MIDDLEMARCH
"Full souls are double mirrors, making still
An endless vista of fair things before,
Repeating things behind."
Arcade Fire | CREATURE COMFORT
"Some boys hate themselves
Spend their lives resenting their fathers
Some girls hate their bodies
Stand in the mirror and wait for the feedback..."
Herman Melville | MOBY DICK
"And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned..."
The Velvet Underground | I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR
"I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are, in case you don't know
I'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset
The light on your door to show that you're home..."
J. D. Daniels | THE CORRESPONDENCE
"There are visions a man can only tolerate in a mirror. To see them face-to-face turns him to stone."
Oscar Wilde | THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
"This portrait would be to him the most magical of mirrors. As it had revealed to him his own body, so it would reveal to him his own soul..."