( S h a d o w Opt i cs)/

x z n m n x c n m n x c x c z x x c c z x c c
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A t o m i c L i g h t
( S h a d o w O p t i c s )
Akira Mizuta Lip pit
U n i v e r s i t y o f M i n n e s o t a P r e s s M i n n e a p o l i s L o n d o n
Copyright 2005 by the Regen ts of the Un iversity of Min n esota
All rights reserved. No part of this public ation m ay be reproduc ed, stored in
a retrieval system , or tran sm itted, in an y form or by an y m ean s, elec tron ic ,
m ec han ic al, photoc opyin g, rec ordin g, or otherwise, without the prior written
perm ission of the publisher.
Published by the Un iversity of Min n esota Press
111 Third Aven ue South, Suite 290
Min n eapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.um n .edu
Library of Con gress Catalogin g-in -Public ation Data
Lippit, Akira Miz uta.
Atom ic light (shadow optic s) / Akira Miz uta Lippit.
p. c m .
In c ludes bibliographic al referen c es an d in dex .
ISBN 0-8166-4610-4 (he : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8166-4611-2 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Vision . I. Title.
B846.L57 2005
121'.35dc 22 2005020224
Prin ted in the Un ited States of Am eric a on ac id-free paper
The Un iversity of Min n esota is an equal-opportun ity educ ator an d em ployer.
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
indivisible
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C o n t e n t s
A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s i x
0 . U n i v e r s e s 1
"Hoic hi the Earless"blin dn ess an d in visibilityexscriptionatom ic
destruc tion an d phan tom visualityc atastrophic light, Japan ese visual
c ultureJorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel" (1941)the un iversal
Library an d sec ret arc hivetrac es of the un in sc ribed an d un in sc ribable
"the true story of your death"atom ism the shadow arc hiveJac ques
Derrida, Archive Fever (1995)heterogen eity an d psyc hoan alysisa
un iverse of the un arc hivable
1. T h e S h a d o w A r c h i v e ( A S e c r e t L i g h t ) 13
"The sec ret is the very ash of the arc hive"Sigm un d Freud, Moses and
Monotheism (1934-39) "in to the light""the shadow of the god"
sec rec y an d pseudon ym yTan i/aki Jun 'ic hiro, In Praise of Shadows
(1933-34)illum in ation an d the arc hive"the glow of grim e"
radiation desc en ds from above an d assails the body like a feverc in ders
an d atom ic writin gpellic ular surfac esX-rays an d c in em a, profoun d
superfic ialitysec ret visualityavisualityc in efac tion
2 . M o d e s o f A v i s u a l i t y : P s y c h o a n a l y s i s - X - r a y - C i n e m a 3 5
"The dream of Irm a's in jec tion "the sec ret of dream s an d the sec ret
dream form lessn ess an d in teriority"the very in visibility of the
in visible within the visible"Wilhelm Con rad Ron tgen Berthe's han d,
X-raysin side outskiagraphypen etratin g light an d the Visible
Hum an Projec tdestruc tive visualityan n iversaries, apoc alypse
x sign the dream of c in em aan ex em plary design
3 . C i n e m a S u r f a c e D e s i g n 6 1
"The psyc hology of m ovem en t"early c in em a, m akin g visible the
in visibleAuguste an d Louis Lum iere, the surfac e of the sc reen
im agin ary depth"un seen en ergy swallowin g spac e"sc reen s an d
displac ed c ollision s"phan tom rides"in visible thresholds between life
an d death"the m etaphysic al surfac e" (Gilles Deleuz e)Jam es
William son , The Big Swallow (c irc a 1901)total visibilitythe outer
surfac e of c on sc iousn essthe phan tasm
A n A t o m i c T r a c e 8 1
"Eyes m elted out of sheer ec stasy"c olorlessn essthe wrathful light of
atom sin visible m en optic al den sity an d diffusion allegories of
atom ic radiation in visibility an d tran sparen c yH. G. Wells (1897) an d
Jam es Whale (1933), The Invisible Man"a blac k c avity"rac elessn ess
un im agin able destruc tion , c atastrophic lightphotographic sc ulptures
fac e an d surfac e, fac elessn essRalph Ellison , Invisible Man (1952)IM,
"hypervisibility""outside history"atom ic an d an atom ic phon ic
atom ism the spac eless im age
f x s c r /p f /o n /A n t i g r a p h y 105
Mauric e Merleau-Pon ty, "a blen din g of som e sort"pain tin g an d the
un iversal im ageTan iz aki's Japan ese skin , whic h radiates darkn ess
"a bright shadow"a dark writin gatom ic , atopic Ibuse Masuji,
Black Rain (1965)liquid atom ic ashin terioriz ed worldem ulsion ,
"an im m isc ible m ix ture"Marguerite Duras an d Alain Resn ais, Hiroshima
man amour (1959), c in ders an d rain an atom ic trope, writin g on skin
Miz oguc hi Ken ji, Ugetsu (1953), the searin g surfac eim pression s
"eyes destin ed to weep"Kobayashi Masaki, Kwaidan (1964), the in visible
bodydisturban c e of the sen sesdemontagec atastrophic syn thesis
antigraphyTeshigahara Hiroshi, Woman in the Dunes (1964)iden tity
papersa liquid desert8:15 a.m .water from san da sm ooth
arc hive
P h a n t o m C u r e s : O b s c u r i t y a n d Em p t i n e s s 13 3
Psyc hic visuality an d displac ed in teriorityKore-eda Hirokaz u, Maborosi
(1995)"a beautiful light"m em ory an d dream , the ac ousm atic voic e
passages an d lin esa shadow optic sKurosawa Kiyoshi, Cure (1997)
"x ""I m yself am em pty"m em ories return ed from the outside
Roger Gorm an , X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)atom ic vision
photographin g em ptin essm esm erism in teriority c on stituted by the
lac k of in teriorityc irc um c ision , sec ret c utsthe c ure/to c uredark
worlds"sightless vision ," a vision m ac hin e at the en d of c in em a
un iverse
N o t e s 15 9
I n d e x 19 5
z
asa
6.
A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
I
am deeply grateful to Lisa Cartwright, Laura U. Marks, an d Vivian
Sobc hac k, who read this book c arefully an d offered detailed c ritic ism s.
Eac h m ade in valuable suggestion s that vastly im proved the book. Miya
Lippit an d Albert Liu read the book lin e by lin ethey are its c oauthors.
I would like to than k Dudley An drew, Cade Bursell, Mic hael Fried, An n e
Friedberg, Hosokawa Shuhei, Peggy Kam uf, Karatan i Kojin , Jean -Claude
Leben sz tejn , Ric hard Mac ksey, Fred Moten , Bill Nic hols, Mic hael Ren ov,
Trin h T. Min h-ha, Herve Van el, Catherin e Waldby, an d Lin da William s,
who read the book or parts of it at differen t stages an d offered c ritic ism ,
referen c es, an d lin es of in quiry. Catherin e Waldby suggested the phrase
"c atastrophic light," whic h I have used here. Eac h has left a sin gular exscrip-
tion on this book.
Jac ques Derrida supported m e from an early poin t in m y developm en t,
an d I am grateful for the kin dn ess he ex ten ded to m e. Those of us who had
the good fortun e to work with him will m iss his brillian c e, gen erosity, an d
hum or.
In Japan , Iwam oto Ken ji an d Ukai Satoshi were espec ially helpful in
supervisin g an d c ritiquin g sec tion s of this work. Don ald Ric hie suggested
n ovel direc tion s for m e to pursue. Researc h in Japan was m ade possible by
gran ts from the Japan Foun dation , the Northeast Asia Coun c il of the Assoc i-
ation for Asian Studies, San Fran c isc o State Un iversity, an d the Un iversity
of Californ ia, Irvin e, Hum an ities Cen ter. I am grateful for their support.
Various portion s of this book were delivered as lec tures at the Cen ter
ix
subashi Un iversity; In dian a Un iversity; the Pac ific Film Arc hive; the San
Fran c isc o Art In stitute; the UCLA Cen ter for Japan ese Studies; the Un iver-
sity of Californ ia, Riverside; the Un iversity of Mem phis; the Un iversity of
Pittsburgh; the Un iversity of Southern Californ ia; Wayn e State Un iversity;
Waseda Un iversity; an d Yale Un iversity. I than k m y hosts an d in terloc utors
for their in sights an d c ritic ism s.
I wish to than k m y c olleagues an d graduate studen ts in the Departm en t
of Cin em a at San Fran c isc o State Un iversity an d the Visual Studies Pro-
gram at the Un iversity of Californ ia, Irvin e, for providin g a supportive an d
stim ulatin g en viron m en t, an d m y c olleagues at the UCI Lan gson Library,
espec ially Dian n a Sahhar, for their in valuable researc h assistan c e.
The staff at the Un iversity of Min n esota Press has been ex em plary. Doug
Arm ato edited the m an usc ript an d showed en thusiasm for this projec t from
the begin n in g; Gretc hen Asm ussen helped at eac h stage; Paula Dragosh
c opyedited the book an d stren gthen ed every aspec t of it; Sallie Steele
in dex ed the book with prec ision . I am grateful to eac h.
for japanese Studies at the University of Michigan; theGetty center; Hitot-
x
0. U n i v e r s e s
T
he m an pain ted with Chin ese ideogram s is Hoic hi, a blin d m on k an d
biwa lute player in Kobayashi Masaki's Kwaidan (1964, based on Laf-
c adio Hearn 's 1904 c ollec tion of "stories an d studies of stran ge thin gs").
The in sc ription s, whic h have been written over his en tire body, are Bud-
dhist prayers. In a few m om en ts a phan tom will c om e for Hoic hi an d esc ort
him to a grave site where he has, for the past several n ights, perform ed an
epic poem c om m em oratin g the an c ien t Heike (Taira) c lan . Hoic hi's son g
c hron ic les the 1185 Battle of Dan n o-ura, where the Heike, in c ludin g the
c hild em peror An toku, were an n ihilated at the han ds of their en em y, the
Gen ji (Min am oto) c lan . This war m arked the en d of the c lassic al Heian era
an d the begin n in g of the Kam akura shogun ate. Hoic hi's hosts an d audien c e
are the ghosts of Heike, the dead warriors, c ourtiers, an d c hildren who per-
ished in the battle. Un aware of who they are, Hoic hi m oves c loser to them
with eac h perform an c e. He will ex pire with the son g an d bec om e on e of
them upon the c om pletion of his perform an c e. He will c ross over to the
other side of life an d history, in to the phan tom world of total destruc tion .
1
" H o i c h i t h e Ea r l e s s , " i n K o b a y a s h i M a s a k i , Kwaidan (Kaidan, 19 6 4) .
Durin g his ex ten ded perform an c e Hoic hi has weaken ed, an d his body
an d c om plex ion bear the sign s of illn ess. His fac e ex hibits an in n er an x iety,
a shadow darken s his ex pression . Hoic hi's in n er dim en sion is bein g drawn
outward in to the absolute ex teriority of the dead, of shadows. The priests
of Hoic hi's tem ple have n otic ed his rec edin g en ergy an d realiz e that Hoic hi
is bein g absorbed by a powerful ex terior forc e, by the powerful forc e of
ex teriority as suc h. Un less they in terven e, Hoic hi will disappear in to the
outside, his body an d vitality swallowed by the phan tom world an d its
destruc tive en ergies. To protec t Hoic hi from the shades an d m ake him
in visible to them , the Buddhist priests have c overed the outer surfac e of
Hoic hi's en tire body with prayers. The wet, liquid in kblac k ex c ept for
the red San skrit sign s on Hoic hi's forehead, bac k, an d han dswill plun ge
the blin d m on k in to a phan tom darkn ess. The ghosts will n o lon ger see
Hoic hi, just as he does n ot see them , just as he does n ot see the world.
With these prayers, written on the surfac e of his body, the en tire world
will be ren dered blin d, spec tral, in visible.
Hoic hi's body is protec ted by the religious power of the prayers, but
also by the m ateriality of the tex t. The blac k in k is a stain that c overs an d
delin eates his body like a shadow applied direc tly on to his skin . It is at
on c e physic al an d m etaphysic al: Hoic hi's skin the surfac e where the two
dim en sion s c on verge. Like an in visible m an , Hoic hi is m ade visible in on e
register by the writin g on his body, an d in visible in an other. The exscrip-
tions on Hoic hi's body establish two distin c t orders of visibilityon e phe-
n om en al, the other phan tom an d loc ate him in the in terstic e between
the two. Hoic hi is visible in on e world, in visible in an other. His visuality is
doubled, paradox ic al, an d in side out.
2
The divin e sc ript seals Hoic hi, his body, an d its surfac e, his skin . With
the prayers in sc ribed or exscribed on to his body like an arc hive, he is hid-
den within the tex t, within the arc hive that c overs the surfac e of his body.
It is Hoic hi's body that m ust be defen ded, his m aterial form . By c overin g
Hoic hi with prayers, the priests have withdrawn him from the outside world.
They have sec luded him , hidden him within the arc hive that, pain ted on to
his skin , is ex posed, tran sposed to the outside. The arc hive has been exscribed
on to Hoic hi, ex posed on his body, whic h is shielded by an d within it. Hoic hi
has been in terioriz ed by the exscription. He is in side out, suspen ded
between the worlds of visibility an d in visibility.
zXXx
3
The sc en e of Hoic hi's suspen ded visuality is c ritic al to un derstan din g a
c risis in itiated at the en d of World War II, a c risis in the c on stitution of the
hum an body. The atom ic radiation that en ded the war in Japan un leashed
an ex c ess visuality that threaten ed the m aterial an d c on c eptual dim en sion s
of hum an in teriority an d ex teriority. It assailed the bodies it touc hed, seared
an d pen etrated them , an n ihilatin g the lim its that established hum an ex is-
ten c e in the world. The destruc tion of Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki in 1945
ex posed the fragility of the hum an surfac e, the c apac ity of c atastrophic
light an d lethal radiation to pen etrate the hum an figure at its lim it. Un der
the glare of atom ic radiation , the hum an body was ex posed: revealed an d
open ed, but also displac ed, thrust outward in to the distan t reac hes of the
visible world. It situated the body between n ot on ly two worlds but two
un iverses: two separate orders of all thin gs, or even of the sam e thin gs. Visi-
bility an d in visibility, ex teriority an d in teriority, the livin g an d the dead,
this world an d that other world rest on the surfac e of Hoic hi's body, at the
poin t of c on tac t between the tex t that c overs Hoic hi an d his skin .
Hoverin g between visibility an d in visibility, outside an d in side, life an d
death, Hoic hi's lim in al m om en t is em blem atic of postwar Japan ese c in em a
an d visuality. Sin c e 1945, the destruc tion of visual order by the atom ic
light an d forc e has haun ted Japan ese visual c ulture. Yet the origin s of this
postwar c risis, brought about by the adven t of a pen etratin g radiation ,
T h e a t o m i c b o m b i n g o f H i r o s h i m a . E no l a G ay pi l o t P a u l W . T i b b e t s i n s c r i b e d t h e i m a g e .
4
began fifty years earlier in 1895 with the em ergen c e of three n ew phenom-
enologies of the inside: psyc hoan alysis, X-rays, an d c in em a. Three tec h-
n iques or tec hn ologies that pursued the sc en e of in teriority, the open in g of
the m in d, the body, an d the world. X-ray radiation was perhaps the em -
blem ; the m ysterious ray a figure for the body of a n ew form of light that
yielded a n ew visuality, a m odern form of light an d its tran sm ission that
perm eated the twen tieth c en tury. X-ray photography represen ted the adven t
of a n ew tec hn ique, on e that ex plic itly rec orded the destruc tion of its
objec t, produc in g at on c e an optic s an d arc hive of an n ihilation . In question
was a m ode of writin g an d un writin g of disaster that m oves from X-ray to
atom ic radiation an d traverses the c in em a. The sc en e of Hoic hi's sus-
pen ded visuality has its origin s in 1895 as m uc h as in 1945, when the forc e
of radiation m oved beyon d c losed room s an d c am eras, in to the world
when the light of atom s ex posed the earth an d the un iverses aroun d it.
In the un iversal Library im agin ed by Jorge Luis Borges, every book ever
written an d those yet to be written the possibility of every bookform
a fan tastic an d fin al c ollec tion of "all that is given to ex press, in all lan -
guages." The Library of Babel represen ts the last arc hive, the arc hive at the
en d of ex pression , the en d of the arc hive on the oc c asion of its c om pletion .
Fin al an d fin ite, but also in fin itely poin ted toward the en d, toward fin itude,
virtually fin al, infinal. "It suffic es," says Borges, "that a book be possible for
it to ex ist."
1
This possibility, like the tran slatability that Walter Ben jam in
im agin es"the tran slatability of lin guistic c reation s ought to be c on sid-
ered even if m en should prove un able to tran slate them "allows the book
to ex ist before its appearan c e, to haun t its ex isten c e an d m ark its fin itude
as a prem ature phan tom .
2
The possibility of every book (every future
book) already lies in the last arc hive. Every book haun ted by its future. But
n ot on ly books: the Library also c om prises graphic in sc ription s an d trac es,
an d "for every sen sible lin e of straightforward statem en t, there are leagues
of sen seless c ac ophon ies, vern al jum bles an d in c oheren c ies."
3
From the sen -
sible to the n on sen sic al, the audible to the in audible, the lyric al to the
strain ed, all orders an d disorders of lan guage appear in the Library. Every
trac e of past an d future is assem bled in this on e plac e, an arc hive of "all
that is given " to ex pression .
Everythin g: the m in utely detailed history of the future, the arc han gels'
autobiographies, the faithful c atalogue of the Library, thousan ds an d
thousan ds of false c atalogues, the dem on stration of the fallac y of those
c atalogues, the dem on stration of the fallac y of the true c atalogue, the
5
Gn ostic gospel of Basilides, the c om m en tary on that gospel, the c om m en -
tary on the c om m en tary on that gospel, the true story of your death, the
tran slation of every book in all lan guages, the in terpolation s of every book
in all books.
4
Every word written an d un written , yet an d n ever to be written , en dlessly
divided: a rec ord of every even t that has oc c urred, will oc c ur, an d will
n ever oc c ur. Future histories an d histories of the future, m in utely detailed
an d tim eless, an arc hive of tim eless tim e an d history, of the un tim ely
n ature of both. Eac h m om en t divided in to en dless variation s, in fin itely.
You are also here, in it, as a figure of the future; as is your future, your future
death, whic h has been arc hived a priori. (You are in the un iverse, but you
are also a figure of the un iverse itself.) Borges's arc hive in c ludes, am on g
everythin g, "the true story of your death." It in c ludes the authen tic n arra-
tive of your death (as well as, presum ably, an in fin ite n um ber of false
ac c oun ts), a death that has already happen ed, will have (already) happen ed
when it fin ally arrives. Perhaps it has already happen ed, an d you are on ly
an afterthought, its shadow, a trac e of your (own ) death, whic h is there
already, as if an other's.
In the vast arc hive of an in fin itely divisible spac e an d tim e, you are an
atom : sin gular an d in divisible: a "hypothetic al body, so in fin itely sm all as
to be in c apable of further division " (Oxford English Dictionary). "Atom ism ,
the preem in en t disc ourse of Western m aterialism (at least in an tiquity an d,
m ore c on vin c in gly, sin c e the seven teen th c en tury)," says Dan iel Tiffan y,
"c on ten ds that the authen tic m aterial ex isten c e of an y body (as opposed to
its m erely phen om en al appearan c e) c on sists of in fin itesim al an d irreduc ible
partic les c alled atom s."
5
Bec ause of the in visibility of atom s, atom ism relies,
says Tiffan y, on im ages. Your death im agin es you as a hypothesis. Atom ic
spac e em erges from a un iverse divided in fin itely to the poin t of a hypo-
thetic al irreduc ibility. The logic of the atom , the atomology, sustain s a para-
dox : in fin ite divisibility that en ds, despite the en dless n ature of atom ic
division , in a hypothetic al figure, sm all an d in divisible, an d also perhaps
in visible. Gilles Deleuz e c alls this effec t of "pure bec om in g" "the paradox of
in fin ite iden tity."
6
You are an atom in Borges's Library, an in fin ite iden tity,
in fin itely divisible.
The Library of Babel ex em plifies the prom ise of all arc hives, the fan tasy
an d "fun dam en tal law of the Library": totality. An d so it "ex ists ab aeterno,"
in an d toward the future, always prom ised, im m in en t, here already but
on ly ever as yet to c om e.
7
The totality of the arc hive effec ts an arc hitec tural
tem porality that is virtually un iversal. As a struc ture, an arkhe, it c on sum es
alm ost all spac e, all future spac e, ex c ept for an irreduc ible sliver, whic h
always rem ain s as a surplus of the arc hive. In this sm all, in divisible, an d
6
atom ic c revic e in spac e an d tim e, you reside, un der the arc hive's shadow.
This is the paradox of the Library of Babel, of its law, tim e, an d fan tasy: the
un iversal Library takes all spac e, c on tin ues to ex pan d, but always leaves
spac e; its takin g is a form of leavin g, whic h c asts, in the differen c e between
totality an d virtuality, a shadow. A shadow m ade possible on ly by the im agi-
n ary an d hypothetic al spac e always left vac an t by the arc hive. A surplus
spac e of im ages that c an n ever be filled. You are there. You are the lim it an d
surplus of the arc hivean irreduc ible, atom ic shadow of the arc hive.
Un der the shadow, an other form of life em erges, ex c luded from the
arc hive that in c ludes everythin g. "The c ertitude that everythin g has been
written n egates us or turn s us in to phan tom s," says Borges.
8
Spec tral
bec ause, in the arc hive's depths, your death has already been rec orded an d
is n o lon ger proper to you. Your death c om es from an d return s to the
arc hive, its origin an d destin ation . You are a phan tom , a sec ret form of life,
a life form ed aroun d a sec ret, aroun d the pursuit an d preservation of a
sec ret. "When it was proc laim ed that the Library c on tain ed all books, the
first im pression was on e of ex travagan t happin ess. All m en felt them selves
to be the m asters of an in tac t an d sec ret treasure."
9
The en orm ity of the
sec ret, ac c ordin g to Borges, even tually turn ed this happin ess to despair.
"The c ertitude that som e shelf in som e hex agon held prec ious books an d
that these prec ious books were in ac c essible, seem ed alm ost in tolerable."
10
Totality ren ders the world in fin ite, an d thus distan t: everythin g that belon gs
to you, that desc ribes an d reveals you, is far away, elsewhere, sec ret. The
"in tolerable c ertitude" c an on ly m an ifest itself as a sec ret. At the heart of
the arc hive, in the in n erm ost c ham ber of its in teriority, hides som ethin g
that waits, like Kafka's law, on ly for you.
11
The c ertitude that the true story
of your death ex ists som ewhere in the arc hive, in ac c essible, ren ders that
ac c oun t sec ret. A sec ret kept on ly from but also for you. An arc hive of
sec rets, of your sec rets, whic h are at on c e sin gular an d un iversal.
Im agin in g the un iversal arc hive produc es an arc hitec tural im passea
true Tower of Babelsin c e the arc hive requires all the spac e of the un i-
verse, whic h is still n ot en ough. Its in fin ite form requires un lim ited but
fin ite, m aterial spac e. An arc hitec ture suited for the Library of Babel m ust
c om prise un iversality, totality, an d c on fusion . Som ethin g like an un c on -
sc ious, where words are thin gs, an d thin gs words, an d the oc c upation of all
available spac e (m an y tim es over) still leaves em pty spac es. The un iverse,
un c on sc ious. In Borges's Library, the in fin itude of lan guage, of the possi-
bilities of in sc ription (the written an d yet to be written ), determ in es the
spec ific ity of the arc hive, its arc hitec ton ic law. (Lan guage is, for Borges, the
possibility of spac e.) The true arc hive fills spac e, all of spac e, an d still n eeds
m ore spac e; it bec om es in distin guishable from spac e as suc h. Un iversal.
"The un iverse (whic h others c all the Library) is c om posed of an in defin ite
7
an d perhaps in fin ite n um ber of hex agon al galleries, with vast air shafts
between , surroun ded by very low railin gs."
12
Im agin ary an d m aterial, "I
prefer to dream ," says Borges of the arc hitec ture, "that its polished surfac es
represen t an d prom ise the in fin ite."
13
Those "in defin ite an d perhaps in fin ite
n um ber of hex agon al galleries" form a m eton ym y of spac ethe arc hive
form s in spac e, is itself a form of spac e, c asts a shadow in spac e, but is also
a figure of spac e.
Despite Borges's c areful atten tion to detail, his m etic ulous desc ription s
of hex agon al galleries, spiral stairways, an d c irc ular c ham bers, the Library
rem ain s, in som e irreduc ible m an n er, form less. Division upon division ,
the arc hive appears like an atom ic fissure without en d. Every apparen t lim it
yields m ore division s, possibilities, an d futures. In the en d, Borges's desc rip-
tion leaves the Library un im agin able. " The Library is a sphere whose exact
center is any one of its hexagons and whose circumference is inaccessible."
14
The surfac es an d shapes, form s an d lin es that c on stitute the arc hive m ove
steadily toward "fathom less air" an d "in ex haustible stairways." An abyss,
like the un c on sc ious, always right there but elsewhere; n earby an d m ate-
rial, yet always phan tasm atic . In its m aterial spec ific ity, Borges's arc hive is
form less an d a figure of form lessn ess. A phan tasm .
Borges's ex trem e arc hitec ture attem pts to visualiz e the un iverse by
assign in g to every objec t real an d un real, n ow an d yet to c om e, a c ode or
sign , a c orrespon din g figure within the Library. It seeks to ren der totality
visible, to effec t a total visibility an d visuality. The Library of Babel is a view
of the un iverse in side an d out, an X-ray of the un iverse an d un iversal X-ray,
seen from within an d without. It is a represen tation of everywhere: a per-
fec t duplic ation of the un iverse. An d of you: un iversal. An en dless an d
etern al c in em a, an im agin ary arc hive that ex ten ds in to the un iverse un til it
is in distin guishable from it, un til you are in distin guishable from the un iverse.
Does the un iverse that Borges en vision s, the fan tastic arc hive that c on -
tain s every in sc ription an d future in sc ription , also c on tain the rec ord of all
that is n ot on ly un in sc ribed but un in sc ribable, every trac e of the un rec ord-
able an d un represen table? An d what form of trac e does the un in sc ribable
leave? Is the un writable arc hived in the sam e fashion as the un written ?
Does it oc c upy spac e in the sam e way an d presen t itself to the various
regim es of represen tation in the sam e m an n er? Does an arc hive of the un -
in sc ribable ex ist apart from the Library of Babel, or is it the basis of its
possibility, a sec ret arc hitec tural c on dition of the un iversal arc hive? Is the
arc hive of the un in sc ribable, un writable, an d un represen table possible on ly
as the destruc tion of the arc hive? Is it n ec essary to foun d, always in the
ruin s of the arc hive, a shadow arc hive? An other arc hive that replac es
the arc hive, that takes plac e in its ruin as an afterthought an d effec t of
destruc tion ?
8
Whic h arc hive survives in the en d? Whic h on e rem ain s, the arc hive or
its shadow? What rem ain s? On the survival of the arc hive, the un iverse, the
"Library of Babel," Borges's n arrator c on c ludes: "I suspec t that the hum an
spec iesthe un ique spec iesis about to be ex tin guished, but the Library
will en dure: illum in ated, solitary, in fin ite, perfec tly m otion less, equipped
with prec ious volum es, useless, in c orruptible, sec ret."
15
In the Library is
the en d of the world, the true story of the world's en d. Between the fin i-
tude of the whole (the im m in en t ex tin c tion of the hum an spec ies) an d the
sin gular (your death) open s an arc hitec ture of survival: an arc hitec ture
that survives in dividuality an d m ultiplic ity. An arc hitec ture of the world's
en d. It rem ain s, form ed in spac e, m easured an d c alc ulated in spac e, an d yet
in the en d, in an im agin ary en d, form less, avisual, sec ret. In the in fin ite
Library, the total arc hive that ex pan ds outward without en d, the on ly lim it
is you, the lim it that you en c oun ter as your death, your proper lim it. It
is this sole lim it that on e disc overs in the arc hive. You are its on ly lim it,
absolutely sin gular an d un iversal, form less. You are its n uc leus: in divisible
an d sec ret.
There, an arc hive burn s. In the distan c e. Bec ause the arc hive en gen ders an
irreduc ible distan c e regardless of its prox im ity, the arc hive burn s at a rem ove,
always. There, it burn s in a distin c t m an n er pec uliar to arc hives. It burn s
both in tern ally an d ex tern ally: en gulfed by flam es from the outside, pas-
sion an d fever on the in side. A plac e at on c e in terior an d ex posed, im agi-
n ary an d m aterial: a public in teriority an d sec ret ex teriority. An arc hive is
always there, just there, beyon d this poin t, in flam es. As all arc hives are
destin ed to do, this arc hive burn s, is c on stituted as arc hive by burn in g, by
leavin g the trac es, or c in ders, or rem n an ts by whic h eac h arc hive is, in the
en d, c on stituted. In its own en d. This an d all arc hives are realiz ed in destruc -
tion , preserved by the trac es of destruc tion . Those trac es or ruin s of the
arc hive are, in som e fun dam en tal way, n either in tern al n or ex tern al to
the arc hive, n either in side n or outside it. In teriority an d ex teriority aban -
don ed in the arc hitec ture an d geography of the arc hive an d its surroun d-
in gs, the arc hive is the lim it an d the en d of the lim it between in teriority
an d ex teriority.
Bec ause of its un ique arc hitec ture, an arc hive burn s sim ultan eously
from the outside in an d from the in side out. The origin of its destruc tion
c om es from within an d without. In the distan c e an d from the ruin s of the
arc hive em erges the figure of an other arc hive, a sec ret arc hive, an arc hive of
sec rets, "the very ash of the arc hive." A sec ret arc hive c on stituted as sec ret
on the oc c asion of the arc hive's destruc tion . A sec ret that prec edes the
arc hive an d serves as its c on dition of possibility an d im possibility. A sec ret
9
reality. "Reality," Nic olas Abraham an d Maria Torok say, "is defin ed as a
secret."
16
From this reality, on e then two arc hives. An other arc hive that is
essen tial, without bein g an y less foreign to the arc hive it replac es. This
other arc hive takes plac e in the ruin of the arc hive, an even t of the ruin .
Other bec ause, as Jac ques Derrida says, there c an be n o arc hive of the
sec ret itself, "by defin ition ." No arc hive of the sec ret, whic h is, by defin i-
tion , "the very ash of the arc hive."
17
("A sec ret doesn 't belon g, it c an n ever
be said to be at hom e or in its plac e.")
18
"In an arc hive, there should n ot be
an y absolute dissoc iation , an y heterogen eity or secret whic h c ould separate
(secernere), or partition , in an absolute m an n er."
19
By defin ition , the arc hive
is in divisible. In fron t of the arc hive, toward but also in side it, on e stan ds
always before the law of the arc hive, this law of the arc hive, an d defin ed by
it.
20
A law that c alls forth the sec ret in order to ban ish it, but also, always, to
in habit it: the atom ic law of indivisibility.
Un defin ed an d forged in ash, the shadow arc hive, an "arc hive of the
virtual," as Derrida c alls it, erupts from the feverish im agin ation of a mat
d'archive, an arc hive illn ess an d desire that burns with a passion.
21
(An
arc hive sic kn ess in the sen se of a lovesic kn ess, the sec ret arc hive burn s with
a lon gin g an d fever that n urtures the irreduc ible distan c e.)
22
The arc hive
burn s always over there, beyon d the lim its an d the law of the arc hive. In
sec ret an d passion ately. Again st this fever, the sec ret arc hive protec ts the
distan c e, its in teriority from in fec tion , c on tagion , fire.
But a sec ret arc hive is n ot the sam e as an arc hive of sec rets. Am on g var-
ious arc hitec tural theories of the sec ret, psyc hoan alysis m akes possible on e
passage to suc h an arc hive of sec rets by rec ogn iz in g the essen tial heterogen e-
ity of the sec ret. (Sec rets, on e c an say, c on figure spac e heterogen eously.) If,
as Derrida says, there c an be n o heterogen eity of the arc hive, n o sec ret or
separation , then the sec ret, defin ed by the heterogen eity it im poses, dem an ds
an other arc hive, an other form of arc hiviz ation that preserves the hetero-
gen eity. Thus the other arc hive has to be rec ogn iz ed as irreduc ibly other,
even if it retain s a form of prox im ity an d fam iliarity that would otherwise
m ake it appear sim ilar. (Heterogen eous with respec t to the topology an d
the ec on om ies of visibility: the sec ret is n ever loc ated en tirely on the in side
or outside, n ever en tirely visible or in visible. Psyc hoan alysis c an be said to
fun c tion as a kin d of tec hn ology of the in side, an apparatus of the in visi-
, le. It determines, throughout Freud's oeuvre, an archaeology of the
A sc ien c e of the sec ret, a sec ret sc ien c e.) This other tec hn ology of the arc hive,
the arc hive of sec rets, appears in the m ec han ism of repression , whic h is
boun d to the dialec tic s of c on sc iousn ess, but also to m em ory an d history,
two distin c t arc hives separated by the protoc ols of hom ogen eity.
A sc ien c e of m em ory an d c om m em oration , psyc hoan alysis forges
an arc haeology of repression an d of history, brin gin g them together in an
10
un easy stasis. A heterogen eous arc hive of the m em orial an d historial. In
The Gift of Death, Derrida says that "history n ever effac es what it buries; it
always keeps within itself the sec ret of whatever it en c rypts, the sec ret of its
sec ret. This is a sec ret history of kept sec rets."
23
Psyc hoan alysis brin gs
together the flows of m em ory an d history, the person al an d im person al,
in terior an d ex terior lin es of dem arc ation : the elem en ts that at on c e m ake
a heterogen eous thin kin g possible, an d an arc hiveby defin ition im pos-
sible. Psyc hoan alysis, in Derrida's form ulation , m akes an other arc hive
possible, an altern ate arc hive split again st itself, again st the very law of the
arc hive, a shadow arc hive in the distan c e an d alterity of the other. An out-
law or other arc hive, an arc hive of the other, an un c on sc ious arc hive. An
arc hive m ade possible by the heterogen eity in stituted by repression an d
the sec ret. "As if on e c ould n ot," Derrida writes, "rec all an d arc hive the very
thin g on e represses, arc hive it while repressin g it (bec ause repression is an
arc hiviz ation ), that is to say, to arc hive otherwise, to repress the arc hive
while arc hivin g the repression ."
24
To arc hive otherwiseanarchivize.
The open arc hive exposes, it reveals outward. It orien ts itself toward the
outside, form in g a kin d of public in teriority, open in g itself to an d on to a
public spac e. The other arc hive, the shadow or an arc hive, represen ts an
im possible task of the arc hive: to protec t the sec ret, its heterogen eity, an d
divide the arc hive from itself. It is an arc hive that, in the very arc hival task
of preservin g, seeks to repress, effac e, an d destin e its own in teriority to
oblivion . But to what en d? An d how does suc h an an arc hive address the
public from whic h it c on c eals? Giorgio Agam ben , followin g Mic hel Fou-
c ault, form ulates a defin ition of the arc hive that reflec ts the possibilities of
en un c iation within the vic issitudes of m em ory. Mem ory an d oblivion , an d
the said, sayable, an d n ever said determ in e for Agam ben a private an d un i-
versal arc hive of sorts: "Between the obsessive m em ory of tradition , whic h
kn ows on ly what has been said, an d the ex aggerated thoughtlessn ess of
oblivion , whic h c ares on ly for what was n ever said, the arc hive is the un said
or sayable in sc ribed in everythin g by virtue of bein g en un c iated; it is the
fragm en t of m em ory that is always forgotten in the ac t of sayin g 'I.'"
25
A
un iversal arc hive form ed aroun d an d upon an oblivion of the subjec t. (To
this Derrida adds: "On c e I speak I am n ever an d n o lon ger m yself, alon e
an d un ique. It is a very stran ge c on trac tboth paradox ic al an d terrify-
in gthat bin ds in fin ite respon sibility to silen c e an d sec rec y.")
26
Agam -
ben 's fragm en t of m em ory, lost at the m om en t of utterin g "I," destin es the
word, torn from the subjec t in the m om en t of en un c iation an d im m edi-
ately forgotten , to the arc hive of sec rets, an un c on sc ious of the spoken , the
an arc hive. "The arc hive is thus the m ass of the n on -sem an tic in sc ribed in
every m ean in gful disc ourse as a fun c tion of en un c iation ; it is the dark
m argin en c irc lin g an d lim itin g every c on c rete speec h ac t."
27
11
Agam ben 's "dark m argin " of n on sem an tic in sc ription s en c irc les the other
arc hive, an altern ative arc hive outside the arc hive, an arc hive an d par-
archive. A sec ret arc hive an d an arc hive of sec rets, this asem an tic arc hive
survives the arc hive's destruc tion . It is foun ded on its ruin , again st the law
of the arc hive as a paradox . It protec ts what will have been a sec ret, the
topology of the "sec ret history of kept sec rets." The other arc hive, shadow
an d an arc hive, preserves the history that has n ever been a history, a history
before history, destroyed, as it were, before bec om in g history as suc h. An
arc hive of that whic h has n ot been a un iverse of the un arc hivable.
12
1 . T h e S h a d o w A r c h i v e ( A S e c r e t L i g h t )
B u t o f t h e s e c r e t i t s e l f , t h e r e c a n b e n o a r c h i v e , b y d e f i n i t i o n .
T h e s e c r e t i s t h e v e r y a s h o f t h e a r c h i v e . . .
-Jacques Derrida, A r c h i v e F e v e r : A F r e u d i a n I m p r e s s i o n
S
igm un d Freud's Moses and Monotheism: Three Essays (1934-39) an d
Tan iz aki Jun 'ic hiro's In Praise of Shadows (In'ei raisan, 1933-34) dis-
c lose two arc hives that were n ever c on struc ted or, rather, that were
c on struc ted as virtual arc hives. They belon g to an im agin ary arc hitec ture.
Alm ost or n early arc hival, these struc tures n am e two virtual sc ien c es, on e
Jewish, the other "Orien tal." Im agin ary, phan tasm atic , rac ializ ed arc hives.
From two en ds of the twen tieth c en tury, these two arc hives speak to the
question of the en d, an en d, on e c ould say, of the twen tieth c en tury, what
will have been its en din c in ders an d ashes. Psyc hoan alysis, says Jac ques
Derrida, "aspires to be a gen eral sc ien c e of the arc hive, of everythin g that
c an happen to the ec on om y of m em ory an d to its substrates, trac es, doc u-
m en ts, in their supposedly psyc hic al or tec hn oprosthetic form s."
1
A virtual
sc ien c e, perhaps, of the shadow, a shadow sc ien c e.
Moses and Monotheism, whic h serves in part as the oc c asion for Der-
rida's reflec tion on the arc hive, an d m ore gen erally on psyc hoan alysis an d
13
Freud's house in ex ile, begin s with a sec ret. Freud's 1938 "Prefatory Note,"
written in Vien n a before his own ex odus, c on c ludes with this determ in a-
tion : "I shall n ot give this work to the public ."
2
He then adds:
But that n eed n ot preven t m y writin g it. Espec ially as I have written it down
already on c e, two years ago, so that I have on ly to revise it an d attac h it to
the two essays that have prec eded it. It may then be preserved in conceal-
ment till some day the time arrives when it may venture without some danger
into the light, or till som eon e who has reac hed the sam e c on c lusion s an d
opin ion s c an be told: "there was som eon e in darker tim es who thought
the sam e as you!"
3
In to the light without dan ger. Freud's im age of light, a sec ret light of the
future, sustain s the possibility of refuge in visibility as well as the dan ger of
ex posure. His evoc ation of "darker tim es," spoken from a hypothetic al
future, suggests a future light, the light of the futurethe future as a form
of lightbut also the tem poralities of light. What is the tem poral n ature
of light? What is the lum in osity of the future? Both spec ulation s (on the
radian t future, an d the futures of illum in ation ) are boun d by a relation , in
Freud's sec ret prefac e, to in sc ription . To an d toward in sc ription . Writin g is
destin ed to light, but to the un c ertain ty of safety or persec ution . Freud in i-
tiates an ec on om y of writin g in light (photography), of writin g to en lighten
darker tim es, an d of c on sign in g writin g to darkn ess, to dan ger, to suppres-
sion . Writin g is here severed from givin g, relegated in stead to an altern ate
passage to the arc hive. Freud's refusal to give to the public an d the sec rec y
to whic h he in stead gives over Moses and Monotheism reson ates with Der-
rida's in sights on the logic of the gift. In his readin g of Jan Patoc ka, Derrida
says of "the gift that is not a present, the gift that rem ain s in ac c essible, un -
presen table, an d as a c on sequen c e sec ret":
The even t of this gift would lin k the essen c e without essen c e to the gift of
sec rec y. For on e m ight say that a gift that c ould be rec ogn iz ed as suc h in
the light of day, a gift destin ed for rec ogn ition , would im m ediately an n ul
itself. The gift is the sec ret itself, if the sec ret itself c an be told. Sec rec y is
the last word of the gift whic h is the last word of the sec ret.
4
" y withholding his manuscript from the public, Freud initiates an
Iof the gift, a don ation to the arc hive of sec rets. A sec ret do
The spatiohistorical dimensions of Freud's dilemma are interwoven
jE throughout the texts and parentheses that constitute his work: the
T'ty and exteriority of Judaism, Freud's life and the threats that a
14uture of psychoanalysis, and Freud's book on Moses, itself a M
form the book's arc hival dim en sion s. The origin al thesis (a thesis of ori-
gin s) is desc ribed in "Moses an Egyptian ," whic h Freud published in Imago
14
in 1937. It represen ts the first essay of Moses and Monotheism an d posits
the Egyptian origin s of Moses. Freud's thesis suggests the irreduc ible ex te-
riority of Judaism , whic h c om es from elsewhere, em bodied by an Egyp-
tian . Freud sees his assertion as a form of n egation or erasure of essen tial
Judaic propriety, a patric ide. "To deprive a people of the m an whom they
take pride in as the greatest of their son s is n ot a thin g to be gladly or c are-
lessly un dertaken , least of all by som eon e who is him self on e of them ."
5
(Freud has reversed the lin eage, in sc ribin g Moses n ow as the son of Jews;
the patric ide, then , is of the c om m un ity of fathers.) The threat again st him ,
an other son of Judaism , an d again st psyc hoan alysis, in a way Freud's other
patern ity, c om es from within , again st "som eon e who is him self on e of them ."
After an etym ology of the n am e of Moses, whic h proves, ac c ordin g to
Freud, the Egyptian roots of the n am e, Freud offers a spec ulative gen ealogy
of the in dividual: the sec ret c on c eption of Moses to aristoc ratic paren ts,
the prophec y warn in g of im m in en t dan ger to Moses's father, the in fan t
Moses's c on dem n ation to death at birth, ex ile upon the water in a c asket,
resc ue by an im als ("suc kled by a fem ale an im al or by a hum ble wom an "),
return hom e, ven gean c e again st his father, an d "greatn ess an d fam e."
6
The
very n am e an d life of Moses suggest an un c ertain an d c om plex trajec tory,
whic h m oves sec retly from in side to out, outside to in . The lin es that sepa-
rate the spac es proper to Moses are obsc ured by Freud's ac c oun t. The
Egyptian origin s of Moses disc lose, for Freud, "a sec ret in ten tion ," the n eed
to in sc ribe a n arrative of heroism over the foreign n ess of Moses. What is
hidden in tradition al ac c oun ts is the radic al ex teriority of Moses in every
respec t. What is seen as in side, what gives the in side its essen c e, its law, c om es
from the outside, from an un beatable outside, an outside whose ex terior-
ity has been absorbed by the phan tasm of in teriority. The ghost of the out-
side that haun ts the struc ture of the in side, its c on stitution , but also its
arc hive.
In the sec on d essay of the Mosaic , "If Moses Was an Egyptian ...," pub-
lished together with the first in Imago, Freud resum es the question of Moses's
Egyptian roots with n o apparen t break. Or, the break in tim e between the
two essays rem ain s un m arked in the published essays, whic h are c on tin uous.
If the sec on d in stallm en t begin s without the represen tation of a spatial
break, it n on etheless begin s by breakin g the prom ise with whic h Freud
c on c ludes the first essay: "It will therefore be better to leave un m en tion
an y further im plic ation s of the disc overy that Moses was an Egyptian ."
7
Yet
Freud does n ot appear willin g to let go.
Resum in g his spec ulation on the irreduc ible foreign n ess of Moses,
Freud adds to the ex teriorities brought to Jewish tradition an d prac tic e by
Moses m on otheism an d c irc um c ision . Freud c on c ludes his an alysis by
desc ribin g the m urder of Moses an d the ben efit that befell Yahweh, "a violen t
15
an d bloodthirsty" loc al deity, as a result of Moses's religious doc trin e. "The
god Yahweh had arrived at un deserved hon our when , from the tim e of
Kadesh on wards, he was c redited with the deed of liberation whic h had been
perform ed by Moses; but he had to pay heavily for his usurpation ."
8
In a
dialec tic of divin e light, Freud desc ribes the shadow that Moses's god c ast
on the figure of Yahweh.
The shadow of the god whose plac e he had taken bec am e stron ger than
him self; by the en d of the proc ess of evolution , the n ature of the forgotten
god of Moses had c om e to light behin d his own . No on e c an doubt that it
was on ly the idea of this other god that en abled the people of Israel to sur-
vive all the blows of fate an d that kept them alive to our own days.
9
The en d of Freud's n arrative brin gs the history of Mosaic Judaism an d the
Jews to the presen t day. To the day when Freud writes, un der threat of per-
sec ution from within an d without, "to our own days." Moses, the foreign er,
other, outsider, has brought to Judaism its in terior essen c e: m on otheism ,
c irc um c ision , an d a sec ret god. The other god, hidden an d overshadowed,
guides his people from elsewhere. Moses, the m osaic of Moses an d the
essays that c on stitute Freud's book, determ in es a sec ret arc hive, un speak-
able an d in visible, form less in its m osaic heterogen eity, whic h m akes pos-
sible an other history of Judaism . Freud, it seem s, still wan ts to say m ore,
but resists for the tim e bein g: "I n o lon ger feel that I have the stren gth to
do so."
10
In his 1938 Vien n a prefac e, Freud regain s his stren gth an d resum es the
task. "With the audac ity of on e who has little or n othin g to lose, I propose
for a sec on d tim e to break a well-groun ded in ten tion an d to add to m y two
essays on Moses in Imago."
11
Nothin g to lose or n othin g to give. Everythin g
already lost or given , Freud's ten ac ious audac ity revolves aroun d the ques-
tion of the gift an d its relation to loss. Freud's c on tribution to the spec ula-
tive origin s of Mosaic Judaism derives from a gift given when there is little
or n othin g left to lose. In the first of two prefac es to the third an d fin al
in stallm en t of Moses and Monotheism, "Moses, His People, an d Mon otheist
Religion ," Freud iden tifies his n ew persec utors, who n ow threaten him from
without, "the ex tern al dan ger," he says, from within the spac e of the out-
side, the in side out. Notin g the violen t suppression s in Soviet Russia an d
Italy at som e distan c e, the Catholic Churc h at hom e, an d "the relapse in to
alm ost prehistoric barbarism " in Germ an y, Freud rem arks of the Naz i
ex pan sion , "the n ew en em y, to whom we wan t to avoid of bein g servic e, is
m ore dan gerous than the old on e with whom we have already learn t to
c om e to term s."
12
The en em y, the dan ger, is within an d without, surroun d-
in g the spac e of writin g, but already within it. Freud writes this prefac e in
the dark, a writin g he will c on tin ue in sec rec y, as it were, without public a-
16
tion . A private public ity, or public privac y, Freud's gift c on sists of withhold-
in g the gift from an other that already, even before the gift has been of-
fered, refuses to ac c ept it.
A c on c ealed an d sec ret gift that waits to m ove "without dan ger in to the
light," that waits for an other day (som e day other than the presen t day,
"our presen t days," to whic h Jewish history has led) to return , like Moses,
to its destin ation an d hom e. This prefac e m arks a tem porality of the gift
an d of writin g, a tem porality that m easures spac e by the shifts in light an d
darkn ess, in side an d out. The gift n ot given , whose givin g is postpon ed; a
gift suspen ded in tim e, a law, that waits to arrive, defin es the c on tours of a
sec ret arc hive. Given to be seen , there, in som e in c on trovertible m an n er,
but absolutely un seen . In visible in its absolute sec rec y. Freud's gift requires
a form of forgettin g or dissoc iation that c an n ot be in the en d un don e. It
destin es his authorship to the m odes of sec rec y an d pseudon ym y, an d to
c in ders. On the gift an d its relation to "radic al forgettin g," Derrida says:
"The thought of this radic al forgettin g as thought of the gift should ac c ord
with a c ertain ex perien c e of the trace as cinder or ashes."
13
Moses and Monotheism, the tex t an d ecotext that Derrida loc ates in
Archive Fever, determ in es a series of paired term sMoses an d m on otheism ,
Father an d Son , father an d son , darkn ess an d light, in side an d outside,
book an d body, sac rific e an d giftthat are boun d together by an ec on om y
of the sec ret. From the van tage poin t established by Derrida's work, the
c on tours of the other arc hive bec om e visible, an arc hive that follows the
passage of the gift toward an n ihilation , visible ultim ately in its in visibility.
For the gift to rem ain a gift, says Derrida, it m ust n ever be ac kn owledged,
destroyed at on c e, an d forgotten . "The sim ple iden tific ation of the gift seem s
to destroy it It is as if, between the even t or the in stitution of the gift
as such an d its destruc tion , the differen c e were destin ed to be c on stan tly
an n ulled."
14
The gift's destruc tion leaves trac es, like those of an outside
Moses; like the sharads of a frac tured m em ory that pierc e the m n em i
arc hive. Destruc tion of the gift, of the past, of the arc hive: these ac ts are
boun d, from Moses to Freud to Derrida, by the sec ret arc hitec ton ic of the
arc hive.
Freud's gift of ren un c iation c an be seen as arc hitec tural bec ause it puts
in to plac e the struc tures of a sec ret, a topology of the arc hive, but also be-
c ause it establishes the boun daries of the m an usc ript or book, the surfac es
that separate in teriority from ex teriority. Freud c on sign s this m an usc ript
of m an y disparate piec esa virtual an d in fin ite Mosaic to darkn ess, but
also to the outside.
15
"There is no archive without a place of consignation,
without a technique of repetition, and without a certain exteriority. No archive
without outside."
16
Freud ex iles this work to the outside, to a period of
laten c y. "Con c ealed" an d suppressed, Freud's Moses and Monotheism form s
17
a c ryptic arc hive, sealed, sec ret, an d rem ote like the prehistories of Moses
him self. Moses and Monotheism is thus, ac c ordin g to the arc hive's logic ,
destin ed to return from the outside, from the future to whic h it has been
design ated. It is this ex teriority an d deferral that in sc ribes the law of the
arc hive. The ex iled tex t, ban ished to the darkn ess, form s a "prosthesis of
the inside."^
7
It is sen t outward to protec t the in terior, establishin g that
in teriority from the outside. Moses and Monotheism haun ts from the out-
side an d future the origin , the arkhe of the arc hive.
In c on c ealin g the m an usc ript, Freud seeks to protec t it from the destruc -
tive forc es that surroun d him in 1938, the Catholic Churc h an d Nation al
Soc ialism . By Jun e of the sam e year, however, Freud's sec ret arc hive was
c om plete. Freud added a sec on d "Prefatory Note" from Lon don in Jun e
1938. From his n ew house in ex ile, Freud dec ides to m ove outside, in an d
from the outside: "I ven ture to brin g the last portion of m y work before
the public ."
18
"There are n o ex tern al obstac les rem ain in g, or at least n on e
to be frighten ed of," he adds.
19
But the fron tier of this c risis has m oved
in side; the "ex tern al dan gers" are n ow "internal diffic ulties."
20
The m ove-
m en t from ex tern al to in tern al threat in Freud's prefatory pages is m ade
m ore diffic ult by Freud's own m igration from Vien n a to Lon don . Like
Moses, Freud is n ow a foreign er: "Here I n ow live, a welc om e guest."
21
However welc om e, Freud writes from elsewhere. The book has bec om e
unheimlich, far away from Freud's c ity an d hom e where he had lived for
seven ty-eight years sin c e c hildhood. The third essay fin ished, the m an u-
sc ript n ow ready for public ation from En glan d, it was also irreversibly
estran ged from its author. He writes: "I feel un c ertain in the fac e of m y
work; / lack the consciousness of unity and of belonging together which should
exist between an author and his work."
22
As if som eon e else has written this
c on c lusion ; an other Freudin Lon don , in an other househas fin ished
writin g the Mosaic trilogy. He has destroyed the suspen ded gift, whic h n ow
return s to him elsewhere, to an other arc hive, as if to an other. Freud has
been forc ed to destroy his relation ship to the m an usc ript, relin quish his
authorship, to preserve it. It return s to him as the tex t of an other, sign ed by
an other; the book arrives like a return ed gift.
The ac c oun t that Freud offers in the third essay of Moses and Mono-
theism desc ribes the return of the Mosaic religion to those very people, the
Jews, who had sought to an n ihilate it. Trac in g a spec ulative history of the
Mosaic belief to the religion of Aten , whic h in itiated the m ovem en t toward
m on otheism in its worship of the sun god of On (Heliopolis), Freud sug-
gests that the religion of Moses, from the begin n in g foreign , was sum m ar-
18ily rejected and then, after a long dormancy or latency, came to be
the very essen c e of Judaism .
18
We c on fess the belief, therefore, that the idea of a sin gle god, as well as
the rejec tion of m agic ally effec tive c erem on ial an d the stress upon ethic al
dem an ds m ade in his n am e, were in fac t Mosaic doc trin es, to whic h n o
atten tion was paid to begin with, but whic h, after a lon g in terval had lapsed,
c am e in to operation an d even tually bec am e perm an en tly established. How
are we to ex plain a delayed effec t of this kin d an d where do we m eet with
a sim ilar phen om en on ?
23
Shoc k an d traum a form for Freud the an alogy to Moses an d his treatm en t
at the han ds of his followers. Resistan c e an d disc om fort drove Moses away;
sham e an d guilt brought him bac k slowly, quietly, over the c en turies. Of
the aban don m en t of Moses an d his religion by the Jews, Freud says, "all the
ten den tious efforts of later tim es failed to disguise this sham eful fac t."
24
"But," he in sists, "the Mosaic religion had n ot van ished without a trac e; som e
sort of m em ory of it had kept alivea possibly obsc ured an d distorted
tradition ."
25
Som e sort of m em ory, a "possibly obsc ured an d distorted"
sec ret tradition .
A sec ret arc hive had been form ed to keep alive what would have been
destroyed otherwise. In sec ret, the Mosaic arc hive grew larger an d stron ger.
The Mosaic religion had been deposited in to c rypts form ed in obsc ured
an d distorted tradition s, where they were kept laten t un til it was safe to
"ven ture without dan ger in to the light." "The rem arkable fac t with whic h
we are c on fron ted is, however, that these tradition s, in stead of bec om in g
weaker with tim e, bec am e m ore an d m ore powerful in the c ourse of c en -
turies, forc ed their way in to the later revision s of the offic ial ac c oun ts an d
fin ally showed them selves stron g en ough to have a dec isive in fluen c e on
the thoughts an d ac tion s of the people."
26
In Freud's thought, Moses has
been absorbed by the Judaic un c on sc ious, where he c on tin ues to ex ert an
in fluen c e from afar, from obsc urity, from the privileged site of oblivion .
An d it was this tradition of a great past whic h c on tin ued to operate (from
the bac kgroun d, as it were), whic h gradually ac quired m ore an d m ore power
of people's m in ds an d whic h in the en d suc c eeded in c han gin g the god
Yahweh in to the Mosaic god an d in re-awaken in g in to life the religion of
Moses that had been in troduc ed an d then aban don ed lon g c en turies
before.
27
"The determ in an ts whic h m ade this outc om e possible are for the m om en t,"
Freud c on c ludes, "outside our kn owledge."
28
The repressed Mosaic religion
return s to Judaism from the outside as if it were already in side. From an
inside experienced as outside and an outside experienced as inside. Af
gotten outside, an im agin ed in side. The lin es that separate in side from out
have been lost, but m ore sign ific an tly, perhaps, those very spac esin side
19
an d outsidehave c eased to operate topographic ally. Moses return s to
Judaism , as Freud's book, alien an d un c an n y, will on e day c om e bac k to
him . When Moses and Monotheism return s to Freud, it will be as a gift
from an other; as a gift that return s from the in side out. Moses an d Moses
and Monotheism represen t arc hives destroyed an d lost, reim agin ed an d
return eda law an d topography of destruc tion an d return , the very story
of Judaism itself.
To protec t the arc hive, his book of books, the sec ret an d true history of
Moses, Freud has had to rem ove him self from it, has had to erase his rela-
tion to it. This erasure sign als a shift in the ec on om y of the arc hive. The
destruc tion that threaten s the arc hive c han ges from a desire to a drive; it
n o lon ger origin ates in an agen c y (Catholic ism , Naz ism ) but rather in a
forc e, the forc e of destruc tion itself. The fire that illum in ates the darkn ess
of the arc hive also destroys it. Preservation is m ade possible by destruc -
tion , by the figureless drive to destroy. The sec ret arc hive is boun d by this
paradox . The death drive, says Derrida, n ever leaves "an y arc hives of its
own . It destroys in advan c e its own arc hive," leavin g on ly trac es, ghosts. It
"is above all anarchivic."
29
An d yet "the arc hive is m ade possible by the
death, aggression , an d destruc tion drive, that is to say also by origin ary
fin itude an d ex propriation ."
30
The arc hive is driven by destruc tion , by its
relation to death, ac hieved in the fin itude established by the drive. Freud's
n arrative about the un ac kn owledged m urder of Moses, who in troduc ed
the Egyptian prac tic e of c irc um c ision to the Jews, rem ain s overdeterm in ed
by a law of destruc tion .
The drive that at on c e destroys an d preserves the arc hive also ren ders it
spec tral. "It is spec tral a priori" says Derrida: "Neither presen t n or absen t
'in the flesh,' n either visible n or in visible, a trac e always referrin g to an other
whose eyes c an n ever be m et."
31
Neither c orporeal n or ethereal, tran spar-
en t n or opaque, the sec ret arc hive assum es the properties of a phan tom , a
shade. From the c in ders of the arc hive, in its c oolin g em bers, a shadow
appears: a shadow of the arc hive, its im pression , but also a phan tom arc hive.
An arc hive haun ted by the arc hive. An d haun tin g "im plies plac es, a habita-
tion , an d always a haun ted house."
32
The very arc hitec ture of Freud's book is haun ted. Despite the two false
starts, the two prefac es, produc ed tran sn ation ally, an d the len gthy third
essay of the Moses trilogy, Freud is still n ot fin ished. In part 2 of "Moses,
His People, an d Mon otheist Religion ," Freud in terrupts his ex ten ded spec u-
lation with an other prefatory rem ark, an apology for the repetition about
to follow. Freud desc ribes his struggle to give up the them e of Moses, but,
he c on c ludes, "it torm en ted m e like an un laid ghost."
33
Alon gside the apolo-
gies an d ex plan ation s that Freud offers for the tex t's repetitive n ature, with
20
its various stages an d piec es, is the c laim that the book has ex c eeded the
author, his im agin ation , an d his will: like the foreign Moses that haun ts
Judaism , or the m em ory of Moses's god that haun ts Yahweh. "Un luc kily an
author's c reative power," he says, "does n ot always obey his will: the work
proc eeds as it c an , an d often presen ts itself to the author as som ethin g
in depen den t or even alien ."
34
This book presen ts itself to the author, its
sourc e, as if it were alien , other; it gives itself (bac k) to the author from
outside. Freud has allegoriz ed, in his prefac es, the spec ulative history of
Moses he offers in the book. A Moses who also return ed, as if other, to his
origin , to his destin ation , an d yet has also had the trac es of his othern ess
erased by the Judaic arc hive of laten c y an d traum a. Moses haun ts this story
of fathers an d son s, Freud an d writin g, the sec ret arc hive, history an d fan -
tasy, psyc hoan alysis an d the world that surroun ds an d threaten s it.
The arc hive, from the Greek arkheion, Derrida says, design ates "a house, a
dom ic ile," an address that "shelters in itself [the] m em ory of the n am e
ar/c fte."
35
The arc hive is first a buildin g, a physic al struc ture that c arries
within it the trac e of a plac e. Tan iz aki Jun 'ic hiro's reflec tion s on illum in a-
tion an d arc hitec ture c arry som e trac es, from an other side of the twen tieth
c en tury, of the ex ile that m arks an y relation to the arc hive. Tan iz aki's iron ic
thesis on the Japan ese house, In Praise of Shadows, represen ts a lam en t, an
elegy for a Japan ese arc hitec ture destroyed by illum in ation , by an elec tric
forc e, whic h disperses the shadows that lin ger in an d c on stitute the essen c e
of the Japan ese house. The work is haun ted, like Freud's spec ulation s on
Moses, by an atm osphere of ex ile an d the shadow of destruc tion .
Tan iz aki's dilem m a throughout In Praise of Shadows c on c ern s the in te-
gration of elec tric ityapplian c es an d wirin g, but also heat, n oise, an d
"ex c essive illum in ation "in to the surfac es of the tradition al Japan ese
house. In his desc ription s of prac tic al solution s for rec on c ilin g tradition
with m odern iz ation , Tan iz aki in c ites an iron ic polem ic between Western
an d Japan ese style an d form , hygien e an d visibility, lum in osity an d opac ity,
an d the in teriority an d ex teriority of the body, as well as the house. Various
spac es of the house are m easured by their effec ts on the hum an body, by
the degree with whic h they absorb the body, form in g an ex oskeleton aroun d
it. Rec ogn iz ed as a disc ourse on arc hitec ture an d the Japan ese hou
Tan iz aki's treatise also provides an ex ten ded spec ulation on the Japan ese
body an d the ex ten t to whic h that body is in divisible from the arc hitec tural
spac es that surroun d it, that have been , prec isely, c on struc ted to house it.
Of the "Orien tal" preferen c e for a dark aesthetic s, Tan iz aki says, "Were it
n ot for shadows, there would be n o beauty":
21
Our an c estors m ade of wom an an objec t in separable from darkn ess, like
lac querware dec orated in gold or m other-of-pearl. They hid as m uc h of
her as they c ould in shadows, c on c ealin g her arm s an d legs in the folds
of lon g sleeves an d skirts, so that on e part an d on e on ly stood outher
fac e.
36
On ly the fac e of Tan iz aki's an c estral wom an stan ds apart from the dark-
n ess that en velops an d hides her, but also c on stitutes her in an d from the
shadows. She is in separable from the shadow, in divisible from the spac e
that en gulfs her. In Praise of Shadows ex plores the question of visibility
an d divisibility (as well as in visibility an d in divisibility), an d the in trin sic
relation between the two c on c epts.
Am on g the reflec tion s that Tan iz aki offers on Japan ese arc hitec ture is
his disc ourse on the toilet, a spac e he qualifies as "perfec tion " (riso, ideal).
The lim in al spac e it oc c upies within an d without the m ain body of the
house, its prox im ity to the outside, an d its shadowy illum in ation distin -
guish, in Tan iz aki's disc ourse, the Japan ese toilet as the last vestige of a van -
ishin g arc hitec ture of the sen ses. Tan iz aki's toilet, where the author spec u-
lates that c oun tless haiku were born , surroun ds the oc c upan t with the
tex tures of n ature, en han c in g what Tan iz aki, followin g Natsum e Soseki,
c alls a "physiologic al delight." In this disc ourse, Tan iz aki c on n ec ts arc hitec -
ture with an arc hitec ton ic s of the body: the spac e of the toilet that surroun ds
the body serves as a type of skin , an ex oskeletal surfac e that ex ten ds the
body's lim its outward. In the toilet that Tan iz aki im agin es, the body dis-
appears, is absorbed in to the arc hitec ture an d en viron m en t determ in ed by
the lim in ality of the toilet. In the spac e m ade possible by the toilet, the
hum an body an d n ature are fused: in distin guishable an d in divisible. In side
an d outside an d n either within n or without the house, the body van ishes,
form in g an arc hive that span s from the in n erm ost in teriority of the body
to the vast ex teriority that surroun ds it. The fram e is both in side an d out:
"Gestell," says Martin Heidegger of his hom on ym ic n eologism , "is also
the n am e for a skeleton ."
37
In the toilet's in tim ate spac e, the plac e where
the body perform s its m ost essen tial ac tivities, the body is lost. Lost in the
ex teriority of its m ost essen tial ac tivities.
Tan iz aki's polem ic again st Western toilets takes the form of a disdain
excessive illumination and its association with hygiene. The dialectic of
shadow an d light, "elegan t" frigidity an d "steam y" heat, in Tan iz aki's elabo-
ration turn s to the idiom of c lean lin ess an d sex uality, when he again
in vokes the figure of a wom an . Of the sterile c lean lin ess of Western toilets,
white an d tiled, Tan iz aki writes, "What n eed is there to rem in d us so forc e-
fully of the issue of our own bodies. A beautiful wom an , n o m atter how
lovely her skin , would be c on sidered in dec en t were she to show her bare
22
buttoc ks or feet in the presen c e of others; an d how very c rude an d tasteless
to ex pose the toilet to suc h ex c essive illum in ation ."
38
Tan iz aki's use of the
figure of a wom an with beautiful skin who bec om es obsc en e by revealin g
her "bare buttoc ks or feet" is itself revealin g in the c orporeality that sus-
tain s his disc ourse on what is perhaps the m ost c orporeal spac e of the
house. The toilet is an thropom orphic , gen dered, an d fem in iz ed in Tan iz aki's
im agin ation ; its dark surfac e like the skin of a wom an 's body. Visibility
m akes the sec ret body in dec en t. Light is equated with in dec en c y, en han c ed
visibility with grotesque visuality. The ex posed fem ale figure em erges in
several key historic al an d rhetoric al in stan c es from the dream of psyc ho-
an alysis to the disc overy of X-rays, determ in in g a c ruc ial relation ship with
tropes of in teriority, in visibility, an d the arc hive. Of the c on n ec tion between
ex c ess visibility an d san itation , Tan iz aki c on c ludes: "The c lean lin ess of what
c an be seen on ly c alls up the m ore c learly thoughts of what c an n ot be seen .
In suc h plac es the distin c tion between the c lean an d the un c lean is best left
obsc ure, shrouded in a dusky haz e."
39
Light an d c lean lin ess, represen ted by
the overex posed body, are opposed, in Tan iz aki's logic , by the dark body,
shaded, obsc ure, an d un c lean .
Tan iz aki c on tin ues by ex tollin g the aesthetic value of "the glow of grim e."
"If in deed 'elegan c e is frigid (followin g Saito Ryoku,/wryw wa samuki mono
n an '),'" he says, "it c an as well be desc ribed as filthy." The un c lean gen erates
beauty, an elegan c e proper to it, but also produc es its own light, or glow.
There is n o den yin g, at an y rate, that am on g the elem en ts of the elegan c e
in whic h we take so m uc h delight is a m easure of the un c lean , the un san i-
tary. I suppose I shall soun d terribly defen sive if I say that Western ers
attem pt to ex pose every spec k of grim e an d eradic ate it, while we Orien tals
c arefully preserve an d even idealiz e it.
40
Un c lean lin ess determ in es for Tan iz aki a form of n egative lum in osity, but
also an ex perien c e of tem porality spec ific to the im proper. "For better or
for worse," he c on c ludes, "we do love thin gs that bear the m arks of grim e,
soot, an d weather, an d we love the c olors an d the sheen that c all to m in d
the past that m ade them ."
41
Darkn ess an d un c lean lin ess ac t as souven irs of
the past, as photographic m em en tos. They produc e an im propriety of the
subjec t, an un c lean lin ess that divides the subjec t from itself. In the revi-
sion ist logic of Tan iz aki's theory of the un c lean an d im proper, that whic h
c om es to the body from the past, the grim e that ac c rues to the body over
tim e, divides the body from its en viron m en t, but also c om es to form the
body as suc h: what is im proper bec om es proper, what is added to the body
from the outsidefrom elsewhere, but also the pastbec om es in trin sic to
the body. The un c lean body an d the un c lean spac es that surroun d an d ad-
here to it c om e to represen t an authen tic state of the body as fun dam en tally
23
im proper. The elegan t body is that whic h has been c on tam in ated, a surfac e
m arked by the passage of tim e an d the dec ay of m atter, whose propriety is
n o lon ger disc ern ible. Neither person al n or im person al, the dark body that
Tan iz aki im agin es em its an obsc ure light that destroys the lin es between
in side an d out.
From private to public , a distin c tion destroyed by ex c ess light, Tan iz aki
c on siders the Western iz ed arc hitec ture of twen tieth-c en tury Japan . Of the
Western -style hotel, an arc hive of the other in m odern Japan , Tan iz aki
c om plain s about the lights an d, m ore im portan t, the heat they em it. "Worse
than the waste," he says, "is the heat."
42
In the Miyako Hotel in Kyoto,
Tan iz aki desc ribes "a white c eilin g dotted with huge m ilk glass lights, eac h
sen din g forth a blin din g blaz e."
43
"On e c an en dure a Japan ese room all the
sam e, for ultim ately the heat esc apes through the walls. But in a Western -
style hotel c irc ulation is poor, an d the floors, walls, an d c eilin gs drin k in
the heat an d throw it bac k from every direc tion with un bearable in ten sity."
44
The ex c essive illum in ation (here a Western im position , enlightenment)
drives away the shadows:
As in m ost rec en t Western -style buildin gs, the c eilin gs are so low that on e
feels as if balls of fire [ hi no tamo] were blaz in g direc tly above on e's head.
"Hot" is n o word for the effec t, an d the c loser to the c eilin g the worse it
isyour head an d n ec k an d spin e feel as if they were bein g roasted. On e
of these balls of fire alon e would suffic e to light the plac e, yet three or four
blaz e down from the c eilin g, an d there are sm aller version s on the walls
an d pillars, servin g n o fun c tion but to eradic ate every trac e of shadow.
An d so the room is devoid of shadows.
45
In the elec tric Western arc hive, in the arkheion, radiation desc en ds from
above an d assails the body like a fever. It burn s away the shadows, the vir-
tual arc hive of an Orien tal sc ien c e. Total illum in ation . The blin din g heat
dispels for Tan iz aki the phen om en on of an in terior "visible darkn ess"
(akari ni terasareta yami, an illum in ated darkn ess), "where always som e-
thin g seem ed to be flic kerin g an d shim m erin g, a darkn ess that on oc c asion
held greater terrors than darkn ess out-of-doors."
46
The terror of shadows
is replac ed, in Tan iz aki's ac c oun t, by the blin din g, burn in g forc e of light.
Tan iz aki c on c ludes his disc ourse on the house, the arkheion, by sum -
m on in g an other dom ic ile, his proper dwellin g; "the m an sion c alled litera-
ture" (bungaku to iu dendo, a palac e).
I would c all bac k at least for literature this world of shadows we are losin g.
In the m an sion c alled literature I would have the eaves deep an d the walls
dark, I would push bac k in to the shadows the thin gs that c om e forward too
c learly. I do n ot ask that this be don e everywhere, but perhaps we m ay be
24
allowed at least on e m an sion where we c an turn off the elec tric lights an d
see what it is like without them .
47
Tan iz aki c on c eives of literature as a residen c e, private an d public , in divid-
ual an d n ation al, im agin ary an d m ateriala fan tastic m an sion or arc hive.
A shadow arc hive an d an arc hive of shadows, the literary arc hitec ton ic
dem an ds a resistan c e to ex c essive illum in ation . Again st the drives of light
an d ex posure, Tan iz aki im agin es a shadow arc hive, a literary arc hive of the
Orien t. To write literature, in Tan iz aki's idiom , is to ex ten d darkn ess, or at
least to in c rease shadows, to in troduc e a visible darkn ess without light. A
pec uliar but prec ise logic perm eates Tan iz aki's disc ourse: to write is to
ex pan d darkn ess, to in sc ribe darkn ess, whic h form s in the en d an arc hive.
The arc hive is possible on ly as suc h a shadow arc hitec ture. Like Freud's
m osaic thesis, itself a theory of the Orien t an d an Orien talist revision of
Judaism , Tan iz aki artic ulates a c om plex theory of writin g an d in teriority,
sec rec y, an d visuality. At the threshold of a lim it, an abyss from whic h the
very idiom of light would c han ge irreversibly an d forever, Freud an d
Tan iz aki perform two ac ts of sec ret writin g, two form s of shadow writin g,
whic h seek to protec t two arc hives un der assault in the 1930s.
In 1945 a Western forc e greater than elec tric ity desc en ded on the Japa-
n ese arkheion. The atom ic assaults on Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki by the
Un ited States un leashed the heat an d light of atom s, whic h threaten ed n ot
on ly the Japan ese arc hive but the "m an sion c alled literature," the literary
arc hive. It threaten ed to destroy the trac e, to destroy even the shadows.
The possibility of n uc lear war, Derrida writes, "is obviously the possibility
of an irreversible destruc tion , leavin g n o trac es, of the juridic o-literary
arc hivethat is total destruc tion of the basis of literature an d c ritic ism ."
48
Derrida c on sign s the n uc lear war to the arc hive, literature, an d the hum an
habitat as an absolute referen t. The fable of n uc lear war (the story of a
possible history yet to c om e) serves as the lim it again st whic h the arc hive
survives: "If, ac c ordin g to a struc turin g hypothesis, a fan tasy or a phan tasm ,
n uc lear war is equivalen t to the total destruc tion of the arc hive, if n ot of
the hum an habitat, it bec om es the absolute referen t, the horiz on an d c on -
dition of all others."
49
The hypothetical referen t of a "total an d rem ain der-
less destruc tion of the arc hive," Derrida in sists, rem ain s a fable, a fabulous
fic tion , whic h align s it in som e fun dam en tal m an n er with literature, the
arkheion or m an sion of literature, the law of literature.
If "literature" is the n am e we give to the body of tex ts whose ex isten c e,
possibility, an d sign ific an c e are the m ost radic ally threaten ed, for the
first an d last tim e, by the n uc lear c atastrophe, that defin ition allows our
thought to grasp the essen c e of literature, its radic al prec ariousn ess an d
the radic al form of its historic ity.
30
25
A e r i a l v i e w o f H i r o sh i m a .
In this light, in the light of a searin g Western heat, Tan iz aki's an x iety over
the vuln erability of the literary m an sion , its fragility, appears presc ien t.
Tan iz aki trem bles before a light still to c om e, un der the first waves of c ata-
strophic heat. A light that has already begun to appear, but has yet to reveal
the full ex ten t of its radian c e. A radiation that arrives as atom ic light an d
brin gs absolute destruc tion . Yet, as Derrida n otes, the "ex plosion of Am er-
ic an bom bs in 1945 en ded a 'c lassic al,' c on ven tion al war; it did n ot set off a
n uc lear war."
51
The last war, whic h divided all wars from future wars, from
the im possibility of war; the last c on ven tion al war was a divided war, n o
lon ger on e, a war that c an n o lon ger be on e. In the en d, the m an sion
rem ain ed, rem ain s, manure, still stan ds an d stan ds still in the sm olderin g
em bers of the arc hive. "Trac e destin ed, like everythin g, to disappear from
itself, as m uc h in order to lose the way as to rekin dle m em ory. The c in der
is ex ac t: bec ause without trac e it prec isely trac es m ore than an other, an d
the other trac e(s)."
52
The "total an d rem ain derless destruc tion of the
arc hive" rem ain s a hypothesis c ast ben eath the shadows of the arc hive.
When the sm oke dissipates, the in c in erated arc hive resurfac es, an arc hive
in ruin , of ruin s, of ashes. "Ilya la cendre" "c in ders there are." From Cinders:
"What a differen c e between c in der an d sm oke: the latter apparen tly gets
lost, an d better still, without perc eptible rem ain der, for it rises, it takes to
the air, it is spirited away, sublim ated [subtilise et sublime]. The c in der
26
The Atomi c B omb D ome (Genbaku domu), originally known as the Hiroshima P refectural
Industrial P romotion Hall, was one of the few buildings to remain standing within a t wo-
k i l o m e t e r r a d i u s o f g r o u n d ze r o .
falls, tires, lets go, m ore m aterial sin c e it fritters away its word; it is very
divisible."
53
Derrida's distin c tion between sm oke, whic h dissipates in to the
sky, an d c in ders, whic h fall to the groun d, rem ain in g divisible an d m ate-
rial, illum in ates a paradox , perhaps an irrec on c ilable c on tradic tion in the
visual ec on om y of the c on c ept an d trope of c in ders. Cin ders are, in Der-
rida's idiom , what rem ain s of a body that has van ished without a trac e. "It
is a trope that c om es to take the plac e of everythin g that disappears with-
out leavin g an iden tifiable trac e Everythin g is an n ihilated in the c in ders.
Cin ders is the figure of that of whic h n ot even c in ders rem ain s in a c ertain
way. There is n othin g that rem ain s of it."
54
Divisible, then , un til n othin g
rem ain s: c in ders in c ite an absolute divisibility. Nothin g rem ain s, n o trac e
whatsoever, ex c ept divisibility as suc h. When the objec t of in c in eration has
disappeared without a trac e, on ly the c in ders, whic h disappear them selves
without a trac e, rem ain .
There, in the pyroprosthesis of the arc hive, are c in ders."// y a la cendre."
"Nothin g will have taken plac e but the plac e."
55
Of the plac e of the arc hive,
its Dasein, Derrida poses the followin g question : "How are we to thin k of
there? An d this taking place or this having a place of the arkhet" For Der-
rida, the topology of the arc hive, its geography, requires on e to thin k an d
write atom ic ally. "From this poin t on , a series of c leavages will in c essan tly
divide every atom of our lex ic on ."
56
In the arc hive, or toward it, lan guage
bec om es atom ic m ic rosc opic , deconstructed, splittin g in c essan tly in to
n ear im perc eptibility. Atom ic writin g produc es an other site of writin g,
27
an other sc en e, spac e, or arc hive in whic h an other writin g, sec ret an d di-
vided, hides. A gen re of the other trac e, atom ic writin g m oves on ly toward
the in divisible poin t, the en d of divisibility, toward an irreduc ible figure,
the fan tastic subjec t of atom ic writin g, "you." The "arc hivin g trac e," Der-
rida c on c ludes, "its im m an en t divisibility, the possibility of its fission , [is]
haun ted from the origin ."
57
Again st the arc hivin g trac e em erges the atom ic
trac e, or c in ders, whic h threaten s to reduc e the im m an en t divisibility of
the trac e to an irreduc ible, in divisible, in visible afterim age: it threaten s an
atom ic reac tion that will in c in erate the arc hive.
The fire: what on e c an n ot ex tin guish in this trac e am on g others that is
a c in der. Mem ory or oblivion , as you wish, but of the fire, trait that still
relates to the burn in g. No doubt the fire has withdrawn , the c on flagration
has been subdued, but if c in der there is, it is bec ause the fire rem ain s in
retreat. By its retreat it still feign s havin g aban don ed the terrain . It still
c am ouflages, it disguises itself, ben eath the m ultiplic ity, the dust, the
m akeup powder, the in sisten t pharm akon of a plural body that n o lon ger
belon gs to itselfn ot to rem ain n earby itself, n ot to belon g to itself, there
is the essen c e of the c in der, its c in der itself.
58
"A plural body that n o lon ger belon gs to itself," says Derrida. The other
bodydivided from itselfis defin ed by the fire, by the shadow it c asts
on the body, by the c in ders it leaves on the body's surfac e, on its skin . The
fire retreats in to the shadow, hides on ly to retrac e the path of the sec ret
destruc tion of a virtual arc hive c arried on the body, a m n em ic arc hive
in sc ribed on the surfac e of the skin burn ed, as it were, on the skin 's
surfac e.
The pellic ular surfac esskin an d film yield an arc hive m arked on
the body. In the Freudian arc hive, Derrida disc overs "a private inscription"
on a book given to Freud from his father. The in sc ription is m ade on the
book's skin , on the skin that c on stitutes the book's pages. Derrida says: "A
very sin gular m on um en t, it is also the doc um en t of an arc hive. In a reiter-
ated m an n er, it leaves the trac e of an in c ision right on the skin ."
59
The pri-
vate arc hive that m oves in this in stan c e from father to son in the form of a
gift takes plac e on the surfac e of the book an d the skin :
The foliac eous stratific ation , the pellic ular superim position of these c uta-
n eous m arks seem s to defy an alysis. It ac c um ulates so m an y sedim en ted
arc hives, som e of whic h are written right on the epiderm is of a body proper,
others on the substrate of an "ex terior" body. Eac h layer here seem s to gape
slightly, as the lips of a woun d, perm ittin g glim pses of the abyssal possibil-
ity of an other depth destin ed for arc haeologic al ex c avation .
60
28
The private in sc ription elic its an arc haeology of the surfac e. To dig deeper,
to ex c avate, is to return to the surfac e n ot as the in ability to probe depths
but rather as the c apac ity to ren der the abyssal features of the surfac e. A
prehistory of the surfac e, an an c ien t history of the m om en t, of eac h
m om en t at that m om en t. What rem ain s in the destruc tion of the arc hive
return s always to the surfac e, to the skin , as a skin , a rem ain der etc hed
on to the skin , a book. A "m em ory," Derrida c alls it, "without m em ory of a
m ark."
61
The m em ories of the m ark arc hived in the ac t of m arkin g are also vio-
len t an d destruc tive, registered in this c ase, in the gift from father to son .
The relation of father to son , gen etic an d theologic , is boun d by the gift of
death, by the im possible ec on om y of sac rific e. Gen etic , in stin c tive, but also
profoun dly psyc hologic al, the im pulse of the gift appears, ac c ordin g to
Derrida, in Freud's n otion of the drive, spec ific ally the death drive. This
drive, the m ost in terior of in terior c on dition s, leaves its m ark on the skin ,
says Derrida; it form s on the body a set of in sc ription s that turn s it, like
Hoic hi's body, in to a book, an arc hive of private in sc ription s. Of the
im pression s left by Freud's death drive, Derrida rem arks: "This im pression
of erogen ous c olor draws a m ask right on the skin These im pression s
are perhaps the very origin of what is so obsc urely c alled the beauty of the
beautiful. As m em ories of death."
62
Suc h m em ories of death lin ger on
the skin as a form of ex terioriz ed sec rets. For Derrida, m em ories return to
the body, to its surfac es an d depths, like a giftthis partic ular gift, this
bookfrom death.
63
They return on an d below the body's surfac es as
m ovin g im pression s, as a m obile affec tivity. "A sec ret," says Derrida, "al-
ways makes you trem ble... a c ertain irrepressible agitation of the body, the
un c on trollable in stability of its m em bers or of the substan c e of the skin or
m usc les."
64
The im pression s to whic h Derrida alludes, always sec ret, always
in sc ribed in the n on sem an tic sc ript of the sec ret, are n on etheless "scrip-
tural or typographic."
65
Drawn on the skin , in sc ribed yet c ryptic , a scrypt.
Derrida's spec tral topology of the arc hive m akes possible the return to
two other arc hives, two arc hives of the other, two shadow arc hives that
appeared in the sam e phan tasm atic year as psyc hoan alysis.
From c in ders an d skin to shadows an d im pression s, an other arc hive of
surfac es em erges in the arc haeology of the surfac e, of the arc hive, the sec ret
arc hive of surfac es. In 1895, the year that Freud an d Josef Breuer published
Studies on Hysteria, photography c rossed the threshold of the hum an body
with the pen etratin g light of the X-ray. Referred to altern ately as skia-
graphs, photographs in reverse, or shadow sc ripts, X-rays ex posed the
29
sec rets of the body, its depths, c ollapsin g the essen tial divide between sur-
fac e an d depth, an d ren derin g the body a deep surfac e. Also in 1895, a set
of in stitution al, ec on om ic , an d tec hn ologic al c on dition s n ow kn own as
c in em a em erged. An im ated an d projec ted photographs c om pressed the vol-
um e of life on to a sc reen , effec tin g an an im ated, photographic , an d elec tric
view that m ain tain ed, through the apparatus of the len s, a flat three-
dim en sion ality. On the surfac e, on surfac es, X-rays an d c in em a in troduc ed
two form s of radic al photography, two m odes of writin g with light that
establishedalm ost at on c en ew arc hives m arked by a profoun d super-
ficiality. Both graphic system s offered ex trem e, even ex c essive m odes of
visuality that c am e to be seen , paradox ic ally, as m odes of in visibility, or
un seeability, c hallen gin g the n otion of in teriority, of en vision in g an d prob-
in g in teriority, but also the c on dition s of visuality as suc h. Eac h arc hive
bec am e, at the m om en t of its appearan c e, an an tiarc hive, an an arc hive, a
sec ret arc hive of the visible.
X-rays an d c in em a, alon g with the tec hn ique of psyc hoan alysis, estab-
lished in 1895 n ew tec hn ologies for visualiz in g the in side, for im agin in g
in teriority; but they also tran sform ed the c on dition s of visuality as suc h.
Am on g the m an y effec ts of this rec on figuration of the in side an d out, sur-
fac e an d depth, visuality an d avisuality was the form ation of a sec ret visu-
ality. "Sin c e thin gs an d m y body are m ade of the sam e stuff," says Mauric e
Merleau-Pon ty, "vision m ust take plac e in them ; their m an ifest visibility
m ust be repeated in the body by a secret visibility."
66
The c on tiguity of the
body an d thin gs, fused by the "sam e stuff," form s in side Merleau-Pon ty's
im agin ary body a regim e of sec ret visibility in trin sic to the body. X-ray, c in -
em a, psyc hoan alysis provided a view of the sec ret visibility, n ot an ac c ess or
open in g as suc h, but a m ode of avisuality. Those n ew phen om en ologies
in troduc ed an alien you, sec ret an d distan t in its prox im ity to you. There, on
the surfac e, but alien . A sec ret visuality of you as an other, of you, who is
here, in this im age, pic tured in the fram e of a sin gular in teriority, elsewhere
an d other. You are photographeddisc overed an d ex posedin the ec on -
om y of a sec ret visuality. Seen in sec ret, seen sec retly, a sc en e of sec rec y.
Of sec ret visuality, Derrida asks, "To see in sec retwhat c an that
m ean ?"
67
A sec ret optic s? A visible spec trum n o lon ger m aterial an d un i-
versal but pron e to the pec uliar ec on om ies of the subjec t, desire, an d
sec rec y? Derrida im agin es a sec ret kept from the visible world, a sec ret
secrecy is maintained by the other senses.
On e m ight im agin e a sec ret that c ould on ly be pen etrated or traversed,
un don e or open ed as a sec ret, by hearin g, or on e that would on ly allow
itself to be touc hed or felt, prec isely bec ause in that way it would esc ape
the gaz e or be in visible, or in deed bec ause what was visible in it would
30
keep sec ret the sec ret that wasn 't visible. On e c an always reveal to the gaz e
som ethin g that still rem ain s sec ret bec ause its sec ret is ac c essible on ly to
the sen ses other than sight.
68
The arc hive is form ed here in the other sen ses; an arc hive of the visible that
rem ain s sec ret, a visible sec ret, a sec ret of the visible. Supplem en tal, the
arc hive of sec ret visuality appears in the other sen ses, everywhere but in visu-
ality. (Merleau-Pon ty c alls this an "ec ho.")
69
Derrida's sec ret is here m ain -
tain ed on ly un der the regim e of the visible from whic h it is ex c luded.
("The sec ret that is for m e is what I c an 't see.")
70
What is seen c an rem ain
n on etheless in visible. What is n on etheless available through a system of
the arc hive c an rem ain in visible. Suc h arc hives leave trac es, shadows, rem -
n an ts in lieu of visible doc um en ts. "That whic h is hidden , as that whic h
rem ain s in ac c essible to the eye or han d, is n ot n ec essarily en c rypted in the
derivative sen ses of that wordc iphered, c oded, to be in terpretedin
c on trast to bein g hidden in the shadows."
71
To rem ain in the shadows, hid-
den , does n ot n ec essarily im ply en c ryption , un less the very n ature of the
shadow is seen n ot as the n egation of light but as the property of light an d
visuality that em bodies its own positive attributes. A shadow m ateriality
that illum in ates a m aterial darkn ess.
In The Gift of Death, Derrida desc ribes two m odes of in visibility, two
ways in whic h the in visible appears. The first he design ates with a hyphen ,
"in -visibility." Of this first order of in visibility, Derrida says: "There is a vis-
ible in -visible, an in visible order of the visible that I c an keep sec ret by
keepin g out of sight. This in visible c an be artific ially kept from sight while
rem ain in g within what on e c an c all ex teriority."
72
Sec ret an d outside, in vis-
ible, says Derrida, bec ause kept out of sight. He offers two ex am pleson e
atom ic , on e c orporealin an ex ten ded paren thesis.
(If I hide a n uc lear arsen al in un dergroun d silos or hide ex plosives in a
c ac he, there is a visible surfac e in volved; an d if I hide a part of m y body
un der c lothes or a veil, it is a m atter of c on c ealin g on e ben eath an other;
whatever on e c on c eals in this way bec om es in visible but rem ain s within
the order of visibility; it rem ain s c on stitutively visible. In the sam e way but
ac c ordin g to a differen t struc ture, what on e c alls the in terior organ of the
bodym y heart, m y kidn eys, m y blood, m y brain are n aturally said to
be in visible, but they are still of the order of visibility: an operation or an
ac c iden t c an ex pose them or brin g them to the surfac e; their in teriority is
provision al an d brin gin g their in visibility in to view is som ethin g that c an
be proposed or prom ised.)
73
The body's in teriority is provision al, like a n uc lear arsen al hidden un der-
groun d, in the earth. Although eac h is hidden from sight, they still belon g
31
to the order of the visible. In eac h c ase, the visibility is there but hidden ,
sec ret. "All that," Derrida c on c ludes, "is of the order of the visible in -visible."
74
Derrida's figure for in -visibility m oves from the atom ic weapon to the
body's in terior; both c an be ex posed by an "operation or ac c iden t." In this
light, ac c ordin g to the logic of in -visibility, the X-ray or skiagraph c an be
seen as an apparatus, a tec hn ique an d tec hn ology, that seeks to ren der the
in -visible visible, to ex pose the body's provision al in teriority, but also to
view the in -visible without disturbin g its sec rec y. X-rays rec ord on ly the
shadows of a sec ret, its trac e, the plac e where it hides. Not so m uc h an ex -
posure as a disc losure, the X-ray reveals sec ret visibility as a m ode of sec ret
visuality, showin g what n on etheless rem ain s in visible, without operation
or ac c iden t.
The sec on d order of in visibility Derrida c alls "absolute in visibility."
"But there is also absolute in visibility, the absolutely n on -visible that refers
to whatever falls outside of the register of sight, n am ely the son orous, the
m usic al, the voc al or phon ic (an d hen c e the phon ologic al or disc ursive in
the stric t sen se), but also tac tile an d odoriferous."
75
This order of in visibil-
ity is n ever given to sight; it resides in the other sen ses as in visible. It is, in
a phen om en ologic al sen se, absolutely outside vision . Absolute in visibility
establishes a form of sec rec y preserved in the other sen ses. A visibility that
takes plac e elsewhere, outside, but still, in som e m an n er, visible, even as
n on visible. That is, even absolute in visibility or n on visibility rem ain s a
form of sec ret visibility: it is seen in the other sen ses, as an other sen se. To
see in an other register, to hear or sm ell an im age, to touc h it. So it is given
to be seen , on ly som ewhere else. To see otherwise, to see in an other sen se,
to see in sec ret.
Derrida's orders of visibility ex ten d, in both in stan c es, "beyon d the vis-
ible."
76
The in -visible withdraws from visibility without disappearin g from
the realm of the visible world, like a han d that c on c eals itself un der the
table: "My han d is visible as suc h but I c an ren der it in visible."
77
The other,
absolute in visibility falls en tirely outside the "register of sight." Together,
Derrida's ex c ess visualities m ight poin t to a c ategory of c om plex visuality, a
system of visuality that shows n othin g, shows in the very plac e of the visi-
ble, som ethin g else: avisuality. Avisuality n ot as a form of in visibility, in the
sen se of an absen t or n egated visibility: n ot as the an tithesis of the visible
but as a spec ific m ode of im possible, un im agin able visuality. Presen ted to
vision , there to be seen , the avisual im age rem ain s, in a profoun dly ir-
reduc ible m an n er, un seen . Or rather, it determ in es an ex perien c e of seein g,
a sen se of the visual, without ever offerin g an im age. A visuality without
im ages, an un im agin able visuality, an d im ages without visuality, avisuality.
All sign s lead to a view, but at its destin ation , n othin g is seen . What is seen
is this absen c e, the m ateriality of an avisual form or body. Like Derrida's
32
T h e A t o m i c B o m b D o m e .
han d ren dered in visible; like Freud's sec ret m an usc ript withdrawn from
view, from the sc en e of writin g; like Tan iz aki's Orien tal body, lost as it
were, in the shadow arc hives of the Japan ese house. This is a visuality that
moves away from view, a c in em a, an d on e that burns away from view, c in -
ders. Boun d by the sec ret hom on ym an d visuality form ed from two rom an -
iz ed c lassic al prefix es, cine. A sec ret sign an d hom on ym that sign ifies in
two registers, brin gin g together ashes an d m ovem en t. To cinefy: to m ake
m ove, to m ake c in em a an d to in c in erate, to reduc e to ashes. Trac es an d resi-
dues of m ovem en t, an d the m ovem en t of ashes. Cinefaction. Like the true
story of your death, a sec ret c in em a, registered in the un im agin able depths
an d in teriorities of the Library of Babel at the en d of the un iverse. Burn in g
an d disappearin g, atom ic ...
33
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2. M o d e s o f A v i s u a l i t y :
P s g c h o a n a l g s i s - X - r a y - C i n e m a
S
igm un d Freud's dream of visualiz in g the un c on sc ious, his wish to
arc hive the un c on sc ious as a psyc hosem iography, c am e to him in late
July 1895. It c am e as an ac tual dream ; a dream c arried by a dream that
c ollapsed the figurative an d literal dim en sion s of the word. In Freud's thesis
on dream s, whic h he developed from his dream of 1895, this an d every
dream represen ts a c on tin uation of thought, an un c on sc ious wish. The
un c on sc ious, itself an arc hive of the hum an subjec t, c om prises for Freud
the m aterial an d im m aterial trac es of eac h in dividual; the history an d pre-
history of the subjec t an d all the others that have c on tributed to the form a-
tion of eac h subjec t. An arc hive of the self, of the in teriorities an d ex teriorities
that c on stitute eac h in dividual. An d like Borges's Library, the un c on sc ious
c arries within its vast c ollec tion "the true story of your death," the n arra-
tive or drive that leads to your death, to the sec ret plac e of your death.
Followin g a c atastrophic sequen c e of m isdiagn oses earlier in the year that
had alm ost resulted in the death of Em m a Ec kstein , Freud, his c on fiden c e
shaken , began to question the viability of a m edic al prac tic e that took as its
3 5
objec t the im m aterial form of the psyc he.
1
The c risis had reopen ed in Freud
a prim al c on c ern : c an the psyc he be the sourc e of illn esses that m an ifest
them selves on the body? What phan tasm atic tissues suture the psyc hic an d
organ ic bodies? The c risis had threaten ed the very foun dation of Freud's
theory of repression an d had c aused him to rethin k the possibility of a
m ateriality an d visuality of the psyc he, a kin d of psyc hic c orporeality.
2
Durin g the n ight of 23-24 July 1895, a wom an whom Freud n am es
"Irm a" appeared before him with the "solution " to his c risis. The "dream of
Irm a's in jec tion ," whic h Freud would later c laim had revealed to him "the
sec ret of dream s," m arks a c ritic al m om en t in the history of psyc hoan aly-
sis: it was the first of his own dream s that Freud open ly subm itted to full
an alysis.
3
Again st the un c ertain ties that assailed his n asc en t theory of the
un c on sc ious, Freud felt the pressin g n eed to offer a m aterial figure or im age
of the psyc hic apparatus. The dream work, c on stituted by sign ifiers of visu-
ality, prom ised suc h a figure. The "Irm a dream " suggested the possibility of
a virtually im possible spec tac le; an opportun ity to observe the psyc hic
apparatus in m otion , ac ted out, as it were, on a dream stage by dream ac tors.
Freud offers the followin g ac c oun t of his dream , whic h he tran sc ribed an d
an alyz ed in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900):
A large hallnumerous guests, whom we were receiving. Among them
was Irma. I at once took her on one side, as though to answer her letter and to
reproach her for not having accepted my "solution" yet. I said to her: "If you
still get pains, it's really your own fault." She replied: "If you only knew what
pains I've got now in my throat and stomach and abdomenit's choking
me"I was alarmed and looked at her. She looked pale and puffy. I thought
to myself that after all I must be missing some organic trouble. I took her to
the window and looked down her throat...
4
The dream stage open s on to a c avern ous hall, an arc hitec ture that
en gulfs, like an oral c avity, Freud's c ast. Am on g them is Irm a, whom Freud
takes to the side an d reproac hes. Irm a has refused Freud's solution , his
diagn osis.
5
Alarm ed by her appearan c e, "pale an d puffy," Freud brin gs
Irm a un der the light of a win dow an d peers in to her throat an d body, in to
her depths that open in to an other spac e, an other c avern , an arc hitec ture
of the body within the dream arc hitec ture. The in terior design of Freud's
dream arc hitec ture in c ludes a passage to the outside. The dream win dow
(there are several im portan t win dows in Freud's dream arc hive) represen ts
a sourc e of light an d ex teriority, an in side ex teriority, an ex teriority im ag-
in ed from the in side.
6
The win dow provides a sourc e of artific ial light that
m asquerades as n atural light, a theatric al light n ot un like those rec essed
lights im agin ed by Tan iz aki.
7
Irm a resists Freud's probe, "like wom en ," he
says, "with artific ial den tures." But she relen ts:
36
She then opened her mouth properly and on the right side I found a big
white patch; at another place I saw extensive whitish grey scabs upon some
remarkable curly structures which were evidently modelled on the turbinal
bones of the nose.
8
A n ew spac e open s within Freud's dream , effec tin g a mise-en-abime of
spac es that un fold in side other spac es. From the in side of his psyc hic spac e
to the in side of an im agin ary arc hitec ture, from in side the c avern ous hall
to the in side of Irm a's m outh, Freud m oves deeper in to the dream spac e.
With the pen etration of Irm a's bodythe dream will ultim ately in duc e an
un san itary in jec tion Freud's figures bec om e in c reasin gly abstrac t. In the
rec esses of Irm a's body, Freud observes abstrac t form s: "A big white patc h...
whitish grey sc abs... c urly struc tures whic h were eviden tly m odelled on
the turbin al bon es of the n ose." As he m oves c loser to the sourc e of the
pain that assails Irm a, Freud's vision begin s to dissolve an d bec om es in c reas-
in gly form less. As if to establish a base of witn esses, an d driven still by the
im pulses of wish fulfillm en t that he desc ribes in The Interpretation of
Dreams, Freud sum m on s other observers to the sc en e of Irm a's in teriority.
/ at once summoned Dr. M., and he repeated the examination and con-
firmed it.... Dr. M. looked quite different from usual; he was very pale, he
walked with a limp and his chin was clean-shaven My friend Otto was
now standing beside her as well, and my friend Leopold was percussing her
through her bodice and saying: "She has a dull area low down on the left."
He also indicated that a portion of the skin on the left shoulder was infiltrated.
(I noticed this, just as he did, in spite of her dress.)
9
Perhaps to protec t him self, to protec t the desire an d an x iety that erupt in
his dream work, Freud assem bles an audien c e of m ale physic ian s who
c on firm his an alysis. In this sc en e, Freud en ac ts a sec on d pen etration . Both
Leopold an d Freud are able to iden tify a "portion of the skin on the left
shoulder" that had been "in filtrated." This, Freud adds, "in spite of her
dress." Freud's X-ray vision loc ates an other open in g on Irm a's body: a
sec ret orific e hidden ben eath her dress, an in filtration , a sec ret passage to
Irm a's in teriority.
10
It requires a form of perc eption n ot yet kn own , the
ability to see through opaque objec ts an d in to the body's depths. For Freud it
represen ts perhaps the kin d of probin g visuality m ade possible by psyc ho-
an alysis.
The dream c on c ludes.
M. said: "There's no doubt it's an infection, but no matter; dysentery will
supervene and the toxin will be eliminated"... We were directly aware, too
of the origin of her infection. Not long before, when she was feeling unwell,
my friend Otto had given her an injection of a preparation ofpropyl, propyls...
37
propionic acid... trimethylamin (and I saw before me the formula for this
printed in heavy type) Injections of that sort ought not to be made so
thoughtlessly.... And probably the syringe had not been dean.
n
The origin of Irm a's pain is an in fec tion , whic h had developed after Otto
had given her an in jec tion with an un c lean syrin ge. This im proper in jec -
tion had in troduc ed in to Irm a's body a tox in . Freud's dream witn esses attest
to this, relievin g Freud of his respon sibility, although it still seem s that he
had m issed som e "organ ic trouble." Freud c on c ludes in the an alysis of his
dream that follows that the dream represen ted the fulfillm en t of a wish: the
wish to be absolved of an y respon sibility for the c on tin uin g illn ess of Irm a.
Freud's self-an alysis, ec c en tric an d frequen tly blin ded, offers further
in sight in to the c risis of visuality an d im agin ation provoked by the dream
of Irm a's in jec tion . Regardin g Irm a's sym ptom s, Freud swiftly reac hes an
im passe. "Pain s in the throat an d abdom en an d c on stric tion of the throat
played sc arc ely an y part in her illn ess. I won dered why I dec ided upon this
c hoic e of sym ptom s in the dream , but c ould n ot thin k of an y ex plan ation
at the m om en t."
12
Freud has substituted Irm a's m ost c om m on sym p-
tom s "feelin gs of n ausea an d disgust"for the dream sym ptom of a
c hokin g pain . Irm a is c hokin g, in Freud's dream , un able to artic ulate or
c om m un ic ate a thought that seem s to erupt, like n ausea an d disgust, from
her stom ac h an d throat. Freud has replac ed Irm a's n ausea with a c on stric -
tion of the throat. But he has n ot elim in ated the n ausea an d disgust, whic h
will even tually leave the body in dysen tery. Usin g the sam e tec hn iques that
Freud him self developed an d applied to dream an alysis, on e c an spec ulate
that Irm a wan ts to say som ethin g to Freud who has, in the dream work,
c hoked her, an d forc ed bac k in side of her an ac c usation that threaten s to
ruin him . It is perhaps the ex pression of Irm a's feelin gs of n ausea an d dis-
gust for him , for his solution , whic h Freud is preven tin g.
At work, also by Freud's own adm ission , is a prom in en t feature of the
dream work, displac em en t. Of Irm a's "pale an d puffy" appearan c e, Freud
n otes, "My patien t always had a rosy c om plex ion . I began to suspec t that
som eon e else was bein g substituted for her."
13
Freud en ds his spec ulation
for the m om en t, leavin g open the possibility that this som eon e else m ight
be an idea gen erated by the dream work, that is, n ot a person at all.
14
Irm a's
pale an d puffy ex teriority c on tin ues in side her m outh, where Freud sees
whitish an d grey sc abs an d patc hes. A skeletal c on tin uum seem s to have
open ed in Freud's im agin ation , from "artific ial den tures"the ex posed
bon es that lin e the en tran c e in to the oral c avityto the "turbin al bon es of
the n ose." Irm a's dem ean or, "like wom en with artific ial den tures," her pale,
puffy appearan c e, an d the white oral patc hes that resem ble the bon es of
the n ose, but ac tually those of the fem ale sex ual organ s, Freud later adds,
38
form in Freud's sc en e an im age of Irm a in side out: Irm a displays her in te-
riority on the outside, she is exposed. She represen ts a displac ed im age
or figure, but even m ore an im age of radic al displac em en t from depth to
surfac e, in side to out. Irm a's sec ret orific es, the direc t passages to her in te-
rior ity, are on her body, elsewhere.
Freud's dream is sustain ed by a un ique arc hitec ton ic s, a struc ture of
visuality that seeks to foun d c on c rete arc hives of the m in d, body, an d
dream . The dream of Irm a's in jec tion , whic h c am e to Freud while he was
vac ation in g at the Sc hloss Bellevue, "the beautiful view," n ear Vien n a, c an
be seen as a view, a vision , a spec ulation that resists spec ularity. A wish per-
haps for a view, a glim pse, an im age of that whic h would sec ure the viabil-
ity an d visibility of psyc hoan alysis. Freud seem s to have dream ed of visual-
iz in g the psyc hic form of Irm a's disorder, im agin in g a psyc hography of the
un c on sc ious. He has attem pted to sec ure the un c on sc ious in the visual
field of the m ost ex em plary of visual in dex es, the hum an body. This n er-
vous fan tasy haun ted Freud throughout his c areer.
15
On ly the dilem m a is
c lear: the an tic ipated birth of psyc hoan alysis (Freud had already im agin ed
a future plaque to m ark the site of the dream ) had been c om plic ated by the
return of a repressed c orporeality. Organ ic an d psyc hic disturban c es were
vyin g for suprem ac y in Freud's own turbulen t psyc he: "I thought to m yself
that after all I m ust be m issin g som e organ ic trouble."
16
In the dream ,
Irm a's in teriority appears to obstruc t Freud's view of the un c on sc ious. Or
rather, two c om petin g forc es are at work in the dream : on e brin gs the
im age c loser, by pushin g deeper an d further in to the body, toward greater
c larity, figuration , an d m ateriality; the other follows the sam e route toward
dissolution , disappearan c e, an d form lessn ess. By c om pressin g Irm a's in te-
riority on to the surfac e of his psyc he, Freud has in voked a spec tral arc hi-
tec ture, an arc hitec ton ic of in teriority that m oves at on c e toward represen -
tation an d abstrac tion . Neither c orporeal n or im agin ary, the visuality of
Freud's dream in troduc es, ac c ordin g to lac ques Lac an , a paradox : it gen er-
ates a form less im age, an im age of form lessn ess. Lac an writes:
There's a horren dous disc overy here, that of the flesh on e n ever sees, the
foun dation of thin gs, the other side of the head, of the fac e, the sec retory
glan ds par excellence, the flesh from whic h everythin g ex udes, at the very
heart of the m ystery, the flesh in as m uc h as it is sufferin g, is form less, in as
m uc h as its form in itself is som ethin g whic h provokes an x iety. Spec tre of
an x iety, iden tific ation of an x iety, the fin al revelation of you are thisYou
are this, which is so far from you, this which is the ultimate formlessness.
17
You are this, this form , whic h is so far from you, here. Lac an 's spec ter of
an x iety hovers in the spac e open ed between prox im ity an d distan c e, the
self an d an other, an other that return s in the form of an other self. Foreign
39
an d form less, barely rec ogn iz able. The other that return s here is form less,
as are, in Freud's thought, the un c on sc ious wishes that c harge the dream -
work. But this is you, an d you are this: what is form less is the spac e that
open s on to "the other side of the head," a phan tom spac e an d arc hitec ture
that takes plac e atopic ally, foun din g a sem iology of the avisual.
18
Of an other
spec tral wom an an d the spac e of alterity she em its, Trin h T. Min h-ha writes,
"The spac e offered is n ot that of an objec t brought to visibility, but that of
the very in visibility of the in visible within the visible."
19
The struggle between c om petin g forc es "of the flesh that on e n ever
sees," whic h results in form lessn ess, m ight be un derstood n ot as a dialec tic
between figure an d abstrac tion but rather as the adven t of a paradox ic al
graphic that superim poses the c on c rete an d abstrac t elem en ts of the un c on -
sc ious in to a represen tation of form lessn ess, a view of the un seeable, a pic -
ture of that whic h c an n ot be seen . Figurative an d abstrac t, avisual. Freud is
strivin g n ot toward the m astery of a c om plex graphic order but, rather,
toward the possibility of ex pan din g the thresholds of the graphic spec -
trum to in c lude that whic h resists graphic ality as suc h: of design atin g in the
un c on sc ious a visuality of the avisual, a visual order of the form less. For
Freud, the sem iotic trajec tory of the dream work determ in es a phan tom
arc hitec ton ic s: a c artography of n owhere, an arc hitec ture of nothing (or
the un c on sc ious), an d an arc haeology of im agin ary depth that always takes
plac e on the surfac e. As a prac tic e an d sen sibility, psyc hoan alysis rem ain s
attun ed to superfic iality; it c on stitutes a searc h for depth on the surfac e of
thin gs.
In the dream of Irm a's in jec tion , Freud disc overs an other open in g on
Irm a's body, a sec ret an d sec on dary orific e he loc ates in an ac t of ex tra-
sen sory perc eption through Irm a's dress. Peerin g in to the hole produc ed
by a pun c ture, Freud disc overs in this depth a form less you, an atopic an d
avisual subjec t. It is n ot Irm a's un c on sc ious that return s the look from in -
side, but rather Freud's own . This is Lac an 's "horren dous disc overy." The
loc us of Irm a's dream body provides the open in g for Freud to en c oun ter
him self, the site of his own subjec tivity deposited an d reflec ted, as it were,
in Irm a's depths. He has him self in filtrated her, his desire the tox in . Freud is
him self both the in jec tion an d the in fec tion . What he fin ds in Irm a's sec ret
orific e is his own displac ed un c on sc ious in c orporated by Irm a's dream body.
Her body bec om es the vehic le for this displac em en t: "I began to suspec t
that som eon e else was bein g substituted for her." The fan tasy of searc hin g
an other's body for the residues of on eself artic ulates a wish that c arries,
as do all un c on sc ious ideas, its an tithesis: the desire to lose on eself in the
other's body, to be dissolved in the body of the other. The disc ourse of that
wish, Lac an argues, poin ts toward a profoun d senselessness, a loss of m ean -
in g but also of on e's sen ses in the c avern ous open in g of an abyss: "It is just
40
when the world of the dream er is plun ged in to the greatest im agin ary
c haos... that the subjec t dec om poses an d disappears. In this dream there's
the rec ogn ition of the fun dam en tally ac ephalic c harac ter of the subjec t,
beyon d a given poin t."
20
Freud's apparen t wish for suc h dissolution s would
be fulfilled, within four m on ths of his Bellevue dream , as a photographic
phen om en on : the X-ray im age.
Freud's dream prefigures the X-ray in c oin c iden tal an d c om plex ways.
When Freud looks, or dream s of him self lookin g in to Irm a, lookin g through
her c lothin g at a pun c ture in her skin , he in vokes the pen etratin g forc e of
X-ray vision . He has disc overed a sec ret passage to Irm a's in teriority, virtu-
ally visible an d virtually in visible, m ade visible at all through an apparatus
of ex traperc eption . He also in sc ribes Irm a's dream body in the aren a of a
m edic al m ise-en -sc en e, in stitutin g a spec tatorship driven by the gaz e of
m edic in e an d sc ien c e. Freud's witn esses un doubtedly protec t him from the
eros that threaten s to erupt throughout the dream of Irm a's in jec tion . The
dirty syrin ge that pen etrates the rec en tly widowed patien t; the in jec tion
that in fec ts Irm a, who suffered in her dealin gs with Freud from feelin gs of
n ausea an d disgust; the ec on om y of sex ual allusion s an d referen c es that
sustain s Freud's dream ; an d Freud's desire to ex pose Irm a, to forc e her to
yield her in teriorityall are en sured by the m edic al authority that Freud
sum m on s in his dream . An authority that Freud lac ked in his attem pts to
thin k an d prac tic e psyc hoan alysis. In this dream , Freud fin ds rec ourse in a
m edic al sc en e that validates his c redibility but hin ders his wish to leave
behin d the organ ic residues of psyc hoan alysis, the c on strain ts of c on ven -
tion al m edic al views. Like the X-ray im age, Freud's dream c on fuses art an d
sc ien c e, fan tasy an d fac t, im agin ation an d observation . Like psyc hoan alysis
itself. The lin es between those orders have been blurred, lost in an ex c ess of
the sen ses that results in a form of ac ephalia or sen selessn ess. In teriority
an d ex teriority, form an d its absen c e, psyc he an d body, psyc hoan alysis an d
m edic in e, an d art an d sc ien c e c on verge in this dream of dream s, the arkhe-
dream , in whic h the sec ret of dream sits arc haeologywas revealed to
Freud. The sec ret of dream s is also, in the fin al an alysis, a sec ret dream .
The greatest presc ien c e of Freud's dream c on c ern s perhaps the form of
visuality un leashed by the X-ray im age. Irm a's in teriority open s to Freud
n ot in the form of an un ravelin g that ex poses what is hidden , that m akes
visible what is sec ret, but rather by m akin g visible the "very in visibility of the
in visible within the visible," as Trin h says. What is given to see is the un see-
able, the shoc k of fin din g at the body's c en ter a profoun d avisuality. Not an
in visibility but an avisuality bec ause som ethin g is given in the form of an
ex c ess. Its form , or forc e of visuality, ex c eeds the c apac ity of the spec tator 41
to see it, to withstan d its very spec ularity. (This is also the un ique visual-
ity of the dream itself: dream s are visual but n ot visible; they are avisual
im ages.) In this sen se sublim e: before the spec tac ular view, on e is always
lost, elsewhere, headless, an d sen seless. Freud's desire to tran sgress the body's
surfac e, to be dissolved in the body of an other an d to en c oun ter its in terior
as inferiority, would have a profound impact not only on the evolution of
psyc hoan alysis but also on the n ature of represen tation , espec ially that of
the hum an body. The X-ray im age, its fluid in side-outside perspec tives,
would, like psyc hoan alysis, partic ipate in the dissolution of a struc ture of
subjec tivity that had sustain ed Western art an d sc ien c e through the age
of the En lighten m en t.
The En lighten m en t projec t, whic h Ern st Cassirer c harac teriz es as an epis-
tem ologic al m ovem en t ac utely aware of an d fasc in ated by the c on tours of
the lim it, reac hed a c ruc ial threshold on 8 Novem ber 1895, when Wilhelm
Con rad Ron tgen disc overed the X-ray.
21
En lighten m en t reason m apped a
psyc hogeography of lim its, c hartin g an ec on om y of visuality an d a subjec t
seekin g to see, ex pose, an d appropriateac c ordin g to a presum ed power
of the gaz ethe world aroun d it. The "En lighten m en t," write Max Hork-
heim er an d Theodor Adorn o, "is totalitarian ."
22
Its ethos, what Horkheim er
an d Adorn o refer to as "the m astery of n ature," requires a seein g subjec t
that stan ds outside the lim it an d fram es the field of vision . An Apollon ian
view of the en tire world from outside. From an other world. Totality is
defin ed by the lim it that divides in teriority from ex teriority, ac hieved from
without. The persisten c e of the lim it, of the visible world, m ain tain s the
viability of suc h a subjec t, defin ed in its en c oun ter with the lim it of visual-
ity as suc h. With the appearan c e of the X-ray, the subjec t was forc ed to
c on c ede the lim its of the body. Erasin g on e lim it again st whic h it c laim ed
to be outside, the X-ray im age, with its sim ultan eous view of the in side an d
outside, turn ed the van tage poin t of the spec tator-subjec t in side out. The
poin t of view established by the X-ray im age is both in side an d out. Every-
thin g flat, in teriority an d ex teriority ren dered equally superfic ial, the lim i-
n al forc e of the surfac e has c ollapsed. Regardin g the c apac ity of the surfac e
to establish m ean in g in the world, Gilles Deleuz e in vokes An ton in Artaud's
surfac eless body an d says: "In this c ollapse of the surfac e, the en tire world
loses its m ean in g."
23
Again st the field of X-ray vision , the En lighten m en t subjec t lost its van -
tage poin t from the outside: the spec tral subjec t n ow appeared in side the
fram e, to the ex ten t that a fram e rem ain ed at all, an aspec t of the spec tac le.
In the X-ray im age, everythin gwhic h is to say n othin gis visible.
42 Desc ribin g Artaud's body as a "body-sieve... n o lon ger an ythin g but depth,"
Deleuz e in vokes an in heren t sc hiz ophren ia, on e that m ight apply to the
En lighten m en t subjec t in the wake of the X-ray. Deleuz e writes:
As there is n o surfac e, the in side an d the outside, the c on tain er an d the
c on tain ed, n o lon ger have a prec ise lim it; they plunge into a universal depth
or turn the c irc le of a presen t whic h gets to be m ore c on trac ted as it is
filled. Hen c e the sc hiz ophren ic m an n er of livin g the c on tradic tion : either
in the deep fissure whic h traverses the body, or in fragm en ted parts whic h
en c ase on e an other an d spin about.
24
The erasure of the surfac e (whic h paradox ic ally ren ders the world an d its
depths an d in teriorities superfic ial), the disappearan c e of a disc ern ible
in teriority, plun ges the subjec t in to a "un iversal depth." A total an d ir-
resistible depth, everywhere. The world is n o lon ger on ly outside, but also
within , in side an d out. It m oves within an d without you. Catherin e Waldby
says of the X-ray:
The surfac e of the body, its dem arc ation from the world, is dissolved an d
lost in the im age, leavin g on ly the fain test trac e, while the relation between
depth an d surfac e is reversed. Skeletal struc tures, c on ven tion ally thought
of as loc ated at the m ost rec essive depth of the body, appear in c o-registration
with the body's surfac e in the x -ray im age. Hen c e skeletal struc tures are
ex tern aliz ed in a double sen se: the distin c tion between in side an d outside
is suspen ded in the im age, an d the trac e of the in terior is m an ifest in the
ex teriority of the radiograph, the artefac t itself.
25
In the X-ray im age, the body an d the world that surroun ds it are lost. No
lon ger in side n or out, within n or without, body an d world form a hetero-
gen eous on e. (A on e that is n ot on e but together, side-by-side, a series of
c on tiguous plan es an d surfac es, plateaus.) You are in the world, the world
is in you. The X-ray c an be seen as an im age of you an d the world, an
im age forged in the c ollapse of the surfac e that separates the two.
The c risis of X-ray visuality struc k at the heart of the seein g subjec t, but
also at the very c on dition s of the visual as suc h. Ac c ordin g to Lin da Dal-
rym ple Hen derson , Ron tgen 's disc overy of the in visible rays "c learly estab-
lished the in adequac y of hum an sen se perc eption an d raised fun dam en tal
question s about the n ature of m atter itself."
26
The X-ray forc ed a c ollapse
of the En lighten m en t figure. The m etaphors of vision that c on stituted the
En lighten m en t were thrust in to a literal sem iology, whic h is to say, n o sem i-
ology but a destruc tion of the sem iologic al order itself. The absolute radi-
an c e un leashed by the X-ray absorbed the subjec t, en velopin g it in a searin g
light. The En lighten m en t subjec t had bec om e the foc us of its own pen e-
tratin g look, susc eptible to the "self-destruc tive" forc e that Horkheim er
an d Adorn o iden tified as En lighten m en t prac tic e. On e year before the 43
atom ic irradiation of Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki, they warn ed: "The fully
en lighten ed earth radiates disaster trium phan t."
27
Like Freud, who disc overed the "sec ret of dream s" in the dark, Ron tgen
disc overed the n ew ray in a dark room , in a c am era obsc ura of sorts. "At
the tim e," says Ric hard Mould, "Ron tgen was in vestigatin g the phen om en a
c aused by the passage of an elec tric al disc harge from an in duc tion c oil
through a partially evac uated glass tube. The tube was c overed with blac k
paper an d the whole room was in c om plete darkn ess, yet he observed that,
elsewhere in the room , a paper sc reen c overed with the fluoresc en t m aterial
barium platin oc yan ide bec am e illum in ated."
28
A m ysterious form of radi-
ation passed through solid objec ts, c astin g fluoresc en t light upon distan t
surfac es. A light that arrived elsewhere, displac ed from its trajec tory. "It did
n ot take him lon g," Mould c on tin ues, "to disc over that n ot on ly blac k
paper, but other objec ts suc h as a wooden plan k, a thic k book an d m etal
sheets, were also pen etrated by these X-rays." An d flesh. Like a dream , this
form of light m oved through objec ts, erased boun daries between solid
objec ts, c rossin g their in tern al an d ex tern al borders. Like a dream , avisual.
By fix in g the pen etratin g fluoresc en c e on a photographic plate, Ron tgen
both disc overed an d rec orded a n ew type of ray that pen etrated organ ic
an d in organ ic m atter an d left a shadow of that objec t on the plate. Sim ul-
tan eously a n ew type of ray an d a n ew type of photography. The in visible
elec trom agn etic ray, it would be learn ed later, c on sisted of a shorter wave-
len gth (an d thus a higher frequen c y) than visible light, whic h allowed
it to pen etrate an d illum in ate solid m atter. Ron tgen n am ed the as yet
un iden tified rays "x ." Un kn own , sec ret, illic it.
From the begin n in g, Ron tgen lin ked the X-ray to photography by fix in g
his disc overy on photographic surfac es. Although Ron tgen protested the
assoc iation of the X-ray with photographic m edia, c laim in g that the use of
photography had on ly been "the m ean s to the en d," the fusion , or c on fu-
sion , had already taken hold of the public im agin ation . X-ray im ages c am e
to be seen as photographic doc um en ts, in delibly m arked by their relation -
ship to the superfic iality of photographs. They were im ages of a three-
dim en sion al flatn ess. On e of Ron tgen 's first published X-ray photographs
is of his wife's left han d, whic h was taken in the fin al m on ths of 1895, fifty
years after his birth an d fifty years before the atom ic ex plosion s in Japan .
The im age depic ts Berthe's skeletal struc ture an d the bon es that c on stitute
| lso the wedding ring that hovers on the surface, infiltrating
her han d from the outside. The trac e of ex teriority that Berthe's rin g
im poses on the in terior dim en sion reveals the un c an n y n ature of the n ew
m edium . From Irm a to Berthe, im ages of wom en 's in teriority appear to
have in c reased after 1895. "The frequen tly published im age of a wom an 's
44 han d," writes Lisa Cartwright, "gain ed en orm ous popularity, bec om in g an
ic on of fem ale sex uality an d death."
29
and,
ea
f
wilhelm conrad rontgen, bertherontgen's x-rayed hand, 1895. her wedding band is
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich.
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
45
desc ribes: "The historian Stan ley Reiser relates that 'New York wom en of
fashion had X-rays taken of their han ds c overed with jewelry, to illustrate
that beauty is of the bon e an d n ot altogether of the flesh' (or to use a m ore
fam iliar turn of phrase, is n ot just skin deep), while m arried wom en gave X
rays of their han ds (presum ably with weddin g rin g affix ed, like Berthe
Roen tgen 's han d) to their relatives."
32
The c ollapse of in teriority an d ex te-
riority is m arked in these im ages by the c on vergen c e of bon es an d jewelry,
whose opac ity ren ders them in distin guishable in the X-ray photograph.
On e wears on e's skeletal struc ture, the arc hitec ture of the body, on the out-
side. Or rather, in teriority an d ex teriority take plac e together on the sur-
fac e. A depth ren dered superfic ial.
On seein g her flesh tran sgressed, her in teriority brought to the surfac e,
Berthe is said to have shuddered at the "vague prem on ition of death" it
evoked.
33
Visible in this im age is "the true story of your death": an im age of
the future, a photography yet to c om e, your death. Berthe's vision em erges
in the en c oun ter with her body, its in teriority, whic h return s to her as if
from the outside, from the future. Like Borges's arc hive an d Freud's dis-
c overy of form lessn ess in side Irm a's body, Berthe m ay have glim psed the
avisuality of the fully illum in ated self. In this m om en t of profoun d in ti-
m ac y, Berthe peers in to the depths of her own body an d sees the future,
sees her own death, an im age of her absen c e at the c en ter of her body. She
is ex posed. In teriority an d futurity. Berthe rec ogn iz es the lethal an n iversal
forc e of the photograph. This arc hitec ture of the han d, of her han d, c om es
to Berthe as an alien touc h from the irreduc ible distan c e of a sec ret body
she c arries within her. Of Freud's dream im age of Irm a, Lac an says:
The phen om en ology of the dream of Irm a's in jec tion ... leads to the appa-
rition of the terrifyin g an x iety-provokin g im age, to this real Medusa's head,
to the revelation of this som ethin g whic h properly speakin g is un n am e-
able, the bac k of the throat, the c om plex , un beatable form , whic h also
m akes it in to the prim itive objec t par excellence, the abyss of the fem in in e
organ from whic h all life em erges, this gulf of the m outh, in whic h every-
thin g is swallowed up, an d n o less the im age of death in whic h everythin g
c om es to an en d.
34
|Medusa's head or ac ephalic han d. The wom an 's bodyI
Berthe'sc om es to determ in e an arc hive in whic h your death is in sc ribed,
form less an d sec ret. In the en c oun ter with radic al ex teriority, the lookin g
subjec t disappears. Hen derson m akes ex plic it the lin e between X-rays an d
the ic on ography of death, c laim in g that Ron tgen 's disc overy "triggered the
46 m ost im m ediate an d widespread reac tion to an y sc ien tific disc overy before
the ex plosion of the first atom ic bom b in 1945."
35
"The disc overy of
rma's
x -rays," Hen derson c on c ludes, "produc ed a sen se that the world had
c han ged irrevoc ably."
36
On e hun dred years after the disc overy of X-rays, the desire for total
visibility return ed in the form of the Visible Hum an Projec t (VHP) an d its
first em bodied figures, the so-c alled Visible Hum an Man (Joseph Jern igan ,
c on vic ted felon , 39, was ex ec uted in 1993) an d Visible Hum an Wom an
(un n am ed, "a Marylan d housewife," 59, who died of a heart attac k in
1995). Im m ediately after his ex ec ution , Jern igan 's body was froz en , sc an n ed,
an d then dissec ted in to on e-m illim eter plan es. Eac h plan e was photo-
graphed an d digitiz ed over the c ourse of n in e m on ths, after whic h a c om -
plete arc hive of the hum an body was born . "In this way," Waldby says, "the
c orpse was c on verted in to a visual arc hive, a digital c opy in the form of a
series of plan ar im ages."
37
Hum an bodies tran sform ed in to plan es of visi-
bility, in to thousan ds of un ique visible surfac es, stored in a m assive an d
virtual arc hive. An arc hive of the body, of the hum an body m ade totally
visible in c oun tless possible shapes an d c on figuration s. A paradox ic al arc hive,
ac c ordin g to Cartwright, at on c e un iversal an d spec ific : "The projec ts share
the paradox of seekin g to c reate a un iversal arc hive through whic h to rep-
resen t an d to kn ow hum an biology, while ren derin g their respec tive body
m odels with a level of spec ific ity that m ay ultim ately c on foun d goals suc h
as the establishm en t of a n orm ."
38
Waldby liken s the adven t of the VHP to an
in version of H. G. Wells's "in visible m an ": "Every struc ture an d organ in the
in terior of Jern igan 's body was about to bec om e an objec t of ex haustive an d
globally available visibility."
39
Global visibility: a un iversal arc hive, in whic h
everythin g in the world is visible, an d everythin g is visible to the world.
Even with 3-D an d virtual reality tec hn iques, on e of the early c hallen ges
of the VHP in volved rec on c ilin g the depth of the body, its volum e, with the
flatn ess of the im age. It is a problem , ac c ordin g to Waldby, that ex ists
already in the prac tic e of an atom ic al represen tation . "The c en tral problem
of an atom y is the in c om m en surability between the opaque volum e of the
body an d the flat, c lean surfac e of the page."
40
The solution , says Waldby,
lies in the an alogic al lin k between the body an d the world, between their
figures an d m odes, between an atom y an d c artography. In the c ase of
an atom y, Waldby writes:
This problem was resolved to som e ex ten t through the c reation of an alo-
gies between an atom ic al an d c artographic spac e, an alogies eviden t in
the fac t that the book of an atom y is kn own as an atlas. If the in terior of
the body c ould be thought of an d treated as space, rather than as a self-
en c losed an d c on tin uous solid volum e, then it c ould be laid out in ways 47
whic h are am en able to m appin g.
41
The body shares its figures an d m odes of spatial represen tation with the
world. In an atom ic al an d geographic m aps, both are ren dered "as an ac c re-
tion of lam in ar 'surfac es,' as lan dsc apes to be traversed by the eye, a volum e
c om posed of layers an d system s of tissue whic h are laid on e upon the
other."
42
The world is a body, the body a world, both exscribed in flat spac e.
From an atom y to the VHP via the X-Ray, the problem of visual repre-
sen tation , of the visibility an d visuality of the body, rem ain s loc ated on the
surfac e, on the sc reen . The body an d world, ac tual an d virtual spac e are
exscribed on a doc um en t, photographic surfac e, or sc reen . The VHP "en ac ts,"
says Waldby, "the proposition that the in terfac e between virtual an d ac tual
spac e, the sc reen itself, is perm eable, rather than an hygien ic an d absolute
division ."
43
A tissue, in side an d out, in side out. Waldby trac es on e gen eal-
ogy of the VHP to the X-ray, whic h tran sgressed the in terior of the body,
the very struc ture of the in terior as suc h. She writes:
The x -ray in troduc ed a form of light whic h n o lon ger glan c ed off an in n er
surfac e to m ake it ac c essible for m edic al vision but rather c ut through the
very distin c tion between in n er an d outer. Its spec tral im ages ren dered the
body's in terior as irradiable space an d illum in ated sc en e The light of
the x -ray does n ot sim ply pen etrate its objec t, it also projec ts it, m ovin g
through it un til its forc e is in terrupted by a sc reen . Hen c e the trac e of
an atom ic struc ture c an be both ex tern aliz ed an d fix ed as radiographs.
44
The X-ray projec ts the body's in teriority outward un til it reac hes a sc reen .
The an atom ic light of the X-ray exscribes the body, irradiates an d projec ts
it on an ex terior surfac e. Its destin ation always a sc reen , the X-ray ac hieves
a form of c om pletion in the VHP. "The Visible Hum an figures," says
Waldby, abolish "all distin c tion between surfac e an d depth, dem on stratin g
that all in terior spac es are equally superfic ial, that all depth is on ly laten t
surfac e."
45
At work from the X-ray to the VHP is also a form of destruc tive visual-
ity, a visibility born from an n ihilation . The proc ess of preparin g the hum an
body for the VHP arc hive also an n ihilated it. The m ethod of dissec tin g the
hum an body in to m in ute plan es "effec tively obliterated the body's m ass,
= > each planed section dissolving into sawdust due to its extreme desicca-
< = which is perhaps its condition of possibility. The body reduced to sawdust,
ashes, to cinders. An atomic body, avisual.
JRontgen, the X-ray, photographic media, and the atomic weapon circu-
ate in a specular economy, boundas are all photographic eventsby
e logic of anniversaries. B y capturing single moments in time, all photo-
graphs suggest future an n iversaries. In dividual m om en ts bec om e m on u-
tionsayasmnfaksdgaigk, ;labjhasldjhsiodfbopishdognsodo
48
m en tal, arbitrary in stan ts are fix ed in the c hron ic tim e of an n iversaries.
Photographs c on stitute arc hives an d arc haeologies of the past but also in iti-
ate, like Borges's Library, a "m in utely detailed history of the future": in the
sen se that m ade Rolan d Barthes shudder, eac h photograph in sc ribes "the
true story of your death." It waits for you to arrive to the plac e of your
an n iversary, your apoc alypse, "n ow, forever, when ever," as William Haver
says.
47
Like the apoc alypse that Haver desc ribes, the logic of an n iversaries,
of photographs, is always ac c iden tal, im agin ed, in ven ted, "un predic table":
an n iversaries c on sist of projec tion s that n ever adhere, as it were, to the
presen t m om en t, but always to an other tim e that has passed an d will c om e
again . Som etim e. Of the apoc alypse, an ar/c /z ean n iversary of sorts, of the
tem porality that m arks the apoc alyptic even t of m y death, Haver writes:
We m ust thin k the apoc alyptic as an in fin ite an d in differen t punctuality.
This pun c tuality would n ot be the pun c tuation that would m ark either
fate or destin y; n either would it be the pun c tuation that brin gs a n arrative
tem porality to term . Pun c tuality would here in dic ate, prec isely, a n on delay
that is n ot presen c e, the in differen c e of the tim e of m aterial sin gularity,
that en tropic "historic al spac e" whic h would be radic al atem porality.
48
"An in fin ite an d in differen t pun c tuality," like the pun c tum , perhaps, the
photographic woun d (pric k) that Barthes im agin es.
49
Pun c tuality, pun c tua-
tion , an d punctum: tem porality, in sc ription , an d c orporeality. The an n iver-
sary c an be said to c ohere in this in differen t an d in fin ite punctuality: in side
an d outside tim e, always written or yet to be written , always on the body's
surfac e, either on its in side or outside. An even t of writin g, of in sc ription ,
on the body, there, alwaysat this prec ise m om en tthis or that m om en t
(in differen t yet pun c tual), "n ow, forever, when ever." Circ um sc ribed an d
c irc um spec t. Your death, your apoc alypse, your an n iversary, always sin gu-
lar an d in differen t, for you an d whom ever else.
An n iversaries are forged by suturin g on e in differen t m om en t to an other,
on e ex tem porality to an other (on e im provised m om en t outside tim e to
an other), toward an in fin ite sin gularity; they are in ex orably allusive, atem -
poral, an d an tihistoric al. On e m om en t suggests an other, by assoc iation ,
through a sec ret logic of c oin c iden c e; eac h m om en t c asts a shadow over
the future. In the c ase of 1895, the adven t of radiographic im agery perm e-
ated by allusion sc ien tific an d c ultural prac tic es, establishin g a kin d of spec -
tral epistem e that revolves aroun d the represen tation of in teriority. Mov-
in g forward an d bac kward in history, 1895 haun ts the an n iversaries that
prec ede an d suc c eed it. The c en ten n ial of Ron tgen 's birth (1845-1923) an d
the sem ic en ten n ial of his disc overy, Vic tor Bouillion n otes, c oin c ide with
the fiftieth an n iversary of the adven t of c in em a an d the an n ihilation of
49
Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki.
50
Ex pan din g the c yc le of radiation an d m n em ic
phen om en a, the first suc c essful daguerreotype of the sun was taken by
Hippolyte Fiz eau an d J.-B. Leon Fouc ault on 2 April 1845, on e week after
the birth of Ron tgen on 27 Marc h. From solar to atom ic radiation , the
an n iversaries, m easured in fifty-year un its, c on verged in 1995, brin gin g
in to sharp foc us the than atographic legac ies of the twen tieth (XX) c en tury.
Som e of the even ts that m arked the c on tin uin g dyn am ic of this an n iver-
sary in c luded the global festivities c om m em oratin g the c en ten n ial of c in -
em a; the c on troversy that erupted over the Sm ithson ian In stitution 's failed
En ola Gay ex hibit; an d the awardin g of the Nobel Priz e for physic s to two
sc ien tists who were said to have developed tec hn iques that ex c eeded the
c apac ity of the X-ray.
51
The X-ray situates the spec tac le in its c on tex t as a livin g doc um en t even
when it depic ts, ac tually an d phan tasm atic ally, an im age of death or the
deterioration of the body that leads to death. A livin g im age of death an d
the deathly im age of life are in tertwin ed in the X-ray. Soon after its disc ov-
ery, the destruc tive n ature of the X-ray bec am e visible on the hum an bodies
that it pierc ed. As the euphoria of Ron tgen 's disc overy began to settle, a
series of sym ptom s began to appear on the bodies subm itted to the X-ray.
Sun burn s, hair an d n ail loss, sc alin g of the skin , n ausea, an d an array of
other pathogen ic sign s began to ex pose the X-ray's destruc tive c apac ities.
To see an d to burn . The two fun c tion s an d effec ts are fused in the X-ray,
whic h m akes the body visible by burn in g it. The ex travisibility of the X-ray
is an effec t of its in flam m atory forc e. X visuality. It sees by burn in g an d
destroyin g. An ex travisuality that cinefies. Un der the glare of the X-ray, the
body m oved from a referen t to a sign , from a figure to the prim ary site of
in sc ription .
X-rays had turn ed the hum an body itself in to a photographic surfac e,
reproduc in g its fun c tion direc tly on the hum an skin . The legac y of photog-
raphy already c on tain ed a version of this fan tasy with regard to the hum an
body. Felix Nadar rec oun ts Hon ore de Balz ac 's belief that the hum an es-
sen c e c om prises "a series of spec ters, in fin itely superim posed layers of foli-
ated film or skin [pellicules] ,"
52
In Balz ac 's fan tasy, a layer of skin is rem oved
= d captured each time one poses before a camera. The X-ray amplifies the
of an intrinsic photophobia already encrypted in photography.53 The
direct effects of radiation on the human surface would be reenacted expo-
nentially fifty years later when the atomic explosions in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki turned those cities, in the instant of a flash, into massive cameras;
the victims grafted onto the geography by the radiation, radiographed.54
50As sign, the X-ray assails the movements of visual signification: the ref-
eren t of the X-ray photograph, for ex am ple, trem bles between what is seen
50
L u d w i g Z e h n d e r , a n X - r a y o f t h e h u m a n b o d y , 18 9 6 . A m o n t a g e o f n i n e i m a g e s . C o u r t e s y o f
D e u t s c h e s M u s e u m , M u n i c h .
an d the process by whic h it is seen . For the histories of optic s, photography,
an d phen om en ology, the im pac t of Ron tgen 's disc overy of the X-ray
rem ain s im m easurable. Mic hel Friz ot says: "The disc overy of X-rays an d
its effec ts had c on siderable reperc ussion s on m odern thought. What had
been dem on strated was that a c om pletely in visible em an ation c ould m an i-
fest its presen c e on a photographic plate... an d that this in visible em an a-
tion c ould be used to m ake the in tern al reality of the body whic h was also
in visiblea kin d of'in n er life'" (une sorte d'"interiorite")."
55
On e hears in
this desc ription the reson an c es of Freud's dream . The c on vergen c e of psy-
c hology an d photography, Friz ot suggests, altered the epistem ology of the
twen tieth c en tury, c reatin g, in the proc ess, an epistem ology of the in side.
Although it developed prim arily within m edic al an d sc ien tific in stitu-
tion s (Ron tgen was a professor of physic s at the Un iversity of Wiirz burg in
Bavaria), the X-ray im age has always hovered at the in tersec tion of sc ien c e
an d art, tec hn ique an d fan tasy. In the first years after its disc overy, X-rays
figured in a variety of c om m erc ial produc ts an d legal c on sideration s: "In
Lon don a firm advertised in February 1896 the 'sale of x -ray proof un der-
c lothin g,' an d in the Un ited States Assem blym an Reed of Som erset Coun ty,
New Jersey, in troduc ed a bill in to the state legislature prohibitin g the use of
X-ray opera glasses in the theaters."
56
The idea of the X-ray, its im agin ed
an d im agin ary properties, determ in ed the respon se to its appearan c e. Still,
"others thought," n otes Ron tgen biographer Otto Glasser, "that with the
x -rays base m etals c ould be c han ged in to gold, vivisec tion outm oded, tem -
peran c e prom oted by showin g drun kards the steady deterioration of their
system s, an d the hum an soul photographed."
57
The X-ray had bec om e a
fan tastic repository, an ex ten sive arc hive of un fulfilled wishesan un c on -
sc ious, of sorts. X-rays are "iden tified in the public m in d," says Dan iel
Tiffan y, "with the ex isten c e of a world of hidden en ergies or form s, with
visual registration s of in visibility."
58
Man y artists have turn ed to the allur-
in g play of deep surfac e, or flat depth, in the X-ray: the Futurists, Marc el
Duc ham p, Fran tisek Kupka, Man Ray, an d Lasz lo Moholy-Nagy in the
early twen tieth c en tury, Jean -Mic hel Basquiat, Barbara Ham m er, Gary
Higgin s, Alan Mon tgom ery, an d An n Dun c an Satterfield, am on g m an y
others, in the latter half of the XX c en tury. Throughout its history, sc ien c e
an d art appear c on fused in the X-ray, provokin g a fun dam en tal problem
with regard to its visuality: what does on e see there, in the X-ray? What
c on stitutes, defin es, determ in es the thereness of the X-ray? What is there in
the X-ray, depth or surfac e, in side or out? What is there to be seen ? A there-
ness, perhaps, that is avisual: a secret surface between the inside and out,
the place where you are, there, secret and invisible. A spectacle of invisibil-
ity, shin in g, shown , avisual. When tec hn ologic al advan c es fac ilitate the
52
appearan c e of previously un kn own phen om en a, they often take on the
sem blan c e of an artwork. The legac y of the atom ic bom b, partic ularly its
spec tac ular form , attests to this effec t.
In 1946, on e year after two atom ic ex plosion s in c in erated Hiroshim a an d
Nagasaki, the Hun garian artist Lasz lo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946)who
also shares a birthday with the X-raydisc ussed the im pac t of X-ray tec h-
n ology on the prac tic e of art: "In x -ray photos," he writes, "struc ture
bec om es tran sparen c y an d tran sparen c y m an ifests struc ture. The x -ray
pic tures, to whic h the futurist has c on sisten tly referred, are am on g the out-
stan din g spac e-tim e ren derin gs on the static plan e. They give sim ultan e-
ously the in side an d outside, the view of an opaque solid, its outlin e, but
also its in n er struc ture."
59
Moholy-Nagy's desc ription of the use of X-ray
tec hn ologies in art ex c eeds m ere tec hn ique. The ability to sim ultan eously
ex pose the in side an d outside of a thin g, to retain the objec t's surfac e while
probin g its depths, desc ribes a sc ien tific fan tasy as well as im perative.
"Roen tgen 's in itial report," says Cartwright, "was rec eived in the popular
press as a disc overy of a n ew forc e in n ature, an d n ot of a n ew tec hn ique."
60
A forc e rather than a tec hn ique, a n ature rather than a tec hn ology.
X-rays retain the c on tours of their objec t while ren derin g its in side,
gen eratin g an im possible perspec tive. Figure an d fac t, an objec t's ex terior
an d in terior dim en sion s, are superim posed in the X-ray, sim ultan eously
evokin g an d c om plic atin g the m etaphysic s of topology in whic h the ex te-
rior sign ifies dec eptive surfac es an d appearan c es while the in terior situates
truths an d essen c es, what Fran c is Bac on c alls "the brutality of fac t."
61
The
term artefact perhaps best desc ribes the X-ray im age, whic h is at on c e
buried an d revealed, in vokin g its arc haeologic al n ature as spec tac le. The
X-ray im age determ in es a kin d of livin g rem n an t, a phan tom subjec t. "Art"
an d "fac t," fused together like the sign an d referen t of Barthes's photo-
graph, arrive as a superim position in the X-ray, an artefact.
62
Moholy-Nagy posits the fun dam en tal obsc urity of X-rays, suggestin g a
sem iology of the im age. X-ray im ages, he says, "have to be studied to reveal
their m ean in g; but on c e the studen t has learn ed their lan guage, he will
fin d them in dispen sable."
63
A type of ex egesis is thus required, a herm en eu-
tic s of the X-ray im age that, n ot un like dream an alysis, ex ten ds, ac c ordin g
to Moholy-Nagy, in to the realm of lan guage. A super- or ex tralan guage,
in dispen sable. X-rays in voke an in heren t gram m atology. The term X-ray,
its theatric al prefix , c on jures a c ultural sem iology that in c ludes porn og-
raphy (X-rated or triple X-rated film s), Christian ity (Xm as), drugs (ec stasy,
or "x "), algebra, sign ature ("X"), an d erasure (c rossin g out, Malc olm X).
53
Even before the eruption of radioac tive violen c e in 1945, the sign ifier "x "
was in c irc ulation an d overdeterm in ed. Within m ilitary c irc les, Japan 's
7 Dec em ber 1941 strike on Pearl Harbor was c ode-n am ed "X-day" to sig-
n ify both the un n am eable in form ation em bedded within a m ilitary c om -
m un ic ation an d the un n am eable violen c e that m arked the begin n in g of
the Pac ific War. Sim ultan eously kn own an d un kn own , "x " eludes the ec on -
om y of sign ific ation , gen eratin g a phan tasm atic sign ifier without sign ific a-
tion or, c on versely, a full sign ific ation with n o sign ifier. "X" c an be seen as
the m aster sign ifier for n o sign ific ation , for deferred or postpon ed, over-
in sc ribed an d erased sign ific ation . An im age of im agelessn ess, a figure for
what Tiffan y c alls the "n egativity of the m odern ist Im age."
64
Both a letter
of the Rom an alphabet, a n um ber, an d a figure, a graphic sym bol, "x "
operates within various ec on om ies of sign ific ation an d m ean in g at on c e,
n ever reduc ible to on e system or an other, to lan guage or im age. A trac e: an
erasable sign an d sign of erasure that erases as it sign s an d is in turn erased
already. On the topographic ec on om y of the trac e, Derrida says:
Sin c e the trac e is n ot a presen c e but the sim ulac rum of a presen c e that
disloc ates itself, displac es itself, refers itself, it properly has n o siteera-
sure belon gs to its struc ture. An d n ot on ly the erasure whic h m ust always
be able to overtake it (without whic h it would n ot be a trac e but an in de-
struc tible an d m on um en tal substan c e), but also the erasure whic h c on stitutes
it from the outset as a trac e, which situates it as the change of site, an d m akes
it disappear in its appearan c e, m akes it em erge from itself in its produc tion .
65
As a residue of the sign , the trac e of a sign that erases itselfc on stituted
from the outset as the trac e of erasure"x " sign als a "c han ge of site," of
the sign , of c han gin g sights, whic h takes plac e behin d but also on the sur-
fac e "x ." "X" m arks or strikes the sign (a sign of the strike, a strike over an d
again st the sign , an d the strike itself), replac in g the sign as a sign in sc ribed
over the sign , the m ark of an illusory or phan tasm atic depth. Ben eath the
"x " open s a phan tom depth, in sc ribed on an d as a surfac e"x " as the sign
for an im agin ary topography deep ben eath the sign ifier. "X" sign s what is
n ot there, n ot yet there, or what lies ben eath the sign what was there
before the m ark "x ." "X" m arks a spatial an d tem poral displac em en t of the
Barthes's photosem iography). A sign of n egative writin g: a writin g that
overin sc ribes, in sc ribes itself over in sc ription , on its surfac e. "X" obsc ures
what was there, it xscribes. An xscript, xscription, exscription. A m ark on the
outside, but also a m ark that is n o lon ger a m ark, a form er m ark or after-
mark, ex-scription.
The rhetoric of photography reveals a c on stan t ten sion between n ature
(the sign ifier of the real) an d the photographic referen t. From its in c eption
sssaorgm c vbopihdz fm n kc fbkkk
54
photography was en dowed with an organ ic artific e, seen as a paradox ic al
form of n atural tec hn ology. William Hen ry Fox Talbot desc ribes photog-
raphy as the "pen c il of n ature." The c ritic al term in ology that fram es the
photographic prac tic e"photogen ic drawin g" (Talbot) or "biogram -
m atology" (Fran c ois Dagogn et's desc ription of Etien n e-Jules Marey's
c hron ophotography), for ex am pleun dersc ores the am biguity between
figure an d fac t in photography.
66
The X-ray ex pan ded n ot on ly the lim its
of the em piric al world an d the hum an sen sorium but also the trajec tory of
photography: it ex ten ded the graphic reac h of the apparatus in to the in vis-
ible spec trum of light. It in troduc ed exscrip five writin g, an in side-out writ-
in g that reverses the trajec tory of En lighten m en t writin g from in sc ription
to exscription. The m ark is n o lon ger m ade from the outside in n or, for
that m atter, from in side out: writin g takes plac e outside, it rem ain s irre-
duc ibly elsewhere, an exscriptive m ark that n ever adheres to the An teriority
of a tex t or doc um en tdisplac ed, atopic , an d atex tual.
Several c oin c iden c es pun c tuate 1895, boun d by a spec ular an d ultim ately
phan tasm atic historic ity. Durin g 1895, Freud, the Lum ieres, an d Ron tgen
m ade sign ific an t advan c es in their respec tive fields, in itiatin g a hetero-
gen eous history of visuality that rem ain s illegible, in visible, an d ahistoric al.
67
No historiography c an produc e an adequate n arrative for the even ts of 1895,
whic h are them selves sec ure on ly as m om en tary design ation s for even ts
that, like m ost historic al proc esses, take plac e over tim e. A phan tasm atic
history, then , im agin ed an d im agin ary. A c oin c iden c e of histories, a history
of c oin c iden c es, boun d on ly by a phan tom c hiasm us, "x ."
68
On 13 February of the year that Ron tgen published his disc overy of the
X-ray, Louis Lum iere paten ted the Cin em atographe.
69
The Lum ieres' first
public sc reen in gs were held at the Gran d Cafe in Paris on 28 Dec em ber,
the exact date of Ron tgen 's public ation .
70
Louis Lum iere's idea to adapt
the drive devic e of a sewin g m ac hin e to the Cin em atographe c am e to him
"on e n ight," says Em m an uelle Toulet, c itin g Lum iere: "On e n ight when I
was un able to sleep, the solution c am e c learly to m y m in d."
71
Like Freud's
dream , the sec ret of c in em a, its solution was revealed to Lum iere at n ight.
The dream of c in em a. The origin al c on figuration of the sc reen in g spac e
in c luded a tran sluc en t sc reen , hun g in the m iddle of the c ham ber, whic h
passed the im age in reverse to the other side. Spec tators c ould pay m ore to
sit on the side of the projec tor or less to view the sc reen in gs from the other
side. The c on tem porary organ iz ation of the theater, whic h lim its the view-
in g surfac e to on e side, developed later. In this sen se, the origin al apparatus
with its tran sverse flow of light m ore c losely resem bled the lum in ous ec on -
om y of the X-ray. The first film sc reen was itself a kin d of porous tissue.
55
On e film presen ted by the Lum ieres on 28 Dec em ber, Leavin g the
Lumiere Factory (Sortie d'usine, n o. 91, 1895), rem ain s as an em blem of
the early c in em a. Shot in fron t of the Lum iere fac tory, the version shown at
the Gran d Cafe was in fac t its third rem ake.
72
The brief actualite open s
on to a fron tal view of the Lum iere fac tory. The fac tory doors open an d
workers em erge from the bac k of the fram e toward the fron t. They m ove
toward the c am era, before veerin g to either side. Two large doors toward
the right of the fram e open in ward, an d workers begin to stream outward
from it an d from a sm aller door on the left of the fram e. They em erge at
differen t speeds, in itially aim in g toward the c am era before breakin g to the
right or left. Am on g the wom en an d m en are a dog an d several bic yc lists.
As the fac tory em pties, an d before the en d of the film , on e m an rushes
again st the flow bac k in to the n early em pty fac tory, reversin g the outward,
bac kgroun d-to-foregroun d trajec tory. In the distan c e, a solitary figure
rem ain s visible in side the fac tory, in the distan c e, deep in side.
The very arc hitec ture of the film , the series of flat surfac es that m oves
from sc reen to wall to in terior bac kgroun d, suggests that this c in em a is an
ex ploration of depth. An im agin ary, im possible depth that ex ten ds in to
the sc reen , that open s behin d it, revealin g a virtual in teriority an d distan c e,
far away. Noel Burc h desc ribes the sen sation of depth this film produc es:
Although a wall oc c upies half the pic ture, the sen se of spac e an d depth
whic h was to strike all the early spec tators of Lum iere's film s is already
presen t in the c on trast between this wall bloc kin g the bac kgroun d to the
left an d the m ovem en t of the c rowd em ergin g from the dark in terior on
the right.
73
This "sen se of spac e an d depth" is a gen eral feature of all the Lum iere film s,
establishin g an ax is alon g whic h objec ts (people, an im als, an d other an i-
m ate thin gs) m ove toward an d away from the spec tator. An ex tra spac e, an
ex tra dim en sion that ex ists on ly as an effec t of c in em a projec tion . An
abyss, mise-en-abime, abyssal spac e. The deep spac e open s on ly there, in an
avisual world, folded from the outside in an d the in side out. It has n o ref-
eren c e, in dex ic al or otherwise, to an y plac e outside the film , although, as a
photograph, it origin ated som ewhere. A spac e that is n ot really there. An
=arc hive where there is n o spac e. Like the un c on sc ious, like the X-raye
body, an abyss.
In May 1895 Josef Breuer an d Sigm un d Freud published Studies on Hys-
teria, after years of treatin g hysteric s with hypn osis.
74
The birth of psyc ho-
an alysis in 1895 was followed by at least two sign ific an t afterbirths: the
5"dream of Irm a's in jec tion " in July an d the birth of An n a, the last of Freud's
c hildren , in Dec em ber. Usin g a term shared by film an d psyc hoan alysis,
Freud wrote in 1915, "A dream is, am on g other thin gs, a projection: an ex ter-
56
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munich
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munic
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munic
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , muni
visible as an opaque masss in the image . Courtesy of D eutshes museum , munic
57
offer n ew possibilities for the organ iz ation of in teriority, n ew design s,
n ew organ s. Moholy-Nagy desc ribes the sen se of c on fusion that erupted
between sc ien tific developm en ts an d desire in the late n in eteen th c en tury:
In the 19th c en tury telesc opic an d m ic rosc opic "m irac les," x -ray an d
in frared pen etration s were substituted for fan tasy an d em otion al lon gin g.
These phen om en a, m otion an d speed, elec tric ity an d wireless, seem ed to
give food en ough to the im agin ation without in troduc in g subc on sc ious
autom atism . Photography was the golden key open in g the door to the
won ders of the ex tern al un iverse to everyon e. The aston ishin g rec ords of
this period were objective represen tation s, though they wen t in som e c ases
beyon d the observation c apac ity of our eyes as in the high speed, m ic ro-
m ac ro, x -ray, in frared an d sim ilar types of photography. This was the
period of "realism " in photography.
78
In side an d outside are lost in the fan tasies of realism an d desire. For
Moholy-Nagy, photography represen ts the visualiz ation of desire in the
n in eteen th c en tury, a realist ex terioriz ation of "fan tasy an d em otion al
lon gin g." It loc ates the topology of the un c on sc ious prior to the adven t of
psyc hoan alysis, servin g as the sign for an un c on sc ious yet to be n am ed.
Three phen om en ologies of the in side haun t 1895: psyc hoan alysis, X-ray,
an d c in em a seek to ex pose, respec tively, the depths of the psyc he, body,
an d m ovem en ts of life. These three tec hn ologies in troduc ed n ew sign ifiers
of in teriority, whic h c han ged the term s by whic h in teriority was c on c eived,
im agin ed, an d viewed. They tran sform ed the struc ture of visual perc eption ,
shiftin g the term s of vision from phen om en al to phan tasm atic registers,
from a perc eived visuality to an im agin ed on e. From visual to avisual.
Psyc hoan alysis, X-ray, an d c in em a appear fused to on e an other in a het-
erogen ealogy of the in sideeac h seem s to appropriate an other's features,
fun c tion s, an d rhetoric al m odes. The c apac ity to see through the surfac e of
the objec t, to pen etrate its sc reen , em erged in 1895 as the un c on sc ious of
the En lighten m en t, but also as an un im agin able light. Ben jam in rec og-
n iz ed the prox im ity of photography an d film to psyc hoan alysis, as did
Jean -Martin Charc ot, Albert Lon de, an d Freud before him , fin din g in these
two probes two passages toward the disc overy of the un c on sc ious. "Evi-
den tly," writes Ben jam in in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mec han ic al
Reproduc tion ," in 1935-36, "a differen t n ature open s itself to the c am era
than to the n aked eyeif on ly bec ause an unconsciously penetrated space is
substituted for a spac e c on sc iously ex plored by m an The c am era in tro-
duc es us to un c on sc ious optic s as does psyc hoan alysis to un c on sc ious
im pulses."
79
An other n ature, differen t an d displac ed, em erges from an un -
c on sc ious optic s. In Ben jam in 's lan guage, the m ovem en t from photography
to the un c on sc ious develops from the logic of pen etration .
80
A pen etration ,
58
like the on e that pierc es the surfac e of Irm a's dream body, leads to a phan -
tasm atic arc hitec ton ic s of the psyc he an d the sec ret body it exscribes.
Psyc hoan alysis, X-ray, an d c in em a in troduc e c om plex sign s of in terior-
ity that resem ble an tisign s or trac es of sign s that sign al the view of an
im possible in teriority. Eac h sign fun c tion s m ore as a trac e than a sign ifier,
eac h lin ked with the forc e of an irreduc ible ex teriority. Derrida says of the
trac e, of arkhewritmg: "This trac e is the open in g of the first ex teriority in
gen eral, the en igm atic relation ship of the livin g to its other an d of an
in side to an outside: spac in g."
81
A sign of the outside. An ex -sign . Psyc ho-
an alysis, X-ray, an d c in em a: trac e of ex teriority an d in terior design. A design ,
both as an arc hitec tural im prin t or sketc h an d as an ex -sign , a design ation
of in teriority. A design of the in side, a design ation of its c on tours, but also
its appearan c e as a form of design ific ation . An ex em plary design .
59
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3 . C i n e m a S u r f a c e D e s i g n
ritin g in 1928, the im pression ist film m aker Germ ain e Dulac c alled
for a return to "visual" c in em a, a restoration of c in em a to its ori-
gin s in the world of visuality. Narrative form the struc tural
dem an ds of tem porality, c on tin uity, an d c ausalityhad driven c in em a
further from its essen c e as a visual art. "The great pity, as far as film is c on -
c ern ed," she says, "is that, though a un iquely visual art, it does n ot at presen t
seek its em otion in the pure optic sen se."
1
Cin em a operates ac c ordin g to
m odes of visuality, says Dulac , strivin g toward a "pure optic sen se." Dram a
an d affec t in c in em a, she in sists, "mustbe visual an d n ot literary," em ergin g
from "optic al harm on ies."
2
In Dulac 's idiom , n either "optic al harm on y"
n or "pure optic sen se" restric ts c in em a to the register of vision . Dulac sees
in c in em a optic s a form of tac tility an d im agin es film spec tatorship as
physic al c on tac t. Tec hn ic al advan c es allow im ages to "c aress" the eye, sen d-
in g to it "radiation s whic h touc h it m ore powerfully."
3
Visuality en c om -
passes the sen ses; pure optic s ex c eed the visible world.
61
w
For Mauric e Merleau-Pon ty, the c on c eption of "light as an ac tion by
c on tac t" c an be trac ed to Ren e Desc artes. "The blin d, says Desc artes, 'see
with their han ds.' The Cartesian c on c ept of vision is m odeled after the
sen se of touc h."
4
Laura U. Marks argues that c in em a in duc es a haptic per-
c eption , establishin g in the registers of the visible a tac tile m ateriality. Fol-
lowin g Noel Burc h's an d Gilles Deleuz e's use of the term haptic to desc ribe
c ertain m odes of tac tile represen tation in film , Marks says: "Haptic lookin g
ten ds to rest on the surfac e of its objec t rather than to plun ge in to depth,
n ot to distin guish form so m uc h as to disc ern tex ture."
5
A m ode of visuality
that displac es optic ality, ren derin g the visible avisual. Like the sec ret visi-
bility or absolute in visibility that both Merleau-Pon ty an d Jac ques Der-
rida desc ribe, Dulac 's visuality c om es to resem ble som ethin g other than a
c on ven tion al ec on om y of vision . It suggests a form of pen etratin g visuality
that deflec ts the look away from the register of vision an d return s it to the
subjec t as an other sen se. It tran sform s the field of visuality in to a broader
sen sual order. It effec ts an em bodied visuality, in Marks's sen se, but also a
psyc hologic al visuality. Surfac e an d depth, body an d psyc he dic tate the
dual registers of Dulac 's visuality.
"Cin em a," says Dulac , "by dec om posin g m ovem en t, makes us see, an a-
lytic ally. .. the psyc hology of m ovem en t."
6
Dulac 's idiom , whic h syn the-
siz es m etaphors of c orporeality, psyc hology, an d perc eption , reflec ts the
profoun d dilem m a that c in em a poses with regard to the rhetoric of visual-
ity. The pen etratin g visuality of film pierc es the surfac e an d ex poses "the
psyc hology of m ovem en t," the in teriority of thin gs. For Dulac , c in em a offers
the possibility of dec om posin g the m ovem en t of thin gs an d revealin g, in
the proc ess, its psyc hology, or what she c alls elsewhere its "soul."
7
The
m edium 's purpose, she says, is to fac ilitate a phen om en ology of the im per-
c eptible. "If m ac hin es dec om pose m ovem en t an d set out to ex plore the
realm of the in fin itely sm all in n ature, it is in order to visually reveal to us
the beauties an d c harm s that our eye, a feeble len s, does n ot perc eive."
8
As
the c am era eye pen etrates deeper, the world dec om poses un der the glare of
its probe: the visuality of c in em a ren ders the world form less, dec om posed,
reduc ed to the raw psyc hology of m ovem en ts. Walter Ben jam in regards
the developm en t of "c lose-up" an d "slow m otion " effec ts in film as a way to
n ot on ly en han c e perc eption but c on c eive n ew phen om en a. He writes:
With the c lose-up, spac e ex pan ds; with slow m otion , m ovem en t is ex ten ded.
The en largem en t of a sn apshot does n ot sim ply ren der m ore prec ise what
in an y c ase was visible, though un c lear: it reveals en tirely n ew struc tural
form ation s of the subjec t. So, too, slow m otion n ot on ly presen ts fam iliar
qualities of m ovem en t but reveals in them en tirely un kn own on es.
9
62
In side fam iliar m ovem en ts, Ben jam in c on c ludes, the c in em a reveals n ew an d
un kn own m ovem en ts, n ew subjec ts of m otion . He suggests a psyc hology
or in teriority of m ovem en t, a spatial dim en sion established by m ovem en t,
but also within it. Spac e ex pan ds an d c on trac ts in the c in em a, m ovem en t
ex ten ds an d withdraws. Spac e an d m ovem en t are m alleable an d in depen -
den t of their photographic referen ts: the spatial an d tem poral dim en sion s
of eac h film are un ique to that film . Eac h film produc es its own spatiality
an d tem porality. On the sc reen an d on its other side, but also inside.
From the first m om en ts of c in em a, early prac tition ers im agin ed the
possibility of revealin g a visibility un ique to film . In their History of the
Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kinetophonograph, published in 1895, W. K. L.
Dic kson an d An ton ia Dic kson im agin e the possibilities of a tec hn ologic al
sim ulac rum that m akes the in visible visible, the fam iliar an d un seen hor-
rific . They desc ribe their early ex perim en ts with kin etographies of "the
in fin itesim al," film s of in sec ts. "A series of in c h-large shapes then sprin gs
in to view, m agn ified stereoptic ally to n early three feet eac h, gruesom e
beyon d power of ex pression , an d ex hibitin g an in desc ribable c elerity an d
rage."
10
That whic h is in visible in daily life erupts in a n ightm arish display
of m on strosity, am plified by "c elerity an d rage." From the depths of the
in visible an d in fin itesim al, life bec om es affec ted with horror an d rage.
"Mon sters c lose upon eac h other in a blin d an d in disc rim in ate attac k,"
they c on tin ue, "lim bs are dism em bered, gory globules are tapped, whole
battalion s disappear from view."
11
Stereoptic an d m agn ified, the m ic ro-
sc opic world of the Dic kson s takes on a fan tastic ex isten c e. It erupts from
the depths of in visibility on to the sc reen .
By m akin g visible the ordin arily in visible, im perc eptible, m ic rosc opic
life of the world, the kin etograph tran sform s the m ovem en ts of life in to
em otion al phen om en a. En han c ed visuality, ac c ordin g to the heterogen eous
logic that fuses visibility with affec t, produc es an em otion al visuality, an
affec tive view of the world. Brought in to view, these in sec ts bec om e som e-
thin g other, c harged with un bridled rage an d aggression . The Dic kson s'
desc ription raises question s about the very visibility of the spec tac le. "A
c urious feature of the perform an c e," they add, "is the passin g of these c rea-
tures in an d out of foc us, appearin g som etim es as huge an d distorted shad-
ows, then sprin gin g in to the reality of their own siz e an d proportion s."
12
"The c in em a m akes us spec tators of its bursts of light an d air, by c apturin g
its un c on sc ious, in stin c tive an d m ec han ic al m ovem en ts," says Dulac .
13
Cin em a gen erates a spec tac le of the un c on sc ious, of the un c on sc ious of
light, ren derin g its viewers un c on sc ious spec tators.
Am on g the first set of film s ex hibited by Auguste an d Louis Lum iere is
The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (Arrivee d'un train en gare de la Ciotat,
63
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
Inside familiar movements, B enjamin concludes, the cinema reveals new and
64
with the spac e of the spec tator. The em phasis on the illusion of reality, the
spec tator's fear of the real train , Gun n in g in sists, has been ex aggerated.
Ac c ordin g to those ac c oun ts, he says, "Credulity overwhelm s all else, the
physic al reflex sign alin g a visual traum a. Thus c on c eived, the m yth of in itial
terror defin es film 's power as its un prec eden ted realism , its ability to c on -
vin c e spec tators that the m ovin g im age was, in fac t, palpable an d dan ger-
ous, bearin g towards them with physic al im pac t. The im age had taken life,
swallowin g, in its relen tless forc e, an y c on sideration of represen tation
the im agin ary perc eived as real."
14
Although Gun n in g raises doubts about
the verac ity of the ac c oun ts of early Lum iere sc reen in gs, he sees in that
m om en t of prim itive c in em a the c apac ity to produc e a profoun d sen se of
aston ishm en t an d shoc k. In Gun n in g's rhetoric , the im age-bec om e-life
an d n ot the train threaten s to breac h the spac e of the spec tator an d swal-
low him , her. Fear is displac ed from the train to the im age itself. "What is
displayed before the audien c e," he says, "is less the im pen din g speed of the
train than the forc e of the c in em atic apparatus."
15
The spec tator at this
sc reen in g is "overwhelm ed" an d "swallowed" by the im age, of whic h the
train is its on ly figure.
16
The desc ription of spec tator shoc k, whether as gen -
uin e fear an d traum a or as a m ore subdued form of aston ishm en t, suggests
a c om plex division of spac e between film an d spec tator at the surfac e of
the sc reen .
The spec tator is swallowed by the im age, as if it were an oral c avity, as if
the im age, in this in stan t, revealed an in teriority, vast an d terrible. An in te-
riority of c in em a, a psyc hology en tered like Irm a through the m outh. "We
c an n ot," Gun n in g c on c ludes, "sim ply swallow whole the im age of the n ai've
spec tator, whose reac tion to the im age is on e of sim ple belief an d pan ic ; it
n eeds digestin g."
17
The sc reen in g an d its ac c oun ts are m arked, in Gun -
n in g's idiom , by an ec on om y of digestion , a geology of threaten in g in teri-
ority. The im agin ed or im pen din g c ollision at the site of the sc reen between
the train an d the spec tator c an be figured as an in gestion : what awaits the
spec tator at the projec ted poin t of c ollision is an im agin ary depth, a vol-
um e that open s on to the spec tator from the other side of the sc reen . A
gapin g orific e. Gun n in g quotes on e journ alist's respon se to an early sc reen -
in g of a Biograph train film : "An un seen en ergy swallowin g spac e."
18
The
film is an en ergy, c in em a a spac e (with, it seem s, an orific e), the gestur
that brin gs them in to c on tac t with the spec tator, swallowin g. The c om plex
in terac tion of the two fuses these elem en ts, un seen . The un seen en ergy
swallows, but also ren ders spac e, m akes spac e possible an d visible, what
Deleuz e c alls "a forc e."
19
Gun n in g in vokes Mic hael Fried's c ategories of
absorption an d theatric ality, position in g early c in em a on the order of theat-
ric ality. "These early film s ex plic itly ac kn owledge their spec tator, seeming to
reach outward and confront. Con tem plative absorption is im possible here.
65
The viewer's c uriosity is aroused an d fulfilled through a m arked en c oun ter,
a direc t stim ulus, a suc c ession of shoc ks."
20
Theatric ality rather than ab-
sorption , shoc k rather than c on tem plation , "a c in em a of in stan ts rather
than developin g situation s."
21
But in a sen se these film s c an be seen as
absorptive and theatric al, followin g Fried's defin ition s: the absorptive n a-
ture of the im age an effec t of theatric ality, the theatric ality an effec t of the
absorption . On e folded in side the other, "the im age's absorption in itself,"
says Fried.
22
Or, the theatric al presen tation of absorption . What is pre-
sen ted to the spec tator is a theater of absorption , n ot on ly in the figure of
the train , whic h threaten s to pen etrate the spec tator's spac e, but in the pro-
jec tion of "an un seen en ergy swallowin g spac e."
Other displac ed c ollision s, sites of c on tac t between the spac es of c in -
em a an d spec tator, c an be foun d in a frequen t m otif of those early film s,
the c ar ac c iden t. Autom obile ex plosion s an d c ollision s oc c upy a sign ific an t
am oun t of early sc reen spac e. Cec il Hepworth's How It Feels to Be Run
Over (1900), for ex am ple, features an autom obile plun gin g direc tly in to
the c am era, blac ken in g the sc reen 's surfac e an d the viewer's visual field.
23
The ac tualiz ation of the Lum iere train threat begin s with a fein t. The film
open s with a slightly low an gle shot of a dirt road, n ot ex ac tly c en tered,
whic h stretc hes in to the bac kgroun d. From the first shot, a vehic le is visible
in the distan c e. It m oves toward the c am era, but at an oblique an gle. Grad-
ually, the vehic le bec om es m ore c learly visible as a horse-drawn c arriage.
The trajec tory of its m ovem en t suggests it will pass by the c am era, whic h it
does, to the right of the fram e. Before the c arriage has disappeared, a sec on d
vehic le appears in the distan c e. It is m ovin g at a faster pac e an d direc tly
toward the c am era. Through a c loud of dust raised by the passage of the
c arriage, the sec on d vehic le approac hes the c am era, c learly visible n ow as
an autom obile m ovin g rapidly. Three passen gers sign al to the c am era, to
an un seen figure, an ex ten sion of the spec tator, to m ove away. The auto-
m obile wavers, then from a position slightly to the right of the fram e, it
c rashes in to the c am era. At the poin t of im pac t, a c on c ave bum per swal-
lows the spac e in to a blac k sc reen , where a phrase appears in separate
fram es: "?!!?. . . !!!. . . !. . . Oh!... Mother... will... be. . . pleased."
R. W. Paul's 1906 film The Motorist (direc ted by Walter R. Booth) open s
with a street sc en e, an autom obile m ovin g toward the c am era. A polic e-
m an steps in to the vehic le's trajec tory from the right side of the fram e, in ter-
ruptin g the an tic ipated c rash in to the c am era. The vehic le c on tin ues in to
0the polic em an , liftin g him on to the c ar's hood an d c arryin g him with it.
The autom obile passes the c am era to its left an d ex its the fram e at the
lower-left c orn er. After a c ut, the autom obile reen ters the fram e on the
upper-left c orn er, m ovin g to the right. The polic em an , still on the hood of
66
the c ar (an d replac ed in this shot by a dum m y), is thrown to the groun d
an d run over. As the wheels pass over the figure of the polic em an , an im m e-
diate c ut replac es the dum m y with a livin g ac tor, who rises from his assault
an gry but un in jured. The polic em an c hases the m otorists, an d the rem ain -
der of the film c on sists of an ex ten ded pursuit, whic h in volves, at on e poin t,
an asc en t in to outer spac e.
In The Motorist, the an tic ipated c on tac t between the autom obile an d
c am era/spec tator has been in sc ribed within the diegesis. The figure of the
polic em an absorbs the im pac t an d defies the laws of n ature by return in g to
life un harm ed by the forc e of the autom obile. In side an d out, this side an d
the other, before an d behin d have been displac ed to the site of a un iquely
film ic m etaphysic s: the fluid boun dary between life an d death. Paul's
Extraordinary Cab Accident (1903) deploys the sam e Melies c ut, the substi-
tution of in an im ate objec ts for livin g bein gs in order to display un flin c h-
in g views of death. A m an on the sidewalk kisses a wom an good-bye, then
steps bac kward in to the street an d in fron t of an on c om in g horse an d c ar-
riage, whic h kn oc ks him to the groun d, then gruesom ely run s him over. A
polic em an who sees the ac c iden t c hases the c arriage, ex itin g the fram e to
the lower right. The wom an rushes to the fallen m an , followed by an other
m an who en ters the fram e from the lower-left area. They ex am in e the body
an d dec lare the woun ded m an dead. As they ac kn owledge the m an 's death,
the polic em an return s to the c rim e sc en e with the perpetrator, an d all four
pay their respec ts. Sudden ly, the dead m an sprin gs up, pushes the polic em an ,
an d, grabbin g the wom an 's han d, rushes out of the fram e to the lower
right. The film is m ade possible through several c on tin uity c uts that sub-
stitute the livin g body with a dum m y, then restore the livin g body. The
m ovem en t between the an im ate an d in an im ate is ac hieved by c rossin g an
in visible threshold between the livin g an d n on livin g, spac es ren dered c on -
tiguous, fluid, an d reversible in c in em a.
24
Jam es William son 's 1905 film An Interesting Story, about a m an so
en grossed in his book that he fails to n otic e the often dan gerous world
about him , c on tain s a sc en e in whic h the distrac ted reader walks direc tly
in to an on c om in g steam roller. Usin g stop-ac tion c in em atography, William -
son substitutes a flex ible figure for the hum an ac tor an d flatten s it un der
the steam roller. The flatten ed protagon ist bec om es a figure for what Vivian
Sobc hac k c alls the "deflation of spac e."
25
Two m en on bic yc les rush to the
sc en e of the flatten ed reader an d, usin g their tire pum ps, rein flate him .
The rean im ated reader than ks his resc uers, then c on tin ues forward, in to
the distan c e. In eac h ex am ple, a fatal en c oun ter between a hum an bein g
an d a vehic le is reversed; the hum an bein g survives, im possibly, an d return s
to life after havin g on c e c rossed over to the other side. An orphic c in em a
67
of en c oun ter displac ed from the "prim al sc en e" of c in em a, the en c oun ter
between the spec tator an d the apparatus, its un seen en ergy, in to the diegesis
or represen tation . A mise-en-abime of en c oun ters.
The Lum ieres' Arrival of a Train an tic ipates the early c in em a of en c oun ter,
the ex c item en t of a c on fron tation with the un seen en ergy of c in em a spac e.
Edwin S. Porter's so-c alled floatin g shot, a m edium shot of a ban dit firin g a
gun direc tly in to the c am era (sc reen ed som etim es before an d at other
tim es after Porter's 1903 The Great Train Robbery) fulfills, perhaps, the fan -
tasy of an en c oun ter with the other side, an ultim ately phan tasm atic
en c oun ter as well as other side.
26
Arrival of a Train serves, in its brief sc ope,
as a c alc ulation of deep spac e, a m easurem en t of depth on the surfac e of
the sc reen . The train , desc ribed by som e as a m eton ym y of the c in em ato-
graph, c on n ec ts the film 's bac kgroun d an d foregroun d spac es. An d like the
workers who em erge from the fac tory in Leaving the Lumiere Factory, the
passen gers in Arrival of a Train step out of the c avern of the train , an other
spac e em bedded within the film 's visible spac e. An ex tra spac e folded on to
the sc reen , whic h m akes possible yet an other plan e, an other dim en sion
that ex ten ds the fan tastic depth of c in em a. In this film , the train c an be said
to tran sport n ot on ly its passen gers, to suture the distan t an d c lose spac es
of the sc reen , but also spac e: a private, disc rete, an d portable spac e that
open s on to the sc reen , revealin g its in terior c argo, n am ely, passen gers.
27
Arrival of a Train stages a c ollision between the im age an d the spec tator
through the vehic le of a vehic le, a figure of the figure of en c oun ter, the
train . The spec tator an d train n ever c ollide, but the spec tator an d im age
do. The spec tator an d m ovin g im age m eet, in Arrival of a Train, at a par-
tic ular poin t in spac e, the sc reen , whic h bec om es a phan tasm al an d dis-
placed site, what Deleuz e c alls a "m etaphysic al surfac e." Followin g the Stoic s
an d their thin kin g of a physic s of the surfac e, in whic h the world is organ -
iz ed an d m ade sensible on the surfac e, Deleuz e says:
There is therefore an en tire physic s of surfac es as the effec t of deep m ix -
turesa physic s whic h en dlessly assem bles the variation s an d pulsation s
of the en tire un iverse, en velopin g them in side these m obile lim its. An d
an to the physic s of surfac es a m etaphysic al surfac e n ec essarily c orrespon ds.
Metaphysic al surfac e (transcendental field) is the n am e that will be given
to the fron tier established, on the on e han d, between bodies taken together
an d in side the lim its whic h en velop them , an d on the other, proposition s
^in gen eral.
28
frWithin , behin d, or ben eath the surfac e, a set of "m obile lim its," a m eta-
physic al surfac e open s up. In it, n ot on ly n ew organ iz ation s of spac e, n ew
relation s "between bodies taken together an d in side the lim its whic h en velop
68
them ," but n ew fron tiers, possibilities of "proposition s in gen eral." New
proposition s that regulate the very orders (laws) an d in terac tion s of spac e
as suc h. The c in em a sc reen separates spac e, establishes orders an d rela-
tion s between phen om en al an d ex isten tial, if n ot m etaphysic al spac e: the
spac e between life an d its shadow, but also between disc rete orders of life,
m ovem en t, an d an im ation .
29
The sc reen is a deep surfac e that brin gs
together two veloc ities in an im m in en t c ollision . A poin t of c on tac t between
sc reen elem en ts but also between "proposition s in gen eral." Arrival of a
Train m akes the poin t of c on tac t (whic h has to rem ain ultim ately deferred)
visible; a poin t that is an open in g, a c rac k that leads to the other side.
In a c oun tergesture to Arrival of a Train, the Lum ieres' Leaving Jeru-
salem by Railway (1896) depic ts a train station in Jerusalem from the per-
spec tive of the train . As the train pulls away from the station , a c am era
m oun ted on the train 's rear film s the view of the station an d people, som e
of whom address the c am era, m ove toward it, away from it, an d others,
in differen t, who stan d still as the train m oves farther away. Leaving Jeru-
salem uses hum an figures to m ark c oordin ates in deep spac e, to c hart a vir-
tual spac e an d phan tasm atic volum e that open s up inside the sc reen . In
Leaving Jerusalem, the train has m erged with the c am era m oved in side it,
as it were, c ollapsin g the figure of the train in to the c am era an d erasin g the
m etaphor by fusin g it with the sc reen 's surfac e.
A 1905 Biograph film , Interior New York Subway, 14th Street to 42nd
Street, direc ted by G. W. Bitz er, further ex ten ds the reversal of Leaving Jeru-
salem.
30
The approx im ately five-m in ute film c on sists of a series of c on tin -
uous shots of a subway train , seen from behin d, as it travels through the
dark in teriors of the New York un dergroun d in 1905. The c am era, m oun ted
on a sec on d vehic le, follows the train as it m oves away from the c am era
an d plun ges farther in to the deep spac e of the sc reen .
31
When the first train
stops at eac h station , the sec on d vehic le stops an d pauses, the c am era still
film in g, un til the train resum es its travel. The lightin g fluc tuates, depen d-
in g on the train 's loc ation with respec t to other train s an d station s, an d the
passage of light through the vertic al beam s an d c olum n s on either side of
the train c reates a flic kerin g effec t, a m eton ym y perhaps of the projec tor, a
mise-an-abime in sc ription of it on the sc reen 's surfac e.
32
The "whitish
grey" struc tures appear skeletal, perhaps in the way that Irm a's in teriority
looked to Freud in his dream , as if the subway represen ted a vast an d abstrac t
c orporeality. An arc hive of the un dergroun d an d an un dergroun d arc hive.
The dark horiz on an d destin ation of the train are lim itless, in fin ite, un asc er-
tain able. Vaguely form less. The train c on tin ues forward, m ovin g farther
in to deep blac k spac e, an in teriority of the film that seem s to ex ten d en d-
lessly. Even tually the train stops at a station for an ex ten ded period of
69
G . W . B i t ze r , Interio r N ew Y o rk Subway , Fo urteenth Street to Fo rty -seco nd Street ( 19 0 5 ) .
roughly thirty sec on ds, while passen gers ex it. But before the film en ds, the
train an d the c am era that pursues it resum e their forward m ovem en t, sug-
gestin g a c on tin uation of the train 's progression in to the abyss.
From the Lum ieres to Bitz er, the passage of the train forward an d bac k-
ward, toward an d away from the sc reen an d spec tator, determ in es a trope
of early c in em a, the c on struc tion of deep spac e in two dim en sion s. Gun -
n in g's early c in em a of attrac tion m ight also in c lude the produc tion of a
syn thetic volum e an d im agin ary depth that open s up on the sc reen . Other
Lum iere film s reveal a sen sitivity to rec edin g spac e an d plan es of depth. A
Lum iere film that ec hoes Gun n in g's idiom of eatin g an d in gestion , The
Baby's Meal (Repas de bebe, n o. 88, 1895) c an be seen as a series of plan es
m ade visible by the distan c es of leaves rustlin g in the bac kgroun d. Auguste
an d his fam ily oc c upy the c en ter of the fram e, in m edium shot. The hori-
z on tal lin e of the table, whic h slic es ac ross the sc reen 's lower half, is in ter-
sec ted at an an gle by the side of the house, whic h pulls the spac e of the film
in to the bac kgroun d. In the brief sc en e that features the Lum ieres eatin g,
various plan es of deep spac e are stirred by the an im ated foliage that sur-
roun ds the fam ily. The ac tivity of leaves ex ten ds the spac e bac kward in to a
seem in gly vast depth that open s up behin d the fam ily an d threaten s to
en gulf them . An abyss that swallows the eatin g fam ily, a mise-en-abime of
oral c avities.
In those first m om en ts of c in em a, the spec tac le un folds as an en ergetic
spac e, as an avisuality of spac es that are there but un seen , as the avisuality
of un seen en ergies. William son 's film The Big Swallow (circa. 1901) disfigures
the m etaphors of digestion an d absorption , ren derin g the deep spac es an d
"un seen en ergies" of c in em a as a literal m outh "swallowin g spac e." The
three-shot c om edy begin s with a three-quarter shot of a m an who appears
to be gesturin g an grily toward an un seen c am era. He approac hes the c am -
era in a theatric al address, gesturin g his adam an t refusal to be film ed. As
he m oves from m edium shot to c lose-up, he open s his m outh an d c on tin -
ues to m ove toward the c am era. The dark c avity of his m outh fills the sc reen
un til it c oin c ides with the fram e, en gulfin g the en tire sc reen . The m outh
produc es, as it were, an open in g to the other side, to the in side; the blac k
sc reen a view of in teriority. The other side in side. In the darkn ess a c u
then the c am era an d operator en ter the pic ture an d plun geare swal-
lowedin to the dark sc reen -m outh. They van ish, an d after an other c ut,
the sc en e rec edes an d the m an reappears, in ex trem e c lose-up, sm ac kin g
his lips.
33
He has swallowed the c am era an d operator. The Big Swallow en ds
in a c lose-up shot of the laughin g, digestin g m an .
The film 's c on c lusion in troduc es a logic al in c on sisten c y: if the c am era
has been swallowed by the subjec t, then how c an the film c on tin ue? Who
71
J a m e s W i l l i a m s o n , T he B ig Swal l o w (circa 19 0 1).
rem ain s to fin ish the film ; who or what is there, at the site of the c am era?
The c am era an d its double have been in troduc ed in to the film , the en tire
film ren dered a phan tasm . On e rem ain s on this side, the other has c rossed
over, passed through the sc reen through an orific e, to the other side, in to
the other spac e of the film . Absorbed in to the film 's world an d in terior
spac e, the fun c tion of the apparatus has m oved from the c am era to the spec -
tator, who n ow oc c upies the c am era's plac e. The spec tator is left to sec ure
the vac an t but still vigilan t fun c tion of the apparatus. It has bec om e the
c am era, its trac e, an avisual aftereffec t or im age. The film 's subjec t has
m oved from a spec tator to a spec ter, to a spec tral phan tasm .
The Big Swallow ac tualiz es a trope of early c in em a, spatial depth an d
volum e. In the blac k spac e of an ex trem e c lose-up, an other world open s on
the surfac e.
34
In c on trast to the fram e of a pain tin g, says An dre Baz in , whic h
bin ds the spac e of the im age in ward, the edges of the film sc reen in dic ate a
vast ex pan se that open s outward from the sc reen . "The pic ture fram e
polariz es spac e in wards. On the c on trary, what the sc reen shows us seem s
to be part of som ethin g prolon ged in defin itely into the universe. A fram e is
c en tripetal, the sc reen c en trifugal."
35
In side William son 's blac k sc reen ,
in side an d beyon d it, an abyss em bodied: a body an d sc reen , fused, swal-
lowin g spac e. The m ovem en t in to the m an 's m outh ec hoes, perhaps, Freud's
X-ray en try in to Irm a's m outh. It m arks the passage of the subjec t in to the
illusory body of an other, but also the loss of on eself elsewhere, in an other,
deep in side an other. "The m outh is n ot on ly a superfic ial oral z on e but
also the organ of depths," Deleuz e says.
36
Eager to see, the c am era an d its
operator have plun ged in to the depths of a hum an subjec t, in vokin g a kin d
of film psyc hology, a deep in teriority, an un c on sc ious or figure of the
un c on sc ious in the form of an avisual volum e represen ted by a dark sc reen .
"A psyc hology of m ovem en t," perhaps, as Dulac says, or a m ovem en t of
psyc hology, a m obile psyc hology. In plac e of the c am era, in its plac e, the
spec tator. You. You are there, in its plac e, a lost objec t.
37
A trac e of the c am -
era, its phan tasm . At the surfac e then , in the virtual spac e that sutures an d
severs in side from out, here from there, a phan tasm erupts. In you.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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||HHIH|HIHHHIH|HHHBII|HIH^^^^^HIHi|HH|
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^^^^^^^^ffj^^^^ff^^^BjffffB^S^^w^3i3^^^^j!^^E^^^^
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^^n l^R^Q^^^Rm ^^M^g^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l
73
By slidin g, on e passes to the other side, sin c e the other side is n othin g
but the opposite direc tion . If there is n othin g to see behin d the c urtain ,
it is bec ause everythin g is visible, or rather all possible sc ien c e is alon g the
len gth of the c urtain . It suffic es to follow it far en ough, prec isely en ough,
an d superfic ially en ough, in order to reverse sides an d to m ake the right
side bec om e the left or vic e versa.
38
Both sides are c on n ec ted by the surfac e, by the tissues of a m etaphysic al
surfac e that ren ders the world an d its geography superfic ial. Neither side is
absolute n or opposition al, m erely opposite, c on n ec ted by som e c orn er or
fold. In side an d outside c on tiguous, everythin g visible. Depth, Merleau-
Pon ty says, un derstood as a "dim en sion that c on tain s all the others is n o
lon ger a dim en sion ":
Depth thus un derstood is, rather, the ex perien c e of the reversibility of
dim en sion s, of a global "loc ality"everythin g in the sam e plac e at the
sam e tim e, a loc ality from whic h height, width, an d depth are abstrac ted,
of a volum in osity we ex press in a word when we say a thin g is there.
39
A dim en sion that c on tain s all other dim en sion s, eac h on e reversible, in
whic h everythin g is visible "in the sam e plac e at the sam e tim e," there. A
flat depth, a depth on the surfac e, in whic h "height, width, an d depth are
abstrac ted." An abstrac t, superfic ial volum e. (Like the X-ray im age, avisu-
ality m ay be the effec t of total visibility. If "everythin g is visible," then the
ec on om y of vision is n o lon ger regulated by presen c e an d absen c e, visibil-
ity an d in visibility, but rather by the play of phan tasm s.) The in terior an d
ex terior design ed, reversible, in distin guishable in the realm of total visibil-
ity. A phan tasm atic design of the world, whic h has lost its c oordin ation , its
sign s an d sin gularities. Un sign ed an d designed.
The designed world that open s up in the m outh of c in em a is un c on -
sc ious in at least on e respec tit shares with Freud's arc hive the absen c e of
n egation . In side an d out, this side an d that other side, life an d death, you
an d your double, "the true story of your death" an d all others are viable in
c in em a, in the spec ular arc hive that ex ten ds in all direc tion s an d ac ross all
tem poralities without lim its. (Tim elessn ess, in Freud's defin ition , is also a
struc tural aspec t of the un c on sc ious.) A prevalen t feature of what Noel
Burc h c alls "the prim itive m ode of represen tation " (PMR) in film c on sists,
he says, of "n on -c losure." In c on trast to the c losures of in stitution al repre-
sen tation , whic h seek to c en ter the spec tator as the subjec t of represen
tion , the n on c losure of the PMR radic ally displac es the subjec t from the
site of the spec tac le. Burc h writes:
If in stitution al c losure is taken to be m ore than n arrative self-suffic ien c y
an d a c ertain way of brin gin g the n arrative to an en d, if, on the c on trary, it
74
is treated as the sum of all sign ifyin g system s that c en tre the subjec t an d
lay the basis for a full diegetic effec t, in c ludin g even the c on tex t of projec -
tion , then the prim itive c in em a is in deed n on -c losed as a whole.
40
The n on c losure of early c in em a effec ts a field of represen tation , a "sum of
all sign ifyin g system s," whic h is lim itless, like Borges's Library, an d form -
less. It thrusts the subjec t of the spec tac le in to an abyss, in to an d through
an orific e that open s phan tasm atic ally on the sc reen surfac e. If c in em a is
un c on sc ious, is a form of or like the un c on sc ious, it is bec ause c in em a
shares with the un c on sc ious a fan tastic m obility an d geography; both
m odes of avisuality regulate, vis-a-vis the m etaphysic al surfac e, the passage
of a phan tasm , from here to there, this side to that.
41
Through an avisual
hole. Psyc hoan alysis, too, says Deleuz e, is a superfic ial prac tic e, a prac tic e
an d thought deeply attun ed to the properties of the surfac e, in its m eta-
phoric an d m aterial form s: "The surfac e has a dec isive im portan c e in the
developm en t of the ego, as Freud c learly dem on strated when he said that
the perc eption -c on sc iousn ess is loc aliz ed on the m em bran e form ed at the
surfac e of the protoplasm ic vesic le."
42
Deleuz e refers to Freud's attem pt to
figure, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), perc eption -c on sc iousn ess
(Pcpt.-Cs.) ac c ordin g to a m odel from evolution ary biology, requirin g the
developm en t of a theory of surfac es. Freud begin s with an apology an d
a spec ulation .
"What follows is a spec ulation ," says Freud, "often far-fetc hed spec ula-
tion , whic h the reader will c on sider or dism iss ac c ordin g to his in dividual
predilec tion ."
43
Sin c e Pcpt.-Cs., the m ec han ism by whic h stim uli from the
outside world an d feelin gs of pleasure an d un pleasure from the in side are
proc essed in to c on sc iousn ess, m ust be ac c essible from the in side an d out,
"it is therefore possible to assign to the system Pcpt.-Cs. a position in
spac e."
44
"It m ust lie on the borderlin e between outside an d in side; it m ust
be turn ed towards the ex tern al world an d m ust en velop the other psyc hic al
system s."
45
Like Deleuz e's m etaphysic al surfac e, Freud's psyc hogeography
begin s on a fron tier. Freud wan ts to loc ate, it seem s, the "protoplasm ic
vesic le" n ot on ly in spac e but on the body, at its lim it, "on the borderlin e
between outside an d in side."
Freud's superfic ial body lives at the ex trem ities of the outside an d
in side worlds. It in habits, but also em bodies, those worlds at their lim its.
"Let us pic ture a livin g organ ism in its m ost sim plified possible form as an
un differen tiated vesic le of a substan c e that is susc eptible to stim ulation ."
46
Over tim e, Freud spec ulates, the outer surfac e has evolved to protec t the
organ ism from "an ex tern al world c harged with the m ost powerful en er-
gies," whic h, if allowed to pen etrate the organ ism un hin dered, would kill
it.
47
It has, Freud im agin es, gradually bec om e "in organ ic ," m etam orphosed
75
in to an im m aterial "en velope or m em bran e" that c on tin ues to protec t the
in side of the organ ism but n o lon ger has "the struc ture proper to livin g
m atter."
48
This outer layer has bec om e, in Freud's ac c oun t, an im agin ary
surfac e, Cs. A trac e. The "dead" surfac e has bec om e a protec tive filter "again st
the effec ts threaten ed by the ex tern al worldeffec ts whic h ten d towards a
levellin g out of them an d hen c e towards destruc tion ."
49
Con sc iousn ess,
Cs., is born in Freud's fan tastic evolution , in the tran substan tiation of an
organ ic m em bran e. As the vesic le's outer surfac e dies, it reem erges as a
phan tasm atic surfac e, an im agin ary tissue that c on tin ues to ac t as a shield
again st the sheer destruc tivity of the outside. It is, says Albert Liu, "like a
foreskin or c allousa dead protec tive m em bran e that c an be rem oved via
c irc um c ision or ex c ision ."
50
The outside, in Freud's world, represen ts the
forc es of a total, on e m ight say n uc lear, destruc tion .
Between ex teriority an d in teriority, c orporeal an d psyc hic , m aterial an d
im m aterial, Freud im agin es a Borgesean arc hitec ture of the system Pcpt.-
Cs., an un im agin able plac e both in side an d outside the body, a vital an d
un ique surfac e, m etaphysic al, the plac e of im possible c on vergen c es. An
arc hive of surfac es, a surfac e arc hive, an arc hitec ture of the body that c on -
sists en tirely of biopsyc hic al layers, in the last an alysis, im agin ary surfac es.
Deleuz e n am es the figure that m oves between the surfac es, layers, an d
plan es, the phan tasm . It lives at on c e in a residual an d an tic ipatory relation
to the subjec t, haun tin g an d prefigurin g the subjec t, absolutely sin gular
yet im person al an d divisiblean atom ic trac e. "What appears in the
phan tasm ," says Deleuz e, "is the m ovem en t by whic h the ego open s itself to
the surfac e an d liberates the a-c osm ic , im person al, an d pre-in dividual
sin gularities whic h it had im prison ed."
51
It is m arked, says Deleuz e, by an
"ex trem e m obility," an other feature it shares with the un c on sc ious.
En dowed with a m obility that ex c eeds the lim itation s an d fm itudes of
spac e, the phan tasm gen erates an d is itself an un seen en ergy that swallows
spac e. A "superficial energy," says Deleuz e, guides the phan tasm in the
world.
52
Of the m obility partic ular to the phan tasm , Deleuz e writes:
The phan tasm c overs the distan c e between psyc hic system s with ease, goin g
from c on sc iousn ess to the un c on sc ious an d vic e versa, from the n oc turn al
Qto the diurn al dream , from the in n er to the outer an d c on versely, as if it
belon ged to a surfac e dom in atin g an d artic ulatin g both the un c on -
< sc ious an d the c on sc ious, or to a lin e c on n ec tin g an d arran gin g the in n er
an d the outer over the two sides.
53
um ieres' train , but also the un iversal Library, Irm a, Berthe, an d
76 other figures of im possible c orporeality an d m ovem en t through spac e
figures for the m ovem en t through an im agin ary c on figuration of virtual
spac eDeleuz e's phan tasm , drawn from Freud, m akes possible suc h pas-
sage. The passage itself is phan tasm atic , like Freud's dream voyage in to
Irm a's psyc hic body, like the "phan tom train rides" of early c in em a, but it
effec ts the figure of the phan tasm as the subjec t of the passage. That is, the
passage in to phan tasm atic spac e is m ade possible by the figure of a phan -
tasm , whic h it gen erates in the passage. The phan tasm serves as the phan -
tasm atic figure of the phan tasm , loc ated on the lin eon it but also a
figure of itbetween in teriority an d ex teriority. A figure of the lin e.
Railroad trac ks an d train lin es, trajec tories forward an d bac kward, ver-
tic al an d horiz on tal, the fram e lin e an d outlin e form a series of lin es that
traverse c in em a spac e, c ut an d suture the surfac e (m on tage), ren derin g
c in em a in to a series of plan es, whic h ex pan d an d c on trac t in to an d on a
m etaphysic al surfac e.
54
Lin es an d figures of lin es open an d c lose on the sur-
fac e. Lin es are thus open in gs and c losures, sealan ts an d c rac ks. They are
phan tasm atic in an un boun ded world. The lin e is a phan tasm , the phan tasm
a lin e. The phan tasm 's arc hitec ton ic struc ture produc es deep surfac es an d
flat depths, lin es an d open in gs, c rac ks, spac es that turn in to an d return as
other spac es.
The c rac k, for Deleuz e, is n either a sign n or a m ark, n ot even m aterial,
but en ergetic ; a m ovem en t that establishes a sec ret open in g, tem porary
an d irregular, between in side an d outside.
The real differen c e is n ot between in side an d outside, for the c rac k is n ei-
ther in tern al n or ex tern al, but is rather at its fron tier. It is im perc eptible,
in c orporeal, an d ideation al. What happen s in side an d outside, it has c om -
plex relation s of in terferen c e an d in terfac in g, of syn c opated jun c tion s
a pattern of c orrespon din g beats over two differen t rhythm s. Everythin g
n oisy happen s at the edge of the c rac k.
55
It leaves the surfac e in tac t; it is an effec t of the surfac e, phan tasm atic , an
open in g that is n ot an open in g. "What this m ean s," says Deleuz e, "is that
the en tire play of the c rac k has bec om e in c arn ated in the depth of the
body, at the sam e tim e that the labor of the in side an d the outside has
widen ed the edges."
56
"Im perc eptible, in c orporeal, an d ideation al," phan tasm al. There an d n ot
there, the very c on dition of its presence avisual. The c rac k is form ed by sur-
fac e pressures from within an d without. "There is the c rac k whic h ex ten ds
its straight, in c orporeal, an d silen t lin e at the surfac e," says Deleuz e, "an d
there are ex tern al blows or n oisy in tern al pressures whic h m ake it deviate,
deepen it, an d in sc ribe or ac tualiz e it in the thic kn ess of the body."
57
Phan -
tasm atic an d avisual, the c rac k is an im perc eptible open in g, a sec ret en tran c e 77
in to the arc hive, to the other side, like the dream portal that Freud disc overs
to Irm a's in side. Psyc hoan alysis c an be said to be a sc ien c e of surfac es an d
c rac ks, a sc ien c e of c rac ks in surfac es, a sc ien c e of phan tasm atic c rac ks in
m etaphysic al surfac es.
In "The Ego an d the Id" (1923), Freud ex ten ds his desc ription of the
superfic ial body an d the pressures from within an d without that shape it.
Freud says, "A person 's own body, an d above all its surfac e, is a plac e from
whic h both ex tern al an d in tern al perc eption s m ay sprin g. It is seen like an y
other objec t, but to the touch it yields two kin ds of sen sation s, on e of whic h
m ay be equivalen t to an in tern al perc eption ."
58
That is, the surfac e of the
body belon gs both to the body's ex teriority an d in teriority, is orien ted
toward the outside an d in side. The body is felt (touc hed) from within an d
without, an d ex ists at this fron tier. Freud's distin c tion between the sen ses
of sight an d touc h reveals an ec on om y of reverberation s an d c rac ks: the
body is seen , but when it is touc hed, or to the touc h, it yields two separate
sen sation s, on e ex terior, the other in terior. Eac h touc h a c rac k, a sm all
open in g to the other side of the body, to the other body.
From the duality of in side an d outside that rests on the body's surfac e,
the ego form s. "The ego," says Freud, "is first an d forem ost a bodily ego; it
is n ot m erely a surfac e en tity, but is itself a projec tion of a surfac e."
59
Freud
ex pan ds this idea in a footn ote that appears on ly in the 1927 En glish edi-
tion . He ex plain s: "I.e. the ego is ultim ately derived from bodily sen sation s,
c hiefly from those sprin gin g from the surfac e of the body. It m ay thus be
regarded as a m en tal projec tion of the surfac e of the body, besides, as we
have seen above, represen tin g superfic ies of the m en tal apparatus."
60
The
ego, in Freud's ac c oun t, the "I," is fun dam en tally superfic ial; it em erges
from the body's surfac e, as a projec ted surfac e that em bodies the superfic ial-
ity of the m en tal apparatus.
Ego an d body are surfac es on to whic h you are projec ted. You are a pro-
jec tion , a phan tasm ; the im agin ary plac e where the ego an d body c on verge,
where the in side an d out adhere, for a fan tastic m om en t, as Freud says of
the un c on sc ious, "tim eless." You are this sc reen , on whic h the disorder of
the un c on sc ious is projec ted. "Un c on sc ious proc esses," Freud says, "c an
on ly be observed by us un der the c on dition s of dream in g an d of n eurosis."
61
"A projec tion of a surfac e." Un c on sc ious proc esses are avisual. That is, they
operate within various m odes of visuality, but are in visible un less pro-
jec ted again st a sc reen dream or n eurotic . Their visibility depen ds on the
ex isten c e of a sc reen . The un c on sc ious appears always on the surfac e, visi-
y ever as an effec t of the surfac e. An d so you are on ly ever a surfac e,
destin ed to be always superfic ial.
78 For Freud, the geography an d history of the un c on sc ious, its figures
an d form s of m ovem en t, an d its m odes of visuality are derived from a phan -
tasm atic surfac e, from the trac e of a surfac e lon g sin c e van ished, alon g with
the prehistoric organ ism that em bodied it. What rem ain s are spec tral
sc reen s: in visible, avisual, or m etaphysic al surfac es on whic h the en tire life
of the un c on sc ious takes plac e. Psyc hoan alysis offers a theory of m aterial
an d im agin ary sc reen sfigurative, abstrac t, m etaphoric , m etaphysic al
sc reen s. In 1946 Bertram Lewin in troduc ed the n otion of the "dream
sc reen ."
62
An "em pty surfac e," suspen ded phan tasm atic ally within the dream
arc hitec ture, fac ilitates, says Lewin , the perc eption of otherwise im perc ep-
tible psyc hic phen om en a. The dream sc reen m akes in visible psyc hic phe-
n om en a visible, or at least visual. It establishes an in tern al c in em a. Jean -
Louis Baudry ex plain s the fun c tion of Lewin 's psyc hic surfac e from the
perspec tive of c in em a:
The sc reen , whic h c an appear by itself, like a white surfac e, is n ot ex c lu-
sively a represen tation , a c on ten tin whic h c ase it would n ot be n ec essary
to privilege it am on g other elem en ts of the dream c on ten t; but rather, it
would presen t itself in all dream s as the in dispen sable support for the pro-
jec tion of im ages.
63
The sc reen is n ot itself an elem en t of the dream in the sam e m an n er that
figures an d thoughts are, but rather an aspec t of the dream apparatus, an
"in dispen sable support" for the arc hitec ton ic s of the dream . The dream is
n ot on ly an avisual phen om en on presen ted visually although n ot ac tu-
ally visiblen ot on ly a tem poral even t, but also an arc hitec tural struc ture,
a topography, a geography, in the m aterial sen se of the word, a world. The
sc reen is its portal, its open in g, the arc hitec ton ic c rac k that threaten s to
c ollapse the order of the world, but also allows the passages of phan tasm s
bac k an d forth, in side an d out, over an d bac k. A world of sc reen s an d a
sc reen world based on the geology of c in em a.
Dulac desc ribes c in em a, whic h she c alls the seven th art of the "sc reen ,"
as "depth ren dered perc eptible"that is, projec ted on to the surfac e.
64
From this perspec tive, Irm a's m outh, an d the whole of her in teriorityits
white patc hes an d sec ret orific esc an be seen as a kin d of dream sc reen
or surfac e. Freud had projec ted an im age of the dream sc reen on to Irm a's
body; he had ren dered her phan tom body a sc reen . Freud was dream in g,
perhaps of dream s, of phan tom in teriorities an d atom ic subjec ts. The sec ret
of dream s an d a sec ret dream . He m ay have dream ed n ot on ly of a future
psyc hoan alysis but of c in em a an d the X-ray as well. For the struc tures that
bin d the three phen om en ologies of the in side always return to the site of a
fragile surfac e; skin resurfac ed as sc reen s, sc reen s as m eton ym ies of skin .
"The hum an skin of thin gs," says An ton in Artaud, "the epiderm is of real- 79
ity: this is the prim ary raw m aterial of c in em a."
65
The surfac e of thin gs an d
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80
4 . A n A t o m i c T r a c e
I
n 1951 the abstrac t pain ter Willem de Koon in g c om m en ted on the
radic al visuality un leashed by the atom ic bom b. The adven t of atom ic
light sign aled, for de Koon in g, the absolute tran sform ation of visual
represen tation .
Today, som e people thin k that the light of the atom bom b will c han ge the
c on c ept of pain tin g on c e an d for all. The eyes that ac tually saw the light
m elted out of sheer ec stasy. For on e in stan t, everybody was the sam e c olor.
It m ade an gels out of everybody.
1
An atom ic visuality, forged in the spec tac ular visuality of the atom ic or
A-bom b, an A-visuality. De Koon in g's reflec tion on the atom ic deton ation
an d its effec t on visual represen tation is m arked by religious ex c item en t
an d c on fusion . The sadistic m etaphysic s of his ac c oun t, the c ruel sugges-
tion of redem ptive ec stasy in the m on oc hrom atic an n ihilation , c on veys de
Koon in g's un easin ess in fron t of the atom ic spec tac le. His lan guage c harts
81
the limits of figuration before the visual event that may have changed "the
concept of painting once and for all." "The eyes that actually saw the light,"
those who witnessed and understood (or were converted), also lost their
vision; in the sacrificial logic of de Kooning's passage, the witnesses
exchanged their eyesight for a sublime visuality: the eyes of those witnesses
"who saw the light melted out of sheer ecstasy." Ecstatic, outside, blinded.
The last form of light, perhaps, that anyone needed to see. The last light of
history, according to de Kooning, or the light at the end of history.
"For one instant, everybody was the same color." Which is to say that
for an instant, there was no more color in the world. The same transcen-
dent colorlessness illuminated everyone. The catastrophic light of atoms
suffuses all people in an overpowering light, which stains each individual
body with the purer color of colorlessness. In contrast to the dark light
imagined by Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, a secret luminosity that emerges from the
depths of the Japanese body, atomic light bathes the body from without,
erasing the differences of color and hue that surface each human body. An
annihilating, catastrophic light renders the world raceless.
The atomic light, says de Kooning, "made angels out of everybody."
Everyone is touched, transformed, but no one survives the force of an
atomic metaphysics. De Kooning's anxious rhetoric attempts to account
for a spectacle that changes the terms of specularity as such. A spectacle in
excess of the capacity of any individual to recognize it as spectacle, or even
to see it. De Kooning's angelic, wrathful light of atoms suspends for a
moment, but also forever, the economies of visibility and visualitymelt-
ing in ecstasy the eyes of those who saw, blending all colors into one, and
making everyone angels. A phantom temporality that passes in an instant,
in a flash; that leaves behind a historicity scarred and haunted, like Chris
Marker's protagonist, by an image, an image of time, torn from its place in
history.
2
A timeless image of timelessness. It inscribes an end of visuality,
an aporia, a point after which visuality is seared by the forces of an insur-
mountable avisuality. The atomic blast that melted the eyes of angels
brought forth a spectacle of invisibility, a scene that vanishes at the instant
of its appearance only to linger forever in the visual world as an irreducible
trace of avisuality.
At the time de Kooning sought to fix his understanding of the atomic spec-
tacle in words, to develop an idiom for radical and transformative visual-
ity, another examination of invisibility and avisuality was under way in
Japan. A series of minor films based conceptually on H. G. Wells's 1897
novel The Invisible Man, but more immediately on the prewar and wartime
American films that featured the figure of an "invisible man," emerged in
82
the postwar Japan ese c in em a.
3
In the c on tex t of an im posed and in tern aliz ed
prohibition again st war referen c es, partic ularly to the atom ic bom bin gs,
the tomei ningen film s in Japan suggest an attem pt through popular an d
fan tastic gen res to ex plore the c on dition s of visuality in the afterm ath of
World War II.
4
Adac hi Shin sei's 1949 The Invisible Man Appears (Tomei ningen arawaru),
a film version of The Invisible Man set in postwar Kobe, open s with a sc i-
en tific c om petition between two youn g c hem ists: eac h believes that he c an
disc over a m ethod of ren derin g the hum an body in visible. The differen c e
between their rival projec ts lies in the logic that in form s eac h c on c eption
of in visibility. On e sc ien tist proposes to c on trac t the body's m olec ular
struc ture to the poin t of c om plete den sity: the opaque body will appear
in visible through the paradox of absolute visibility, effec tin g a kin d of
hum an blac k hole. The other seeks to reorien t the body's c ellular struc ture
so as to allow light to pass through it like a sieve, m akin g the body appear
tran sparen t an d thus in visible to hum an sight. Opac ity an d tran sparen c y
fram e the dialec tic of in visibility, establishin g the thresholds of the visible
body. Movin g in opposite direc tion s, the forc es of optic al den sity an d dis-
persal arrive at the lim its of visibility, at the thresholds of visuality. Ac c ordin g
to the term s of this film , in visibility is defin ed as both the absolute c on den -
sation of visible m atter an d, c on versely, its diffusion . Total m aterializ ation
an d total dem aterializ ation in stitute the sam e c risis in visuality.
5
At stake in
the c om petition is a wom an 's han d: the vic torious sc ien tist will earn the
right to m arry the daughter of the two m en s' m en tor, who supervises the
laboratory. (The sen ior sc ien tist proposes a priz e for the win n er; the youn ger
sc ien tists im m ediately suggest their m en tor's daughter, Mac hiko. Just as
quic kly, he agrees. The in verted oedipal ex c han ge suggests the fluid ec on o-
m ies of sex uality an d sc ien c e c irc ulatin g in the film 's diegesis.) The eros
that fuels their c on test foreshadows the in evitable c on vergen c e of light,
death, an d jouissance.
6
A half c en tury earlier, an other wom an had offered her han d for the
realiz ation of a sc ien tific ex perim en t an d bec am e an em blem for tran s-
paren c y. Berthe Ron tgen 's x -rayed han d in 1895, m arked by the ex teriority
of her weddin g ban d, sign aled the en try of light in to the hum an body an d
the illic it m arriage, as it were, of radiation an d photographic c ulture. In
the late-n in eteen th- an d m id-twen tieth-c en tury n arratives of radiation ,
the desire to probe the sec rets of visual order determ in ed an un c an n y rap-
port between visuality an d sex uality, sc ien c e an d art, light an d darkn ess,
fan tasy an d power. The destruc tive effec ts of those radiographic histories
are em bodied in the figure of Dr. Nagai, the doom ed protagon ist of Oba 83
Hideo's 1950 film The Bell of Nagasaki (Nagasaki no kane). He is already
sufferin g from radiation poison in g, c on trac ted from his overex posure to
X-rays, when the atom bom b destroys Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. An other
palim psest appears in the un trac eable X-ray im age that open s Kurosawa
Akira's 1952 film To Live (Ikiru). As Mitsuhiro Yoshim oto n otes, this im age,
this view of hum an in teriority has n o origin in the film 's diegesis. No
proper history or referen t. Yoshim oto c alls this floatin g, un boun d X-ray, an
"im possible im age."
7
Or again in the X-ray film that follows the c redit
sequen c e of Teshigahara Hiroshi's 1966 film The Face of Another (Tanin no
kao). The protagon ist, Okuyam a, whose fac e has been disfigured in a labo-
ratory fire, is seen in an X-ray. Referrin g to the ac c iden t that has left him
fac eless, Okuyam a says: "Everythin g is too partic ular. If this had been an
effec t of hum an destin y or c aused by a war woun d or som ethin g of that
n ature, then I m ight still have been saved."
8
The lethal forc e of X-rays is
rec apitulated by the atom ic radiation , whic h ec hoes the c apac ity of c ata-
strophic light to pen etrate the body an d erase the distin c tion between in side
an d out, body an d en viron m en t, im ages of destruc tion an d un im agin able
destruc tion . X-rays an d atom ic radiation are lin ked in a sec ret n arrative,
boun d by a logic that is historic al, overdeterm in ed, an d destin edan d, at
the sam e tim e, in c iden tal, ac c iden tal, an d arbitrary. Wells brought forth
his in visible m an from the shadow of the X-ray in 1897; he m akes ex plic it
referen c e in his n ovel to the "Ron tgen vibration s."
9
Adac hi's Tomei ningen arawaru c on veys in its title the paradox of in vis-
ibility an d tran sparen c y as positive m odes of visuality. In visibility fun c -
tion s n ot as the n egation of visibility but as a form of visibility given to be
seen , but un seen . Visual but in visible. The tran sparen t or in visible m an
arrives an d appears (arawaru c arries both m ean in gs), suggestin g a visuality
of the un seen , the arrival of a form of in visibility loc ated within the spec -
trum of visibility. An in visibility or avisuality that takes plac e within the
fram es of the visible, as the c on dition of possibility of the visual as suc h.
The title im plies a sem iotic s of avisuality, a m ec han ism for ren derin g the
very in visibility of the in visible at the c en ter of the visible world, to para-
phrase Trin h T. Min h-ha.
As the two sc ien tists begin their rac e to the thresholds of the visible
world an d the erotic lure that sign als from the other side, they learn that
their m en tor-patriarc h has already developed a form ula for effac in g the
hum an body from the visible world. He has c hosen to keep his disc overy se-
c ret un til he fin ds an an tidote to reverse the effec t of in visibility. The elder
sc ien tist has elec ted to pursue total tran sparen c y rather than opac ity an d
m akes c lear his preferen c e for the youn g disc iple who has c hosen the sim ilar
route. The father-sc ien tist's c hoic e of an in tellec tual heir an d future son -in -
84 law tin ts the dialec tic of in visibility with a fain t but distin c t m etaphysic s of
light. In the c on tex t of the film , tran sparen t lum in osity c om es to be align ed
with figures of c lean lin ess an d propriety, while opaque den sity c om es to
ex em plify those of obsessive am bition . (An argum en t again st the c on c ept
of absolute den sity states that even if the body bec am e in visible un der suc h
c on dition s, it would still c ast a shadow. Absolute c on den sation would result
in a shadow without a body, a residue of c orporeality that stain s the in visi-
ble body. A shadow of in visibility, an d in visibility as shadow.) Several years
after the Am eric an film in dustry ex perim en ted with the represen tation of
in visible bein gs an d four years after the atom ic bom bin gs of Hiroshim a
an d Nagasaki, whic h en ded World War II, Japan ese film audien c es were ex -
posed to this attem pt to c on figure a phen om en ology of the tran sparen t.
As the film un folds, its n arrative disrupts the c on test between the rival
m odes of in visibility. Mem bers of a c rim in al organ iz ation kidn ap the sen -
ior c hem ist an d then his disc iple, Kurokawa, forc in g the latter to in gest a
stolen dosage of the c om poun d. He van ishes. With his im age held hostage
by the un dergroun d organ iz ation , the tran sparen t sc ien tist turn s to a life
of c rim e. A side effec t of the potion , disc losed by its in ven tor, is a proc livity
for violen c e an d aggression (kyobo). As the forc es of in visibility begin to
c on sum e Kurokawa's ex isten c e, he develops sym ptom s: ven geful rage an d
jealousy, an d the desire for power. Kurokawa return s to the visible spec -
trum at the m om en t of his death, after threaten in g his en em ies with a
euphem ism for his own c on dition , "I'll erase you from this world forever."
Kurokawa is in both sen ses atom ic , an atom ic forc e an d dispersed; he is
him self an atom ic weapon . His rival's researc hhis searc h for a m aterial
superden sitym ight have reversed the effec ts of tran sparen c y by provid-
in g a way to shade his tran sparen t body, forc in g it bac k to the spec trum of
visible m atter. On e m ode of in visibility c oun ters the other, an an tidote in -
visibility or in visible an tibody. Kurokawa dies in the oc ean , his bodily form
slowly resum in g its shape in the water. His death is wrapped in a sublim e
glow: the overex posed glare of the sun suffuses the im age an d shim m ers
on the water's surfac e. Kurokawa return s to the world un derwater, in a ray
of lum in osity. Kurokawa's on c e in visible figure has bec om e what Dan iel
Tiffan y c alls "the radian t body: the body whose radian t an d volatile sub-
stan c e is disc losed on ly by a n uc lear even t, the body disappearin g in the
c atastrophic m edium of the atom ."
10
The form ula for in visibility is repre-
sen ted in the 1949 film as a liquid, whic h is c on sum ed orally. In 1954,
when Oda Motoyoshi in troduc ed a n ew version of the in visible m an , The
Invisible Man (Tomei ningen), the liquid bec am e a ray an d the allusion 0
World War II m oved from an oblique to a direc t referen c e.
11
The year 1952 m arked the en d of Japan 's oc c upation by Allied forc es
an d the en d of on e form of politic al c en sorship; a n ew c in em a had begun 85
to em erge by 1954. Between the two film s, in visibility assum es two distin c t
form s: on e politic al, the other phen om en ologic al. Bec ause represen tation s
of an d referen c es to the war were restric ted durin g an d after the war, first
by the Japan ese govern m en t an d then by the oc c upyin g forc es, Japan ese
artists an d in tellec tuals adopted a variety of rhetoric al strategies to address
the war an d its aftereffec ts. In the c ase of postwar Japan ese c in em a, on e
fin ds a c on sisten t rec ourse to allegory, whic h determ in es a represen tation al
spac e otherwise rem arkably void of war referen c es.
12
Beyon d the politic al
restric tion s that shrouded the war, the subjec t of atom ic radiation an d its
lin gerin g effec ts in Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki posed an other layer of c om -
plex avisuality. The bom bin gs that en ded Japan 's im perialist ac tivities had
in troduc ed a form of in visible warfare or, rather, a form of warfare that c ir-
c ulated through a den se m atrix of visuality, displac in g an y ac c ess to a stable
referen t. At Hiroshim a, an d then Nagasaki, a blin din g flash vaporiz ed en tire
bodies, leavin g behin d on ly shadow trac es. The in itial destruc tion was fol-
lowed by waves of in visible radiation , whic h in filtrated the survivors' bodies
im perc eptibly. What began as a spec tac ular attac k en ded as a form of vio-
len t in visibility.
The m ovem en t from the Am eric an to Japan ese film s effec ts several
sign ific an t c han ges, in c ludin g the tran slation of the word invisibility as
transparency (tomei) in the Japan ese version s.
13
The Japan ese lan guage has
a word for in visibility, fukashi. In Murayam a Mitsuo's 1957 film The Invis-
ible Man Meets the Fly (Tomei ningen to hae otoko), the distin c tion between
the term s tomei and fukashi is repeatedly un dersc ored.
14
A sc ien tist devel-
opin g a powerful ray repeatedly c orrec ts uses of the term tomei kosen (tran s-
paren t ray), in sistin g on the word fukashi. Despite this an d alm ost by
jQjjjiimjfjjg^
86
default, tomei c om es to m ean in visible. While both term s im ply a dim in -
ished form , the n uan c es of eac h type of im perc eptibility vary. In visibility
suggests a ran ge of phen om en al states, from a m aterial dispersion to radi-
c al absen c e. It im plies a m etaphysic s of the body, an absen c e at the very
c ore of on e's presen c e. With tran sparen c y, the body is there but traversed
violated, like Dan iel Paul Sc hreber's body, by a drivin g radian c e.
15
The
rhetoric al differen c e is m ean in gful when plac ed again st the historic al bac k-
drop that separates the Am eric an an d Japan ese film sthe war between
the n ation s an d the atom ic bom bin gs that en ded it.
Jam es Whale's 1933 film The Invisible Man sim ilarly features two youn g
sc ien tists, a sen ior sc ien tist an d his daughter, Flora, an d a love trian gle
between the brillian t sc ien tist, his lesser c oun terpart, an d the daughter,
who is attrac ted to the radian c e of gen ius. The in visible m an , Jac k Griffin
(played by Claude Rain s), has ex perim en ted with the dan gerous (an d fic ti-
tious) substan c e "m on oc ain e," derived from a plan t in In dia, whic h draws
out c olor an d also in duc es m adn ess.
16
Bec ause the in visible body retain s its
other physic al fun c tion s, it is susc eptible to the en viron m en t, to forc es of
ex teriority suc h as weather an d to the in gestion of food an d liquids. Griffin
ex plain s that he is vuln erable to rain , m ist, an d sm og; to "sm oky c ities,"
"dirty fin gern ails," basic ally, ash, dust, an d c in der; an d espec ially after m eals.
A brush again st the elem en ts, whic h adhere to the surfac e of his skin , an d
an ex posure of the c om plex dyn am ic between in side an d outside, realiz ed
by eatin g, un does the effec t of in visibility. In visible c orporeality depen ds,
in this in stan c e, on the suspen sion of n orm al relation s between in side an d
outside. In this state, the body disappears between worlds, ex istin g n either
within n or without the world. Ex posed by the en c oun ter with ex teriority,
whic h stain s the body's surfac e, an d with in teriority, whic h reveals a form
of deep in visibility, the in visible body is worldless, otherworldly, between
the m aterial an d phan tasm atic worlds of represen tation . The livin g, in vis-
ible body rem ain s suspen ded in this realm of avisuality un til death. In a
trope that rec urs throughout the in visible m an phan tasm , on ly death
restores the body to a state of visibility. At the m om en t of death, the body
return s to the visible world. Eac h death sc en e is alm ost always prec eded by
a fin al represen tation of in visible m ovem en t, trac ked by footsteps on the
groun d, followed by a c ollapse, death, an d the return of the visible hum an
figure.
17
In Whale's film , Griffin return s to the visible spec trum in side out:
first his skull return s, his skeletal in teriority, followed by his ex terior sur-
fac e. An X-ray im age m ediates the return from in visibility to visibility
"a death in reverse," says Mic hel Chion .
18
Wells's n ovel adds further details to the c on c eption an d stagin g of 87
an in visible body. In the origin al, "the stran ger," as yet un n am ed an d
un iden tified, reveals him self to a frighten ed c rowd. Wells desc ribes the first
ex posure, the presen tation of the in visible, avisual figure before a c rowd of
hostile spec tators. "'You don 't un derstan d,' he said, 'who I am or what
I am . I'll show you. By Heaven ! I'll show you.' Then he put his open palm
over his fac e an d withdrew it. The c en tre of his fac e bec am e a blac k
c avity."
19
The c on fusion between "who I am or what I am " c on stitutes the c risis
in itiated by in visibility; in this in stan c e, iden tity is absorbed by visuality,
an d in visibility determ in es on tology. At the c en ter of the c risis is the absen t
fac e, the "blac k c avity," whic h m arks the spac e of the stran ger's bein gthe
obsc ure em pty spac e of his fac e. The hum an fac e, the ex terior surfac e of
the body an d m eton ym y of hum an ity, serves as the site of a spec ular avisu-
ality. What is shown but n ot seen , or seen on ly as an avisual spec tac le,
establishes a phan tom dialec tic that drives the trope of in visibility. "Then
he rem oved his spec tac les, an d every on e in the bar gasped," the n arrative
c on tin ues. "It was worse than an ythin g They were prepared for sc ars,
disfigurem en ts, tan gible horrors, but nothing!"
20
All im agin able horrors
are ex c eeded by the un im agin able horror of in visibility. Effac em en t sur-
passes the horror of an y m aterial disfiguration . His fac e fully un veiled, the
stran ger represen ts the ex em plary spec tac le of avisuality: he "was a solid
gestic ulatin g figure up to the c ollar of him , an d then n othin gn ess, n o
visible thin g at all!"
21
He is, says Albert Liu, "a figure of Ac ephale."
22
Am on g the stran ge features of Wells's n ovel is the fac t that the in visible
m an , Griffin , was, in som e ways, already in visible, or at least tran sparen t,
alm ost tran sluc en t, alm ost "albin o" before his ex perim en ts with optic al
den sity an d c hem ic al in visibility. A virtually c olorless whiten ess. Bec om in g
in visible seem s to have origin ated in Griffin elsewhere, prior to his dec ision
to seek in visibility. To his in terloc utor, Kem p, Griffin begin s a sc ien tific ex -
plan ation of his efforts "to lower the refrac tive in dex of a substan c e, solid
or liquid, to that of air."
23
"Light" says Griffin , "fasc in ated m e."
24
Wells's im agin ary sc ien c e begin s with a rac ist in voc ation : Griffin relates
to Kem p, "I wen t to worklike a n igger."
25
From albin o to n igger, Griffin 's
tran sform ation ac ross the spec trum of light travels through the registers of
rac e, addin g to the idiom of light, the m etaphors of rac ial iden tity. The
pure sc ien c e of Griffin 's ac c oun t is stain ed by his idiom ; his rec ourse to the
lan guage of rac ism in troduc es a trem or that run s throughout the n ovel:
the un stable value of the figure of light. Of his in itial breakthrough, Griffin
states, "I had hardly worked an d thought about the m atter six m on ths
before light came through one of the meshes suddenlyblindinglyr
26
As
ac tual light, rac e, an d the m etaphors of thought, the trope of light c reates a
88den se rhetoric at the c en ter of Wells's fic tion , itself a kin d of "blac k c avit
"Visibility," Griffin c on tin ues, "depen ds on the ac tion of the visible
bodies on light. Either a body absorbs light, or it reflec ts an d refrac ts it, or
88
does all these thin gs. If it n either reflec ts n or refrac ts n or absorbs light, it
c an n ot itself be visible."
27
From this thesis, Griffin in troduc es the foun da-
tion of his disc overy, the c laim that hum an bein gs are essen tially tran spar-
en t. To Kem p's objec tion , "Non sen se!" Griffin replies:
Just thin k of all the thin gs that are tran sparen t an d seem n ot to be so.
Paper, for in stan c e, is m ade up of tran sparen t fibres, an d it is white an d
opaque for on ly the sam e reason that a powder of glass is white an d
opaque. Oil white paper, fill up the in terstic es between the partic les with
oil so that there is n o lon ger refrac tion or reflec tion ex c ept at the surfac es,
an d it bec om es as tran sparen t as glass. An d n ot on ly paper, but c otton
fibre, lin en fibre, wool fibre, woody fibre, an d bone, Kem p, flesh, Kem p,
hair, Kem p, nails an d nerves, Kem p, in fac t the whole fabric of m an ex c ept
the red of his blood an d the blac k pigm en t of hair, are all m ade up of
tran sparen t, c olourless tissue. So little suffic es to m ake us visible on e to the
other. For the m ost part the fibres of a livin g c reature are n o m ore opaque
than water.
28
"The whole fabric of m an ," ac c ordin g to Griffin , is held together, but m ore
im portan t, m ade visible by the on ly opaque aspec ts of the hum an body:
"The red of his blood an d the blac k pigm en t of hair." In Griffin 's ac c oun t
the hum an body is like paper, a n etwork of fibres an d essen tially tran spar-
en t. An other c on vergen c e of the body an d book (Freud an d Tan iz aki), the
body as book, a book of the body, an arc hive of the body written , as it
were, on the surfac e of the body itself.
Griffin 's attem pt to m aster optic al den sity requires a way to drain the
c olor from blood an d pigm en ts. His first suc c ess c om es when he learn s
how to c han ge the c olor of blood from red to white without affec tin g its
fun c tion s. A c olorless blood. "It c am e sudden ly, splen did an d c om plete
in to m y m in d. I was alon e; the laboratory was still, with the tall lights
burn in g brightly an d silen tly. In all m y great m om en ts I have been alon e."
29
Solitude, in teriority, an d in visibility are boun d by the trope of lum in osity
that run s throughout Griffin 's ac c oun t. "'On e c ould m ake an an im ala
tissuetran sparen t! On e c ould m ake it in visible! All ex c ept the pigm en ts
I c ould be in visible!' I said, sudden ly realisin g what it m ean t to be an
albin o with suc h kn owledge."
30
Griffin 's m ove toward in visibility, solitude,
an d m adn ess had already begun ; "an albin o with suc h kn owledge," he was
already withdrawin g from the world of visibility.
Even before the c om pletion of his ex perim en t, Griffin 's proc livity for se-
c rec y ren ders him soc ially in visible. As a "provin c ial professor," Griffin foun d
it diffic ult to avoid the c on stan t "pryin g," whic h drove him toward greater
sec rec y an d fin ally disappearan c e. "An d after three years of sec rec y an d ex -
asperation , I foun d that to c om plete it was im possibleim possible."
31
89
Griffin n eeded absolute sec rec y; he n eeded to fuse the soc ial an d phen om -
en al dim en sion s of in visibility an d disappear en tirely.
The fin al task of Griffin 's projec t in volves rem ovin g the residual c olor
an d pigm en tation from "the tran sparen t objec t whose refrac tive in dex was
to be lowered between two radiatin g c en tres of a sort of ethereal vibra-
tion ."
32
Griffin 's c om poun d c on sists of a m ix ture of vibration s (radiation )
an d in gested liquids (stryc hn in e). Between the "ethereal vibration s" of two
radiatin g c en ters, first a piec e of fabric an d then a c at are erased, "like a
wreath of sm oke." But in the c ase of the c at, n ot en tirely. The ex perim en t
failed in two areas. "'These were the c laws an d the pigm en t stuffwhat is
it?at the bac k of the eye in a c at. You kn ow?' 'Tapetum.' 'Yes, the tape-
turn.'
1
"
33
(The Oxford English Dictionary desc ribes the tapetum as "an irregu-
lar sec tor of the c horoid m em bran e in the eyes of c ertain an im als [e.g., the
c at], whic h shin es owin g to the absen c e of the blac k pigm en t.") After som e
tim e, the c at van ishes ex c ept for its eyes: "After all the rest had faded an d
van ished, there rem ain ed two little ghosts of her eyes."
34
The "blac k c avity"
of Griffin 's fac e has been replac ed with the phan tom eyes of the an im al,
whic h looks at the m adm an from the van tage poin t of the in visible. The
lin es that separate in teriority from ex teriority, surfac e from depth, visuality
from blin dn ess, an d even hum an from an im al bein g have c ollapsed. From
the in visible world, the c at regards Griffin with on ly its eyes: with the eyes
that rem ain like the Cheshire c at's grin .
Even tually Griffin subjec ts him self to the ex perim en t an d suc c eeds.
Un der the "sic kly, drowsy in fluen c e of the drugs that dec olourise blood,"
Griffin looks in to a m irror an d sees his fac e, "white like a ston e." The
albin o has begun to lose the last trac es of his hum an c olorin g an d begin s
to suffer "a n ight of rac kin g an guish, sic kn ess an d fain tin g."
35
Then , after a
n ight, the pain passes.
I shall n ever forget that dawn , an d the stran ge horror of seein g that m y
han ds had bec om e c louded glass, an d watc hin g them grow c learer an d
thin n er as the day wen t by, un til at last I c ould see the sic kly disorder of
m y room through them , though I c losed m y tran sparen t eyelids. My lim bs
bec am e glassy, the bon es an d arteries faded, van ished, an d the little white
n erves wen t last. I gritted m y teeth an d stayed there to the en d. At last on ly
the dead tips of the fin gern ails rem ain ed, pallid an d white, an d the brown
|stain of som e ac id upon m y fin gers.
An effec t of in visibility, it seem s, is a perpetual vigilan c e, the in ability to
c lose on e's eyes, sin c e the eyelids, n ow tran sparen t, n o lon ger bloc k on e's
90 vision . Griffin ex perien c es his van ishin g body like an X-ray im age. The
in teriority of his body, ex posed to his un obstruc ted gaz e, reveals itself
before van ishin g. An autopsy.
Griffin 's in ability to arrest his vision follows the gen eral c ollapse of his
surfac es an d the lost border between in side an d out. As desc ribed in the
film version , Griffin has to resist eatin g in public bec ause, he says, "to fill
m yself with un assim ilated m atter, would be to bec om e grotesquely visible
again ."
37
As a result of his in visibility, the in side of Griffin 's stom ac h has
bec om e visible to the outside. An ythin g that en ters his stom ac h c an be
seen un til digested. Griffin 's avisuality has turn ed him , like an X-ray im age,
in side out. Sim ilarly, his outside, the surfac e of his in visible body, is vuln er-
able to the elem en ts. "Rain , too, would m ake m e a watery outlin e, a glisten-
ing surface of a mana bubble," he says.
38
From the ex posed in teriority of
his stom ac h to the un assim ilable ex teriority of his skin , Griffin 's in visibility
has turn ed him in to a c on trast of ex trem es, depth an d surfac e, in teriority
an d ex teriority, with n o m ediation . Fog too traverses his body: "I should be
like a fain ter bubble in a fog, a surfac e, a greasy glim m er of hum an ity."
39
In
the withdrawal of the surfac e, Griffin ex ists without a balan c e between in side
an d out; everythin g his body c om es in to c on tac t with rem ain s irreduc ibly
foreign an d un assim ilable, ex posin g the in visibility of his body. Con tac t
with the world ren ders Griffin avisual.
The sec on d an d fin al autopsy return s at the n ovel's en d, on the oc c asion
of Griffin 's death. As with m ost in visible m an n arratives, the protagon ist's
body return s to view on ly after he dies, m arkin g an ex c han ge between life
an d visibility. In death, the proc ess of in visibility reverses itself: "Everyon e
saw, fain t an d tran sparen t as though it were m ade of glass,, so that vein s
an d arteries an d bon es an d n erves c ould be distin guished, the outlin e of a
han d, a han d lim p an d pron e. It grew c louded an d opaque even as they
stared."
40
Griffin 's body return s to the visible world from his han d, "lim p
an d pron e," an em blem , perhaps like Berthe Ron tgen 's ic on ic han d, of m on -
strous visuality an d death.
An d so, slowly, begin n in g with his han ds an d feet an d c reepin g alon g his
lim bs to the vital c en tres of his body, that stran ge c han ge c on tin ued. It was
like the slow spreadin g of a poison . First c am e the little white n erves, a haz y
grey sketc h of a lim b, then the glassy bon es an d in tric ate arteries, then the
flesh an d skin , first a fain t foggin ess, an d then growin g rapidly den se an d
opaque There lay, n aked an d pitiful on the groun d, the bruised an d
broken body of a youn g m an about thirty. His hair an d beard were white,
n ot grey with age, but white with the whiten ess of albin ism , an d his eyes
were like garn ets.
41
The fog flows from Griffin 's body, whic h appears to em it its own weather
as it bec om es visible. Like a developin g X-ray photograph, like Freud's 91
dream of Irm a's in teriority, Griffin return s to his n orm al state of tran s-
paren c y, "the whiten ess of albin ism ," an in dex of his rac e. Griffin resum es
his plac e in the visible world where he began , with less c olor than m ost.
White skin an d red eyes.
On e effec t of in visibility, them atiz ed in the various in visible m an sc en arios,
establishes a relation ship between in visibility an d m adn ess, an d the subse-
quen t desire for power. Power is m ost often ex pressed as the ability to
c ause swift an d un detec ted destruc tion . In predic tin g his asc en t to global
dom in ation , both the film an d n ovel version s of Griffin in voke "a reign of
terror." In visibility, or m ore prec isely the ability to determ in e on e's relation
to an d plac e within the visible spec trum , is lin ked to power, to the possi-
bility of absolute power, whic h leads to destruc tion , self-destruc tion , an d
ultim ately m adn ess. The fan tasy of sovereign ty triggers the hom ophon e of
destruc tion : from "a reign of terror" to a terror that falls from the sky, like
rain , blac k rain . The sen se of total destruc tion un leashed by atom ic war
in itiated a fort/da effec t: the c loser on e m oved toward Hiroshim a an d
Nagasaki, the m ore those topologies rec eded. At the hypoc en ter of destruc -
tion , a fun dam en tal den sity left the even t in visible. On ly its effec ts, ruin ed
buildin gs, vaporiz ed bodies, froz en m ec han ic s, an d the abstrac t m easure-
m en ts of lin gerin g radiation (alon g with other em piric al fac tsthe n um -
ber of deaths, the heat in degrees at groun d z ero, etc .) provided an arc hive
of its havin g taken plac e, there. Not the destruc tion of the arc hive, but an
arc hive of destruc tion . Like the dialec tic between c on den sation an d dis-
persal, the atom ic bom bin gs in troduc ed a visuality of the in visible, a m ode
of avisuality. They heralded a form of unimaginable devastation , in c on trast
to m ore rec en t form s of warfare, whic h, for distan t (televisual) observers,
produc e only im ages. In stead, the atom ic bom bin gs produc ed sym bols
as opposed to im ages of warwhic h drove the represen tation of atom ic
warfare from fac t to figure, toward the threshold of art. The so-c alled m ush-
room c loud, whic h has c om e to em body the perverse organ ic ity of atom ic
war, fun c tion s as a displac ed referen t for the obliteratin g forc e of atom ic
weapon ry.
42
Paul Virilio suggests an in ex tric able relation ship between atom ic war-
fare an d light, n uc lear destruc tion an d photography. "Man y epilogues have
been written about the n uc lear ex plosion s of 6 an d 9 August 1945," he says,
"but few have poin ted out that the bom bs dropped on Hiroshim a an d
Nagasaki were light-weapons that prefigured the en han c ed-radiation n eu-
tron bom b, the direc ted-beam laser weapon s, an d the c harged-partic le
gun s."
43
Weapon s of light that in troduc e n ew m odes of visuality an d in iti-
92 ate, like de Koon in g's atom ic light, c rises of visuality. Destruc tive light an d
the destruc tion of light as suc h.
The phen om en on of in visibility at Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki has bec om e
an essen tial aspec t of its represen tation in the photographic m edia. It m arks
the return of 1895 in 1945, when the disc overy of X-rays in troduc ed im ages
of m aterial tran sparen c y an d fused the fun c tion of radiation to photogra-
phy. What was less apparen t in 1895 was the ex ten t to whic h the n ew rays
fac ilitated the realiz ation of c ertain drives in trin sic to photography. The
photographic projec t had always in volved m ore than the m ere duplic ation
of n ature or the ac c urate represen tation of the visible world. Within the
depths of what on e m ight c all the ideology of photography was a desire to
m ake the in visible visible, but also to en gen der a view of som ethin g that
had n o em piric al prec eden t. Som ethin g n ever before seen . Like the erup-
tion of four-dim en sion al m atter in a Lovec raft n arrative, X-ray photog-
raphy brought forth, from the depths of the hum an body, som ethin g that
had n ot yet ex istedan im age of the hum an body as other, irreduc ibly
foreign , an d in its photographic m ateriality, in visible. Tearin g through the
opaque m ateriality of bodies, X-rays tran sform ed photography from an
ex erc ise in realism the produc tion of in dex ic al im agesin to an allegory
of avisuality.
X-ray photography produc ed a view that ex c eeded the c on ven tion al
fram es of photography, destroyin g in the proc ess the lim its of the body, the
in tegrity of its in terior an d ex terior dim en sion s. The body appeared in side
out, in side an d out, sim ultan eously. There an d n ot there. Like the in visible
m en an d wom en of the c in em a, X-rays produc ed a tran sparen t body an d
reproduc ed the body as a form of tran sparen c y. By passin g radiation direc tly
through the body, usin g it as a kin d of radian t filter, X-ray photography
ex posed the body, in its m ost in tim ate, in terior depth, as beyon d the thresh-
old of visibility. X-rays suggested the arrival of a true sc ien tific revolution ,
a reorgan iz ation of the visible an d physic al un iverse.
Not on ly was the X-ray harm ful to the hum an body, c ausin g ex trem e
form s of sun burn , it ac tually altered the body's in tern al struc ture. This
prec ursor to the m etam orphic effec ts of atom ic radiation at Hiroshim a
an d Nagasaki ex posed the destruc tive poten tial of in visible radiation , but
also the photographic properties of the hum an body. It suggested the
essen tial in visibility c on tain ed within the depths of the hum an body an d
the photographic im age. The sym ptom s that resulted from overex posure to
radiation revealed an un c an n y resem blan c e to photographic proc esses, sug-
gestin g that the body itself c ould fun c tion like a photograph. Thus tran s-
form ed, the body bec am e a part of the apparatus, absorbed, as it were, by
the glare of the photograph.
What was in tim ated in the radioac tive c ulture of the late n in eteen th 93
an d early twen tieth c en turies erupted at full forc e in Hiroshim a an d
A t o m i c s h a d o w s .
94
Nagasaki: if the atom ic blasts an d blac ken ed skies c an be thought of as
m assive c am eras, then the vic tim s of this dark atomic room c an be seen as
photographic effec ts. Seared organ ic an d n on organ ic m atter left dark stain s,
opaque artifac ts of on c e vital bodies, on the pavem en ts an d other surfac es
of this grotesque theater.
44
The "shadows," as they were c alled, are ac tually
photogram s, im ages form ed by the direc t ex posure of objec ts on photo-
graphic surfac es. Photographic sc ulptures. True photographs, m ore pho-
tographic than photographic im ages. Virilio rec oun ts the photographic
legac y of the atom ic bom bin g:
The first bom b, set to go off at a height of som e five hun dred m etres, pro-
duc ed a n uc lear flash whic h lasted on e fifteen th-m illion th of a sec on d, an d
whose brightn ess pen etrated every buildin g down to the c ellars. It left its
im prin t on ston e walls, c han gin g their apparen t c olour through the fusion
of c ertain m in erals, although protec ted surfac es rem ain ed c uriously un -
altered. The sam e was the c ase with c lothin g an d bodies, where kim on o
pattern s were tattooed on the vic tim s' flesh. If photography, ac c ordin g to
its in ven tor Nic ephore Niepc e, was sim ply a m ethod of en gravin g with
light, where bodies in sc ribed their trac es by virtue of their own lum in osity,
n uc lear weapon s in herited both the darkroom of Niepc e an d Daguerre
an d the m ilitary searc hlight. What appears in the heart of darkroom s is
n o lon ger a lum in ous outlin e but a shadow, on e whic h som etim es, as in
Hiroshim a, is c arried to the depths of c ellars an d vaults. The Japan ese
shadows are in sc ribed n ot, as in form er tim es, on the sc reen s of a shadow
puppet theatre but on a n ew sc reen , the walls of the c ity.
45
There c an be n o authen tic photography of atom ic war bec ause the bom b-
in gs were them selves a form of total photography that ex c eeded the
ec on om ies of represen tation , testin g the very visibility of the visual. On ly a
n egative photography is possible in the atom ic aren a, a skiagraphy, a shadow
photography. The shadow of photography. By positin g the spec tator within
the fram es of an an n ihilatin g im age, an im age of an n ihilation , but also the
an n ihilation of im ages, n o on e survives, n othin g rem ain s: "It m ade an gels
out of everybody."
Nothin g rem ain s, ex c ept the radiation . At Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki, two
views of in visibilityabsolute visibility an d total tran sparen c yun folded
un der the brillian t forc e of the atom ic blasts. In stan tly pen etrated by the
m assive forc e of radiation , the hibakusha were seared in to the en viron -
m en t with the photographic c ertain ty of havin g been there. In the after-
m ath of the bom bin gs, the rem ain in g bodies absorbed an d were absorbed
by the in visible radiation . These bodies van ished slowly un til there was
n othin g left but their n egatives.
Japan 's postwar in visible m an film s reveal n um erous trac es of an atom ic
referen t, from overt referen c es to c ryptic allusion s. In The Invisible Man
Meets the Fly, the c oun terpart to the in visible m an is a hum an fly, the hae
otoko, who strikes from n owhere, perc eptible on ly by the buz z in g soun d he
em its while in flight. The biologic al ex perim en t that produc es "the fly"
whic h in volves a shrin kin g solution that ren ders the in dividual sm all an d
light en ough to fly un detec ted in the airwas developed, ac c ordin g to the
film , by a Japan ese sec ret weapon s un it durin g the war.
46
The n ightc lub
own er Kuroki, who c on trols the form ula, seeks to ex ac t reven ge on those
who c on duc ted ex perim en ts on him . He has en slaved an other m an as his
"fly," orderin g hits on form er c olleagues in the Im perial Arm y. Durin g on e
attac k on a wom an , the hae otoko stalks his vic tim before desc en din g on
her from above an d behin d. While bein g pursued by her in visible attac ker,
she glan c es an x iously upward lookin g for the sourc e of the soun ds that
hover aroun d her. As he strikes her, his shadow an d feet appear sudden ly,
dropped from the sky. "The fly," says Albert Liu, "ac ts like an d is a figure of
the ray to the ex ten t that its rem ote direc tedn ess arrives with a stin g, a
touc h."
47
Like the air raids of World War II, the fly assaults his vic tim s from
above; the on ly sign of his presen c e a distin c tly audible hum . The distur-
ban c es in visuality in troduc ed by the fly (ac tually a m ic rosc opic , atom ic
hum an bein g) an d the in visible m an are supplem en ted by an other sen se,
soun d. Avisuality is also heard an d should be heard ac ron ym ic ally as an
audiovisuality, an AV, avisuality.
48
The m etallic fain tly in dustrial soun d of
the hae otoko suggests in sec ts an d airplan es, m on strosity an d warfare.
49
95
In eac h film in visibility produc es tropes of visuality an d avisuality, m odes
of perc eption in respon se to the struc ture of in visibility. Mobile c am eras
an d em pty m ise-en -sc en es, c am erawork through vac an t spac e, sim ilarly
in duc e a supplem en tary sen se, even sen suality, in the in visible m an film s.
An other trope is that of blin dn ess: the in ability to see with on e's eyes, but
also as a m etaphor of am bition an d m adn ess. Of the c om plex tran sversal-
ity between in visibility an d blin dn ess, Wells's in visible m an says of his c on -
dition , "I felt as a seein g m an m ight do, with padded feet an d n oiseless
c lothes, in a c ity of the blin d."
50
An in verse form of in visibility, blin dn ess
sign als the in ability to see what is n on etheless there, som ewhere, in the
visible spec trum . In Oda's version of The Invisible Man, on ly a youn g girl,
Mariko, who has been blin ded in the war, perc eives the in visible m an , who
is him self a vic tim of m edic al ex perim en tation by the Im perial Arm y.
Although she c an n ot see, Mariko c an sen se his presen c e in the "air"; she
c an distin guish the good from the bad, the kin d from c ruel, eac h person
ex udes a un ique atm osphere (me ga mienakutemo, kuki de wakaru no).
Blin dn ess, a frequen t m otif in postwar Japan ese c in em a, c an be seen as
an allusion to the blin din g flash, or pika, as the atom ic ex plosion s were
euphem istic ally c alled.
51
Eyes m elted in sheer ec stasy, as de Koon in g says.
Like the Greek orac le, the blin ded girl c an n ot see what others see, but c an
perc eive what others c an n ot. She tran sc en ds the physiology of blin dn ess
with a form of ex trasen sory vision . She is, in this sen se, vision ary.
52
Of this gen re of film s, The Invisible Man m ost open ly assails m ilitarism
in gen eral an d Japan ese m ilitarism in partic ular. It seeks to fin d, like the
sac rific ial rhetoric of de Koon in g, a form of Christian redem ption in
the atroc ity of war. "A truly Christian light," says de Koon in g, "pain ful but
forgivin g."
53
Nan jo Takem itsu, the in visible m an , is a produc t of the spec ial
attac k c orps an d in sists that the Japan ese m ilitary stole his hum an figure
(sugata). When he reveals his in visibility to a reporter whom he has be-
frien ded, Nan jo says, "Let m e show you this m odel, c reated by the m ilitary
state." Un like Griffin , the ban daged in visible m an who un ravels, Nan jo
effac es him self, wipes his fac e from the surfac e of visibility. The hum an
fac e, says Giorgio Agam ben , "is only open in g, only c om m un ic ability. To
walk in the light of the fac e m ean s to be this open in gan d to suffer it, an d
to en dure it."
54
Fac eless, Nan jo has bec om e an open in g without c om m un i-
c ability, an abyss. An open in g through whic h on ly the forc es of his affec t
an ger an d faithpass. Nan jo's an ger is tem pered by his faith, a them e that
run s throughout the film . In the en d, he fin ds peac e in self-sac rific e. At the
m om en t of his death, Nan j6 return s to the visible world.
Nan jo's fac e rem ain s a c om plex trope throughout The Invisible Man.
He has been effac ed (by the Japan ese m ilitary), has been m ade fac eless (by
96 the radiation ), but n on etheless wears a pain ted fac e throughout m uc h of
the film . He fac es the world with an d without a fac e. "The fac e does n ot c o-
in c ide with the visage," says Agam ben . "There is a fac e wherever som ethin g
reac hes the level of ex position an d tries to grasp its own bein g ex posed,
wherever a bein g that appears sin ks in that appearan c e an d has to fin d a
way out of it."
55
Even a bein g with n o visage c an be ex posed, c an grasp "its
own bein g ex posed"; even a bein g with n o visage has to fin d a way out of
its appearan c e. Nan jo appears an d is ex posed; he m ust fin d a way out of the
avisuality that he fac es, that fac es him , an d that c on stitutes the surfac e of
his in visibility. Nan jo's fac e is superfic ial, a pure surfac e, rem ovable an d c a-
pable of effac em en t, in visible an d avisual.
Suc h is the abyss that open s ben eath Nan jo's in visibility. On the fac e
an d the abyss that it surfac es, Agam ben writes:
In asm uc h as it is n othin g but pure c om m un ic ability, every hum an fac e,
even the m ost n oble an d beautiful, is always suspen ded on the edge of an
abyss. This is prec isely why the m ost delic ate an d grac eful fac es som etim es
look as if they m ight sudden ly dec om pose, thus lettin g the shapeless an d
bottom less bac kgroun d that threaten s them em erge.
56
Behin d every fac e, but also ben eath it, surges the "shapeless an d bottom less
bac kgroun d that threaten s" it. The fac e is a surfac e that keeps the form less
in side from eruptin g; it is the surfac e of form lessn ess, boun d to the form -
less m atter, the form less in teriority it c overs. Gilles Deleuz e an d Felix
Guattari add: "The fac e c on struc ts the wall that the sign ifier n eeds in order
to boun c e off of; it c on stitutes the wall of the sign ifier, the fram e or sc reen .
The fac e digs the hole that subjec tific ation n eeds in order to break through;
it c on stitutes the black hole of subjectivity as c on sc iousn ess or passion , the
c am era, the third eye."
57
The trope of the in visible m an c reates a distur-
ban c e at the very site of sign ific ation . Without the sc reen of the fac e, the
in visible m an is ren dered pure in teriority, tran sparen c y, a "blac k hole."
Nan jo's in visibility is a form of in teriority, of form less in teriority; a m ode
of form less avisuality. "The on ly fac e to rem ain un in jured," adds Agam ben ,
"is the on e c apable of takin g the abyss of its own c om m un ic ability upon
itself an d of ex posin g it without fear or c om plac en c y."
58
To ex pose on e's fac e, for Agam ben , m ean s to c on fron t the outside, to
allow the form lessn ess of on e's in teriority to c om m un ic ate with the sur-
fac es that c on stitute ex teriority. This c om m un ic ation in volves a deep c om -
m itm en t to "de-propriation an d de-iden tific ation ": on e m ust bec om e
other, you m ust bec om e other.
My fac e is outside: a poin t of in differen c e with respec t to all of m y proper-
ties, with respec t to what is properly on e's own an d what is c om m on , to
what is in tern al an d what is ex tern al The fac e is the threshold of de-
propriation an d of de-iden tific ation of all m an n ers an d of all qualities 97
An d on ly where I fin d a fac e do I en c oun ter an ex teriority an d does an out-
side happen to m e.
59
The fac e is a c on stitutive surfac e, the lim it between in side an d out. A
design. It c om m un ic ates, or ex ten ds a c om m un ic ability, between the form -
less in visibility of the abyssin side an d behin dan d the ex teriority
of an other. In this sen se, the fac e, whic h always threaten s to "sudden ly
dec om pose," represen ts an other surfac e of avisuality. You are there, this
fac e, fac in g, but on ly when you have depropriated an d deiden tified all that
is yours, that is youwhen you have m oved outside. You are form less
when you fac e the outside, when you are outside.
Yom ota In uhiko has suggested that the figure of an in visible Japan ese sol-
dier m ay be an allusion to Korean s who were forc ibly c on sc ripted in to the
Japan ese Im perial Arm y an d then aban don ed after the war.
60
They were
subsequen tly erased from the registers of a visible history. If so, then the
Japan ese an d sec retly Korean -Japan ese c harac ters are in visible in the sen se
of Ralph Ellison 's n am eless "in visible m an ."
61
Ellison 's n ovel Invisible Man,
whic h shares its n am e with Wells's n ovel but without the defin ite artic le,
was begun in the sum m er of 1945 an d published in its en tirety in 1952.
62
Som e portion s of the book were published in 1947 an d 1948 in Magazine
of the Year, fifty years after the public ation of Wells's n ovel. The history of
Ellison 's Invisible Man from 1945 to 1952 c oin c ides with the Allied oc c u-
pation of Japan .
63
It begin s, ac c ordin g to Ellison , with the prem ise that the
"high visibility" of Afric an Am eric an s "ac tually ren dered on e wn -visible."
64
The paradox of avisuality.
From Wells's "albin o c hem ist" who worked "like a n igger" to Ellison 's
un n am ed blac k protagon ist whose in visibility is "a pec uliar disposition of
the eyes" of others who "refuse to see" him , the two form s of in visibility
elaborated by the two n ovels, set apart by fifty years, ex ten d the dialec tic of
in visibility to an other degree of c risis.
65
"I am a m an of substan c e, of flesh
an d bon e, fibre, an d liquids," says Ellison 's n arrator, "an d I m ight even
be said to possess a m in d. I am in visible, un derstan d, sim ply bec ause people
refuse to see m e."
66
Alludin g to the hom on ym ic figure that prec edes him
an d gives him his pseudon ym , Ellison 's in visible m an ex plain s: "Nor is m y
in visibility ex ac tly a m atter of a bioc hem ic al ac c iden t to m y epiderm is."
67
His in visibility is n ot a m aterial feature of his body, yet it is. His in visibility
is en tirely an effec t of his body, whic h radiates in visibility, its own in visibil-
ity. Like Tan iz aki's darkn ess, whic h is n ot a n egation of light but a positive
an d m aterial opac ity, the in visible m an is c on stituted visually as in visible;
he lives in the visual world as in visible. Ellison 's n ovel, says Fred Moten ,
98 establishes "at its heart" a "hypervisibility."
68
Ellison 's avisual figure distin guishes him self from the literary "spooks"
an d film version s of in visible m en , perhaps also from the phan tom tran s-
paren c y of film itself: "No, I am n ot a spook like those who haun ted Edgar
Allan Poe; n or am I on e of your Hollywood-m ovie ec toplasm s."
69
Neither
literary n or film ic , the in visible m an 's world is suffused with light. He lives
in a "hole" in New York City: "My hole is warm an d full of light. Yes, full of
light. I doubt that there is a brighter spot in all New York than this hole of
m in e."
70
A light that fills the hole an d en ables the in visible m an to m ain -
tain his in visibility. In c on trast to Tan iz aki's shadow house, the in visible
m an 's house shin es. But the effec t is n ot dissim ilar; both houses allow their
oc c upan ts to see the darkn ess. The in visible m an says:
I n ow c an see the darkn ess of lightn ess. An d I love light. Perhaps you'll
thin k it stran ge that an in visible m an should n eed light, desire light, love
light. But m aybe it is ex ac tly bec ause I am in visible. Light c on firm s m y
reality, gives birth to m y form .
71
Light c on firm s the in visible m an 's reality an d gives him his form : "Without
light I am n ot on ly in visible, but form less as well."
72
In the depth of his
hole, seared by light, the in visible m an fights the abyss of form lessn ess by
em brac in g the very light that ren ders him in visible. He is a phan tasm ; his
in visibility allows him to evade death an d lin ger, in this world, as a phan -
tom . His is a politic s of the phan tasm , a politic s of deep avisuality that
allows the in visible m an to follow Clifton an d "plun ge outside of history."
73
In to a hole through a c rac k in the surfac e of the visible world. The in visible
m an is a projec tion .
A violen t projec tion that in verts the visual order of in visibility. In the
sc en e of his c on fron tation with the shadowy white Brother Jac k, him self a
phan tasm perhaps of Wells's in visible protagon ist Jac k Griffin , the in visible
m an perform s his in visibility, his resistan c e to the surveillan c e of others, by
disablin g the other's c apac ity to see depth.
Sudden ly som ethin g seem ed to erupt out of his fac e. You're seein g thin gs, I
thought, hearin g it strike sharply again st the table an d roll as his arm shot
out an d sn atc hed an objec t the siz e of a large m arble an d dropped it, plop!
in to his glass, an d I c ould see water shootin g up in a ragged, light-breakin g
pattern to sprin g in swift droplets ac ross the oiled table top. The room
seemed to flatten I stared at the glass, seein g how light shon e through,
throwin g a tran sparen t, prec isely fluted shadow again st the dark grain
of the table, an d there on the bottom of the glass lay an eye. A glass eye.
A butterm ilk white eye distorted by the light rays. An eye starin g fix edly
at m e as from the dark waters of a well.
74
Brother Jac k's fac e has been disfigured, "disem boweled," the in visible 99
m an says; "his left eye had c ollapsed, a lin e of raw redn ess showin g where
the lid refused to c lose, an d his gaz e had lost its c om m an d."
75
His eye a
projec tile, its soc ket a hole or c rac k on the surfac e of his fac e that leaves his
in side ex posed. Behin d Brother Jac k's eye, an open in g to the other world
that the in visible m an has been un able to loc ate. In this punctum, the laws
of visuality c ollapse. Everythin g is n ow visible on the surfac e; all m odes of
visualityvisibility an d in visibility, perc eption an d halluc in ation , an d
vision an d blin dn essare at work in the world ren dered m on oc ular, flat:
"The room seem ed to flatten ." A shadow world, flatten ed, every m ode of
visuality there, on the surfac e. An d like de Koon in g's ec static , m elted eye,
Brother Jac k's "butterm ilk white eye distorted by the light rays" stares
"fix edly at [the in visible m an ] as from the dark waters of a well." From
elsewhere, ben eath the surfac e, the other side of Brother Jac k's fac e. An eye
that saw the light of atom s, that has been seared by the forc e an d heat of
atom s, by the in ten se radiation of an atom ic figure that radiates a dark
in visibility.
If the in visible m an is an in visible figure, a figure of in visibility, then he
is so as an atom ic figure an d trac e. An in fin itely divisible "I" an d "I am "
an d an irreduc ible trac e of the I. His voic e an ec ho of his in visibility, his
in visibility an ec ho of his voic e, the phon ic m ateriality of his body. Atom ic
an d an atom ic , at on c e. A visual aurality an d aural visuality, like the "flash-
boom " (pikadon) seen an d heard over Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki. Seen an d
heard, in som e grotesque em ulsion , sim ultan eously an d in sequen c e, on e
after the other, on e in side the other. Aurality in sc ribed visually, visuality
m ade audible. The in visible m an is avisual, audiovisual, in the sen se of an
im pure en sem ble, Moten 's "en sem ble of sen ses," what he c alls the "aural
aesthetic ."
76
"This aural aesthetic ," says Moten , "is n ot the sim ple reem er-
gen c e of the voic e of presen c e, the visible an d graphic world."
77
It is rather
a c rac k, a son ic even t, whic h open s on to the visual surfac e. "How c ould the
silen t trac e of the in c orporeal c rac k at the surfac e fail to 'deepen ' in the
thic kn ess of a n oisy body?" asks Deleuz e.
78
("Sc ream in side an d out," says
Moten , "out from the outside, of the im age."
79
) The in visible m an 's hyper-
visibility erupts in the n ovelex plodes, on e c ould sayas the disem bodied
voic e of the n arrator, but also as a son ic boom an d blast ren dered visual.
"How c ould we n ot reac h the poin t," Deleuz e asks, "at whic h we c an on ly
spell letter by letter an d c ry out in a sort of sc hiz ophren ic depth, but n o
lon ger speak at all?"
80
Frac tured, divided, sc hiz oid, the in visible m an 's
voic e, all of his voic es, supplan t his in visibility, n ot as c om pen sation for a
defic ien c y, for a lac k of visibility, but as a dim en sion of his in visibility.
81
A visible voic e that c an "n o lon ger speak at all." A phon ic atom ism .
The in visible m an desc ribes a sc en e, shortly after he has been subjec ted
100 to a series of elec tric al shoc ks, in whic h he is overwhelm ed by the "sc hiz o-
phren ic depth":
A m an dressed in blac k appeared, a lon g-haired fellow, whose pierc in g eyes
looked down upon m e out of an in ten se an d frien dly fac e. The others
hovered about him , their eyes an x ious as he altern ately peered at m e an d
c on sulted m y c hart. Then he sc ribbled som ethin g on a large c ard an d thrust
it before m y eyes:
WHAT IS YOUR NAME?
A trem or shook m e; it was as though he had sudden ly given a n am e to,
had organ iz ed the vaguen ess that drifted through m y head, an d I was over-
c om e with swift sham e. I realiz ed that I n o lon ger kn ew m y own n am e. I
shut m y eyes an d shook m y head with sorrow. Here was the first warm
attem pt to c om m un ic ate with m e an d I was failin g. I tried again , plun g-
in g in to the blac kn ess of m y m in d. It was n o use; I foun d n othin g but
pain . I saw the c ard again an d he poin ted slowly to eac h word:
WHAT... IS ... Y OUR. . . NAME?
I tried desperately, divin g below the blac kn ess un til I was lim p with fatigue.
It was as though a vein had been open ed an d m y en ergy siphon ed away; I
c ould on ly stare bac k m utely. But with an irritatin g burst of ac tivity he
gestured for an other c ard an d wrote:
WHO... ARE. . . YOU?
Som ethin g in side m e turn ed with a sluggish ex c item en t. This phrasin g
of the question seem ed to set off a series of weak an d distan t lights where
the other had thrown a spark that failed. Who am I? I asked m yself. But it
was like tryin g to iden tify on e partic ular c ell that c oursed through the tor-
pid vein s of m y body. Maybe I was just this blac kn ess an d bewilderm en t
an d pain .
82
"On e partic ular c ell," on e atom , that is, partic le or buildin g bloc k, in side a
body c om posed of m an y. The in visible m an 's iden tity, his n am eless an d
un n am eable iden tity, un folds in side a phan tasm atic body that is n ot his.
"Maybe I was just this blac kn ess." The blac kn ess that he is, whic h he plun ges
in to an d dives below, the "film without volum e whic h en velops" him , to
use Deleuz e's phrase, c on stitutes an d bewilders him .
83
He is a phan tasm ,
an avisual phan tasm , in distin guishable from the blac kn ess that surroun ds
him , that he m oves in to an d out of. His voic e form ed from this blac kn ess,
n ot as the n egation of whiten ess but as the avisuality of a son ic trem or.
Born in the "sum m er of 1945," Ellison 's un n am ed in visible m an en ters
the world at the en d of World War II, traversin g its fin al m om en ts an d 101
eruptin g from the shadows of history. From the shadows, a shade that form s
on the surfac es of history as an atom ic trac e. An atom ic trac e of the c ol-
lapse of an atom y; a c rac k on the anatomic surfac e. An en d of deep biology.
He is a phan tasm of a phan tasm , a shadow of shadows, who plun ges in to
an d out of history, forward an d bac kward in to a tim eless history, a history
without history. At the en d of history, the n ever-en din g en d of history, of a
history without en d, in fin ite an d divisible, the in visible m an leaves an atom ic
trac e. The in visible m an is the figure of this history, its an gel. He represen ts
an in verse visuality that arrives with the war's en d; a hypervisibility that
ren ders the world blin d, for an ec static in stan t colorless, m akin g in that
photographic m om en t an d punctum, "an gels out of everybody." An atom ic
tRace, to use Dragan Kujun dz ic 's idiom .
84
On the eve of the fiftieth an n iversary of the en d of the World War II,
two spec tac les sc ratc hed the visual surfac e of the war, the surfac e of its
spec ularity an d spec trality. As the Sm ithson ian In stitution 's erasure of the
En ola Gay ex hibit c om m em oratin g the en d of World War II ren dered the
atom ic bom bin g of Hiroshim a politic ally an d phen om en ally in visible, two
avisual ec hoes of World War II shook Japan in 1995. The Kobe earthquake,
on 17 Jan uary, an d the 20 Marc h sarin gas attac k on Tokyo's subway system
by m em bers of the Aum Shin rikyo (Suprem e Truth) c ult projec ted a shadow
of the war at the epic en ter of the an n iversary.
85
Seen as a return of the
repressed atom ic bom bin g, the displac ed or deferred spec tac les forc ed the
n ation to revisit the prim al sc en e of postwar Japan . The Kobe earthquake,
Shin oda Masahiro rem arks, rein troduc ed lon g-dorm an t im ages of war-
tim e Japan .
86
The m agn itude of destruc tion sen t trem ors through the his-
toric al an d m n em ic arc hives, provokin g a n ervous an am n esis ac ross Japan .
The use of in visible sarin gas by Asahara Shoko, the c ult's blin d leader,
evoked n ot on ly the Naz i gen oc ide of World War II an d Japan ese war
c rim es but also the threat of an in visible tox in , released in to the atm o-
sphere, in to the air. The two disasters seem ed to forc e their way in to the
visible world, return in g like m em ories that were sim ultan eously fam iliar
an d foreign , traum atic , unheimlich. Fifty years later, the return of these dis-
plac ed c atastrophic im ages, alon g with the Sm ithson ian In stitution 's dec ision
to erase Hiroshim a, ren dered the atom ic aren a phan tasm atic an d avisual.
Sin c e 1945 the spec ter of in visibility has haun ted the atom ic bom bin gs
of Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki. The un im agin able n ature of the destruc tion
has produc ed a proliferation of c on c rete an d abstrac t, literal an d figurative
tropes of in visibility that m ove toward the atom ic referen t. The visual
m ateriality of the tropology is m arked by erasure an d effac em en t, by a
m ode of avisuality that destroys the lin es between in teriority an d ex terior-
1 02 ity, surfac e an d depth, visibility an d in visibility. Avisuality is the possibility
of the spac eless im age, the im possible figure of that whic h c an n ot be
figured, an im age of the very fac elessn ess of the im age. It open s on to a site
of the atom ic spec tac le that is irreduc ibly ec static , otherarc hival. Avisu-
ality is, perhaps, the on ly true sem iotic of the arc hive. Its on ly figure, or
sugata. In the arc hive of atom ic destruc tion , at its c en ter, in the plac e
where it takes plac e, in side an d out, tran sparen t an d in visible, the spec tac le
of the im possible sign ifier burn s, cinefied: radian t, spec ular, avisual.
103
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5 . f x s c r /p f /o /i /A n t i g r a p h g
A
utopsy: "Seein g with on e's own eyes" (OED), as if in c on trast to seein g
with an other's. (To see on e's own death with on e's own eyes.)
1
What
does it m ean to see with on e's own eyes rather than an other's? How
do these two perspec tives, these two sets of eyes, alter the sc en e? Where am
I when I see with m y own eyes; do I see m yself when I look through an -
other's? To see on eself an d to m ake on eself seen to on eself or an other
suggests a rem ove, a distan c e, a van tage poin t on the other side of vision ,
on the other side of the world, even . On e on ly ever sees on eself or an yon e
else from the other side. To see on eself on e bec om es other, an allopsy. It is a
c orporeal projec t, whic h in volves the projec tion of a body, of on e's body, to
the other side. I see m yself here, from there. "The en igm a is that m y body
sim ultan eously sees an d is seen ," says Mauric e Merleau-Pon ty. "That whic h
looks at all thin gs c an also look at itself an d rec ogn iz e, in what it sees, the
'other side' of its power of lookin g."
2
Merleau-Pon ty's fin al published essay,
"Eye an d Min d" (1961), illum in ates a c risis: the c ollapse of the other side,
1 05
of the sc reen that divides this side from that, this world from that other on e,
m akes a c ertain c on dition of lookin g, to see an d be seen , virtually im possi-
ble. With the loss of the other side, I am always here, beside m yself. An d I
c an n ot see m yself here. At stake in Merleau-Pon ty's reflec tion is the possi-
bility of a phen om en ology of the self, but even m ore, of hum an ity. The
hum an ity of the hum an body, whic h he says, is c on tiguous with the world,
whic h "is m ade of the sam e stuff as the body."
3
Con tac t between the body an d the world m akes the hum an ity of the
hum an body possible. Merleau-Pon ty says: "There is a hum an body when ,
between seein g an d the seen , between touc hin g an d the touc hed, between
on e eye an d the other, between han d an d han d, a blending of some sort
takes place." ^ A blen din g of the world, of this world an d that. The hum an
body, a hum an body takes shape on the oc c asion of this c on tac t, this blen d-
in g of the world. It is an effec t of the blen din g. A m ix ture of the world an d
all its stuff.
For Merleau-Pon ty, the phen om en ology of the hum an body, the very
phen om en on of the hum an body, is in tim ately lin ked to "the problem s of
pain tin g": "Thin gs have an in tern al equivalen t in m e; they arouse in m e a
c arn al form ula of their presen c e. Why shouldn 't these [c orrespon den c es]
in turn give rise to som e [ex tern al] visible shape in whic h an yon e else would
rec ogn iz e those m otifs whic h support his own in spec tion of the world?"
5
Pain tin g brin gs forth a c arn al visuality, an em bodied an d in c arn ate im age,
by establishin g the in tern al equivalen t ("in m e") of the outside world, whic h
is m ade of the "sam e stuff." I am an ex ten sion of the world, but the world
ex ten ds, in ten sifies, form s a "lin e of in ten sity," to use Gilles Deleuz e's idiom ,
in side m e. The world form s a "stran ge system of ex c han ges" with m e; I am
c on stituted in an ex c han ge with the world.
6
Pain tin g m akes this c on tin uity
visible, is itself the visualiz ation of this c on tin uity, of this blen din g of the
in side an d out. Im ages"design s" an d "pain tin gs"says Merleau-Pon ty,
are "the in side of the outside an d the outside of the in side, whic h the duplic -
ity of feelin g m akes possible an d without whic h we would n ever un der-
stan d the quasi presen c e an d im m in en t visibility whic h m ake up the whole
problem of the im agin ary."
7
"Pain tin g c elebrates n o other en igm a but that of visibility.... It gives
visible ex isten c e to what profan e vision believes to be in visible."
8
Merleau-
Pon ty's pain tin g in habits the sam e rhetoric as early c in em a: it m akes
the in visible visible, or rather it m akes visibility visible; it form s from the
thresholds of the visible an d in visible world, an order, m ode, or aesthetic
of visuality. Not on ly of the sm all or fast, but of visibility as suc h. The
1 06 visuality of the visible an d the in visible is foun d in the m ix ture of the body
an d its world, of your body an d your world, all your worlds, all your bodies
in this world an d all those others. Pain tin g is the proc ess by whic h the
visuality of the visible an d in visible is m ade m an ifest: "Pain tin g m ix es up
all our c ategories in layin g out its on eiric un iverse of c arn al essen c es, of
effec tive liken esses, of m ute m ean in gs."
9
Eac h pain tin g is a un iversal arc hive,
a pic ture of the un iverse, a un iversal im agean d like a dream .
I t is d a r k d isa ste r th a t b r in g s th e l ig ht.
-Maurice B l ancho t, T h e W r i t i n g o f t h e D i s a s t e r
"The Japan ese c om plex ion ," says Tan iz aki Jun 'ic hiro, "n o m atter how white,
is tin ged by a slight c loudin ess."
10
Tan iz aki says in his treatise on shadows,
In Praise of Shadows, that Japan ese skin ac tively radiates darkn ess. Of rac e
an d skin c olor, Tan iz aki says:
From an c ien t tim es we have c on sidered white skin m ore elegan t, m ore
beautiful than dark skin , an d yet som ehow this whiten ess of ours differs
from that of the white rac es. Taken in dividually there are Japan ese who are
whiter than Western ers an d Western ers who are darker than Japan ese, but
their whiten ess an d darkn ess is n ot the sam e.
11
He rec alls the ex perien c e of seein g m ix ed groups of Western an d Japan ese
wom en in Yokoham a, n otin g that despite the c areful attem pts by the Japan ese
wom en to c over their fac es an d bodies with powder, "they c ould n ot effac e
the darkn ess that lay below their skin ."
12
Ben eath the surfac e, Tan iz aki's
darkn ess is profoun d but apparen t, in heren t. "It was as plain ly visible as
dirt at the bottom of a pool of pure water," Tan iz aki says. "Between the
fin gers, aroun d the n ostrils, on the n ape of the n ec k, alon g the spin e
about these plac es espec ially, dark, alm ost dirty, shadows gathered."
13
Tan iz aki c on c ludes his iron ic physiogn om y of rac e by assertin g: "Thus it is
when on e of us goes am on g a group of Western ers it is like a grim y stain
on a sheet of white paper" (hakushi).
14
The Japan ese body is an an ti-body,
a shadow, in Tan iz aki's words, an in k stain . Skiagraphic , like the avisuality
that Ralph Ellison 's "in visible m an " projec ts on to the world. It writes on
others, in fec ts them with darkn ess an d in visibility. "My own body's 'in visi-
bility,'" says Merleau-Pon ty, "c an in vest the other bodies I see."
15
Tan iz aki has essen tializ ed the n ature of shadows, rem ovin g them from
the dialec tic s of light. Shadows, an d m ore spec ific ally the darkn ess that
they sign ify, are n o lon ger an effec t of the absen c e of light, an in terferen c e
in the passage of light, but rather an auton om ous lum in ous c on dition .
What Sam uel Weber c alls "a bright shadow."
16
The tran sc en den t darkn ess
that em an ates from Japan ese skin is lin ked, in Tan iz aki's disc ussion , to an 107
essen tial feature of the body. It seem s to origin ate from within the body, from
"ben eath the skin ," Tan iz aki writes, a subm erged forc e that m oves toward
the surfac e. The darkn ess effec ts an in verted X-ray: a shadow projec ted
from the in side outward, on to the body's surfac e. Martin Heidegger says,
"Everyday opin ion sees in the shadow on ly the lac k of light, if n ot the light's
c om plete den ial. In truth, however, the shadow is a m an ifest though im pen e-
trable, testim on y to the c on c ealed em ittin g of light."
17
Of the c lassic al
wom en who resided ghostlike behin d sc reen s, Tan iz aki spec ulates: "Might
n ot the darkn ess have em erged from her m outh an d those blac k teeth, from
the blac k of her hair?"
18
Irm a in reverse, in side out. This gen etic darkn ess
is n ot restric ted to the surfac e of the dark body but radiates outward: it
shades n ot on ly Japan ese skin but ex ten ds beyon d it, darken in g surroun d-
in g bodies like blac k in k on white paper. It pours outward from the body's
orific es an d ex ten sion s, issuin g a darkn ess that fun c tion s like a light, a stain ,
a form of c olorin g. Tan iz aki c on c ludes: "A sen sitive white person c an n ot
but be upset by the shadow that even on e or two c olored person s c ast over
a soc ial gatherin g."
19
For Tan iz aki, darkn ess flows an d overflows from Japan ese bein g like a
paradox ic al light, a liquid light, en gen derin g n ot on ly an aesthetic of shad-
ows but also a form of writin g. Tan iz aki's shadows write n ot with light but
again st itn ot a photography but its an tithesis, a skiagraphy. They are
in sc ription s that m ark the surfac es of foods, m aterials, skin , an d spac e itself,
assem blin g throughout the Japan ese world an opaque, sem iotic em pire.
Shadows are, in Tan iz aki's thought, expressive.
Tan iz aki's attem pts to ex press a n ation al an d n ation alist sen sibility tra-
verse the registers of light, rac e, an d aesthetic s. "Why should this propen -
sity to seek beauty in darkn ess be so stron g on ly in Orien tals?" he asks,
addin g: "Pitc h darkn ess has always oc c upied our fan tasies."
20
Shadows are
n ot, like the c larity an d ex posure preferred by Western sen sibilities, im posed
from outside, but rather origin ate in an essen tially Japan ese in c lin ation
etc hed on to the physic al features of their bodies. Shadows are, for Tan iz aki,
origin ary an d in heren tly c orporeal. The Japan ese (or Orien tal) body is
the in n ate sourc e of the Japan ese fasc in ation with shadows. Throughout
In Praise of Shadows, Tan iz aki return s c on sisten tly from his wan derin gs in
bathroom s an d other dark theaters to the prim al site of his disc ourse on
shadows, the Japan ese body. "The white rac es are fair-haired, but our hair
is dark; so n ature taught us the laws of darkn ess, whic h we in stin c tively
used to turn yellow skin white."
21
The body establishes a graphic order, is
itself organ iz ed graphic ally, servin g as a writin g surfac e. Darkn ess c on sti-
tutes an d in sc ribes the Japan ese body, whic h is c apable, in turn , of darken -
in g the world aroun d it.
1 08 Slightly m ore than a dec ade after Tan iz aki's reflec tion on shadows,
an other form of radiography c laim ed the Japan ese body. The atom ic
bom bin g of Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki in 1945 in itiated a n ew phen om en ol-
ogy of in sc ription , testin g the c apac ity of the hum an body to sustain the
searin g forc e of atom ic radiation . A sin gularly graphic even t, an even t c on -
stituted graphic ally, whic h put in to c risis the logic of the graphic . Follow-
in g Tan iz aki's rhetoric of the body as a fan tastic surfac e, atom ic irradiation
c an be seen as havin g c reated a type of violen t photography direc tly on to
the surfac es of the hum an body. The c atastrophic flashes followed by a
den se darkn ess tran sform ed Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki in to photographic
laboratories, leavin g c oun tless trac es of photographic an d skiagraphic
im prin ts on the lan dsc ape, on organ ic an d n on organ ic bodies alike. The
world a c am era, everythin g in it photographed. Total visibility for an in stan t
an d in an in stan t everythin g ren dered photographic , ec static , to use Willem
de Koon in g's ex pression , in side out. The grotesque shadows an d stain s
graphic effec ts of the lac eratin g heat an d pen etratin g lightthe on ly rem -
n an ts of a virtual an n ihilation . Virtual bec ause, as Jac ques Derrida says, the
atom ic bom bin g did n ot effec t a total, irreversible destruc tion : it did n ot,
to use his phrase, "destroy the arc hive."
22
Followin g Derrida's logic , the
atom ic destruc tion at Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki is haun ted by the spec ter of
total war, of total destruc tion . By the shadow of total destruc tion .
23
Un der
the shadow of an n ihilation on ly the trac e rem ain s, a phan tasm of the
arc hive, haun ted by its own writin g. In the rem ain der, a dark writin g was
born . A sec ret writin g, written in the dark, with darkn ess itself. In the atom ic
n ight an d on the hum an surfac e, a dark, c orporeal lan guage appeared. At
Hiroshim a, then Nagasaki, the hum an figure served as the site of an im -
pression whose syn tax defied the c on ven tion al m odes of un derstan din g.
That is, the atom ic in sc ription rem ain ed, an d still rem ain s, largely illegible.
Again st the proliferation of sign s they in itiatedthe various idiom s
an d sym bols that have c om e to stan d for the un represen table even t itself
the atom ic blasts also c aused a fissure in the c orpora of lan guage an d
sign ific ation . On writin g in the spac e of disaster, Mauric e Blan c hot spec u-
lates: "To write is perhaps to brin g to the surfac e som ethin g like absen t
m ean in g."
24
Disasters do n ot, for Blan c hot, an n ihilate m ean in g ("The dis-
aster ruin s everythin g, all the while leavin g everythin g in tac t"), they ren der
it atom ic , in ac c essible, sec ret.
25
The atom ic bom bin gs destroyed a c ertain
order of lan guage, a flow of m ean in g, an d forc ed the topology of lan guage
to un dergo a radic al m utation . Atom ic writin g, un like the shadow sc ript
desc ribed by Tan iz aki, does n ot origin ate in the body; n or does it arrive,
stric tly speakin g, from the outside eitherit c om es from n owhere an d is,
in this sen se, atopical. Corporeal an d atopic , an atopic c orporeality: an
atom ic an atom y. Just as Tan iz aki im agin es the shadow to origin ate from
within , atom ic writin g on ly appears to arrive from the outside. The surfac e 1 09
on whic h both sc ripts are form edthe hum an skin is a tissue that erases
the boun daries between in side an d outside. Everythin g that happen s on
the skin 's surfac es represen ts an un resolved en c oun ter between in terior
an d ex terior elem en ts.
Tan iz aki's im age of an in terior darkn ess spreadin g outward an d stain in g
the Western other like blac k in k on white paper return s in 1945 as blac k
rain . In his 1965 n ovel Black Rain (Kuroi ame), Ibuse Masuji approac hes
the un figurable even t through a sym ptom , on e of its aftereffec ts. Yasuko,
Ibuse's ill-fated protagon ist, desc ribes the blac k rain that fell from the ir-
radiated Hiroshim a sky. In a diary en try from 9 August 1945, she writes: "I
sudden ly rem em bered a shower of blac k rain Thun dery blac k c louds
had born e down upon us from the direc tion of the c ity, an d the rain from
them had fallen in streaks the thic kn ess of a foun tain pen ."
26
The blac k
rain m aterializ es, m akes visible, the atom ic violen c e, servin g as a writin g
in strum en t that tran sform s the radiation in to a sc ript, Yasuko's body in to a
writin g surfac e. She fin ds that the dark streaks had stain ed her skin : "I
washed m y han ds at the orn am en tal sprin g, but even rubbin g at the m arks
with soap wouldn 't get them off. They were stuc k fast on the skin ."
27
The
body an d world fused together, like Merleau-Pon ty's phen om en ology, in a
pain tin g. The im age of blac k rain , liquid atom ic ash, fallin g on Yasuko's
fac e in Im am ura Shohei's 1988 film adaptation of Ibuse's n ovel seeks to ren -
der the displac ed poin t of c on tac t between the atom ic blast an d its vic tim s.
The sec ret arc hive of the atom ic referen t. As an aftereffec t of the Hiroshim a
bom bin g, the liquid in sc ription s rem ain on Yasuko's skin as a visible m ark
of the radiation an un absorbed trac e of the violen c e; an em ulsion "stuc k
fast on the skin ." The blen din g of the world an d body, whic h for Merleau-
Pon ty m akes the hum an body possible, is n ot c om plete on Yasuko's body.
Her body c an n ot absorb this dark tox in ; the hum an ity of her body is sus-
pen ded on the surfac e. The survivors of the atom ic bom bin gs ex perien c e
this suspen se, says John Treat, "forc ed to live in a c om prom ise state of both
life an d death at the sam e tim e," dead an d alive, in -between .
28
Yasuko's
stain is a tem porarily visible sign of the radiation that will even tually destroy
her. In sc ribed on her skin as an in itial sign of violen t ex teriority, the m ark
of radiation even tually van ishes in to Yasuko's body, rem ain in g in it as the
im perc eptible origin of her sic kn ess. A design . Atom ic radiation ren dered
avisual; first on the surfac e of Yasuko's body, then in side. There but in visi-
ble, radiatin g darkn ess. Yasuko has in terioriz ed the blac k rain ; she has
brought the world in side her. She has bec om e an en viron m en t in side out,
radiatin g darkn ess, like Tan iz aki's Japan ese body, outward from within .
Blac k rain pours from Yasuko's body.
Tan iz aki's fan tasy of an essen tial, in terior darkn ess an d the avisual phe-
110 n om en on of blac k rain fram e a spec ific topographic al problem . In both
in stan c es, there is n o fusion , syn thesis, or sublation at the plac e where in te-
riority an d ex teriority c on vergeon ly an un easy stasis. Tan iz aki's Orien tal
physic s suggests the im possibility of ever m ergin g the light, or auras, that
surroun d Eastern an d Western peoples in to a harm on ious whole.
29
The
blac k rain , as a literary trope, un dersc ores the im possibility of un derstan d-
in g the bom bin gs of Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki: it is a sign ifier that in dic ates
the in ability of lan guage to absorb an d stabiliz e the atopic ality of atom ic
destruc tion . An exsign or design, n o lon ger a sign , an ex terior sign , a sign on
an d of the outside, an exscription. X.
30
A sign that erases or c rosses out
an tigraphic . Blac k rain , like Tan iz aki's shadows, c an be seen as a figure for
the lim its of lan guage: a form of writin g that is, at the sam e tim e, n ot a part
of lan guage, un absorbed, an d un assim ilated by the arc hive. An elem en tal
lan guage, wet an d im perm an en t, is absorbed or evaporates, leavin g n o in -
sc ription s, on ly trac es. It form s an in sc ription on the skin of a sec ret arc hive.
The idea that c ertain elem en ts c an n ever m ix (rac es an d c ultures, for ex am -
ple) m ay have already been part of a Japan ese self-c on sc iousn ess prior to
1945; the atom ic assaults on Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki developed that n otion
in to a philosophic al c risis. The atom ic bom bin gs c reated a c on c eptual em ul-
sion .
31
An idea that open s in side an d alon gside an other, that takes plac e
in side an other, within the c rypt of an other, but n ever blen ds with the world
that fram es it.
An em ulsion is form ed in the "m ix ture of two im m isc ible liquids (e.g. oil
an d water) in whic h on e is dispersed throughout the other in sm all droplets"
(OED).
32
The n otion of an im m isc ible m ix ture suggests a paradox , a syn -
thesis that rem ain s, in the en d, un syn thesiz ed. A syn thesis without syn the-
sis. As a c hem ic al ac tion , the prin c iple of em ulsion fac ilitated the adven t of
photography in the early n in eteen th c en tury. By fix in g visible light an d
other form s of radiation on c hem ic ally treated photosen sitive platesin
the first in stan c es with a silver c om poun d held in suspen sion in c ollodion
or gelatin the photograph holds the im age between surfac e an d atm o-
sphere, film an d air. The photograph is n either absorbed by the surfac e
n or allowed to dissipate in to the air. It gen erates what Vivian Sobc hac k c alls
the "c om pellin g em ptin ess" of the photograph. The photograph, she says,
"is pec uliarly flatten ed Figures do n ot seem to inhabit spac e, to dwell in
it, but seem rather to rest lightly on its surfac e."
33
Suspen ded between two
dim en sion s an d arrested in tim e, the photograph appears as an effec t of the
in terstic e open ed by the im m isc ible m ix ture. A "vac an c y," says Sobc hac k.
34
It m arks the en c oun ter between light an d liquid on the surfac e. An ac tive
agen t in the in c eption of photography, the m aterial, c hem ic al, an d fan tastic 111
properties of an em ulsion in fuse the photographic an d film ic un c on sc ious.
The open in g shots of Alain Resn ais's 1959 film Hiroshima mon amour
ren der the idiom of em ulsion in the realm s of c atastrophe an d love, history
an d m em ory, im age an d voic e, sex ual an d c ultural differen c e. An im m is-
c ible m ix ture highlights the im possibility of rec on c ilin g the disparate
ex perien c es of sufferin g in to a un ified whole. "You saw n othin g in Hiro-
shim a," he says.
35
The im possibility of doc um en tin g c atastrophe, of put-
tin g words to it; the im possibility of visualiz in g the un represen table. On
the bodies an d between them , an em ulsion c on stitutes Resn ais's film an d
Marguerite Duras's n arrative: it form s a film or tissue between the two
prin c ipal c harac ters, Hiroshim a an d Nevers. Their bodies are in distin -
guishable, c overed altern ately in ashes an d fluids. Cin ders an d rain . The
im m isc ibility of ashes an d rain . Hiroshim a an d Nevers are un able to m erge
in to on e an other, un able to perform the phan tasm atic syn theses of love.
The substan c es that c over their skin rem ain un absorbed, disappearin g
from the surfac e by the third dissolve. Their bodies are writin g surfac es of
an atom ic sc ript, c orpses, destroyed from within an d without.
The film is driven by an d suspen ded in this em ulsion c ultural, sex ual,
ex isten tialwhic h en velops Hiroshim a after the bom bin g. The two un -
n am ed c harac ters have been erased from their hom es, Hiroshim a an d
Nevers. He was in the m ilitary in Chin a when the bom b destroyed his c ity;
she loved a Germ an soldier an d was pun ished for her tran sgression by im -
prison m en t an d aban don m en t. Both bear the sc ars of displac em en t, of hav-
in g been elsewhere at the m om en t of c atastrophe. The c atastrophe of m issed
m om en ts. Their brief relation ship c an be seen as a sym ptom of their un ease,
their in ability to stay in the plac e where they belon g. The failed un ion of
their rom an c e ac ross sex ual an d n ation al divides m arks the struc ture of this
film 's un resolved syn theses: the failure to rec on c ile fac t, truth, or doc um en -
tary an d fic tion , c atastrophe, an d represen tation ; sex ual differen c e, a dif-
feren c e that open s between an y two bodies; an d destruc tion an d the arc hive
of destruc tion . The last m om en ts of Hiroshima mon amour are in sc ribed
already in the first m om en ts, in sc ribed on the skin of two bodies, lovers
an d c orpses, two un n am eable c harac ters an d the fac eless dead of Hiroshim a
an d Nagasaki. Writin g an d effac em en t, two m odes of visuality, bec om e in -
distin guishable in their obsc en e m ix ture, avisual.
The desire to tran sc ribe the atom ic ex perien c e direc tly on to hum an
skin represen ts a sym ptom of the adven t of atom ic warfare, a defen se of
the arc hive preserved on the body.
36
An atom ic trope. The body's surfac e is
where m an y of the atom ic m arks were rec orded, at tim es with an ex c essive
visibility, at others with an un c an n y in visibility. Writin g on the body serves
1 1 2 as a ritual repetition of the origin al violen c e, the ac t of an arc hivin g. A c ere-
m on ial ac t that seeks to m ake visible a form of writin g that is n ot itself
always apparen t. The som etim es im perc eptible atom ic radiation determ in es
a m ode of in sc ription that does n ot hold fast to the surfac e, a writin g that
seem s to leave trac es before they have ever been m arks. Radiation hovers
between the surfac e an d the atm osphere, im perm an en t, appearin g on ly
m om en tarily before either van ishin g in to the body's depths or evaporatin g
in to the en viron m en t that surroun ds the body. Cin em a, a m edium boun d by
the logic of surfac es, provides a m eton ym y of the hum an surfac e: sc reen
an d skin . The displac ed layers suggest a relation ship between c in em a spac e,
world, an d body, whic h Siegfried Krac auer has lin ked with the figure of an
im agin ary "um bilic al c ord."
37
Film an d body: the term s are c on c eptually
boun d by a phan tasm atic m atern ity, an em ulsion that keeps them at on c e
apart an d together. In the postwar era, Japan ese c in em a served as a site for
an other urgen t c on vergen c e, that of fac t an d figure, photographic an d alle-
goric al represen tation . Like the X-ray, a sign that poin ts in side an d outside
an d destroys the lim its between them , an ex -sign or de-sign , the atom ic ref-
eren t return s to a phan tom body, a trac e, atom ic an d an atom ic . The fusion
of fac t an d figure, or art in the postwar Japan ese c in em a, produc ed an array
of film artifac ts that retain the logic of em ulsion s: film s that ex plore the
en c oun ters between heterogen eous elem en ts an d resist the syn theses of a
dialec tic al writin g, represen tation , kn owledge. An im possible fusion . "Or
m aybe," says Albert Liu, "a fission, a figure of both the crack an d the atom ic
1 3 7 O
proc ess.
3B
A n um ber of postwar Japan ese film s c an be seen as attem ptin g to rep-
resen t n on dialec tic al writin g. Two sc en es, from two differen t postwar film s,
register the disturbed sem iology of atom ic phen om en a. These sc en es, from
Miz oguc hi Ken ji's Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari, 1953) an d Kobayashi Masaki's
Kwaidan (Kaidan, 1964), ex em plify the struc tures of em ulsion in postatom ic
Japan ese c in em a, em ulsion 's perm eation of the n arrative spac e. Both sc en es
c an be read as allegories of atom ic an n ihilation the fear of bein g en veloped
then dissolved by un seen forc es, the forc e of the un seen .
39
Swallowed by an
in trac table an d avisual en ergy. In Miz oguc hi's film , an adaptation of Ueda
Akin ari's 1758 literary tex t Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Ugetsu mono-
gatari), the sc en e in volves an en c oun ter between Gen juro an d his dem on
seduc er, Wakasa. Disguised as a wom an , Wakasa has, in the c ourse of her
relation ship with Gen juro, gradually depleted him of his vitality, pushin g
him toward his death. Gen jurowho has forgotten his form er life, his
aban don ed fam ily, an d dream shas bec om e a shade. By c on trast, Wakasa
has in c reased her presen c e in the m aterial world, drawin g susten an c e from
Gen juro's life. In the sc en e, the two subjec ts have been displac ed from their
proper worlds, oc c upyin g bodies in varyin g states of lim in ality. A loc al 113
priest rec ogn iz es the dan ger, readin g the phan tom m arks on Gen juro's fac e.
He proposes to save Gen juro by in sc ribin g his body with San skrit prayers.
Ac c ordin g to the Buddhist belief, the holy tex t will protec t Gen juro from
the phan tom grasp.
In the en c oun ter between the m arked Gen juro an d the un suspec tin g
Wakasa, their last, the San skrit talism an in terrupts the fin al ex c han ge between
the livin g an d the dead. The sc en e begin s when Gen juro an n oun c es his
in ten tion to depart from Wakasa's m an sion where he has been kept. Attem pt-
in g to persuade him to stay, Wakasa lean s forward to take hold of her c ap-
tive. At the m om en t she m akes c on tac t, Wakasa rec oils in pain , burn ed by
the heat of Gen juro's body. The two are separated at that m om en t by the
surfac e of Gen juro's skin , his livin g flesh, whic h has been stain ed, rem ate-
rializ ed, by the priest's in sc ription . It burn s her, as if it were still sm older-
in g from the in sc ription . The written word m arked on his body in terven es
as a kin d of sc reen . If Wakasa c an be un derstood as a m etaphor for atom ic
an n ihilation , then Gen juro's tex tured body has c oun tered the atom ic forc e
with its own searin g m ateriality. He is m arked by a photographic sc ript an d
forc e, is him self atom ic . Rec laim ed by the livin g word, Gen juro is turn ed
in to an em ulsion : part livin g an d part dead, part skin an d part tex t, he has
bec om e a suspen ded an im ation . The en tire sc en e is figured by the rhetoric
of em ulsion , of suspen se. The registers of spirit an d body, fem in in e an d
m asc ulin e, tac tile an d optic al are suspen ded within the fram e of this en -
c oun ter. On ly by m arkin g his skin , affirm in g the m ateriality of its surfac e,
c an Gen juro rec over his hum an ity. But Gen juro's is a hum an ity on c e lost;
he is like the dehumanized Muselmann of the Naz i death c am ps, rec laim ed
by a lan guage lost an d regain ed, but n o lon ger his, n o lon ger proper to
him .
40
A lan guage that return s to him from the outside, from radic al ex te-
riority. Gen juro regain s his hum an ity by survivin g it; he regain s a hum an -
ity born in its destruc tion . Not on ly do Gen juro an d Wakasa form an im m is-
c ible m ix ture, Gen juro, who bears the sign of the liquid in k on his flesh,
em bodies it.
41
The sc en e c on c ludes when Wakasa retreats in to the shadows,
un able to overc om e the divide that Gen juro's pain ted skin im poses, an d
Gen juro lapses in to un c on sc iousn ess. He awaken s the n ex t m orn in g as if
from a dream , lyin g half-n aked an d alon e beside Wakasa's m an sion , whic h
has been reduc ed to ruin durin g the n ight. Wakasa had been , for Gen juro
an d the audien c e, a sustain ed halluc in ation , a film within a film , a c in em atic
mise-en-abime. Gen juro's ex perien c e with Wakasa is em ulsified, n ever re-
solved as either dream or reality.
The m ise-en -sc en e that suspen ds Gen juro an d Wakasa determ in es a
un ique topography, on e that c an take plac e on ly within c in em atic spac e.
1 1 4 The im m isc ible properties that Gen juro an d Wakasa represen t are n either
blen ded n or elim in ated but rather sustain ed to produc e a third spac e, a
un ique realm of phen om en ality. That third realm is produc ed n ot on ly as a
c on sequen c e of the n arrative but as an effec t of the m edium . In the voc ab-
ulary of c in em a, the en c oun ter between Gen juro an d Wakasa c an be seen
from the van tage poin t of what Christian Metz has c alled an "im pression
of reality."
42
Im pression s open , for Metz , a spac e between fan tasy an d reality.
Seen in this light, on e c an n ote the physic al as well as psyc hologic al n uan c es
that reson ate in the term impression: that is, im pression s c an be m ade on
the body as well as on the m in d. They are m aterial an d c on c eptual. (Aris-
totle, who is believed to have iden tified the phen om en on of "persisten c e of
vision ," c on n ec ts the physic al an d psyc hologic al form s of im pression in his
treatise "On Dream s." Ac c ordin g to Aristotle, dream s are the effec ts of phys-
ic al sen sation s that have been im pressed direc tly on the dream er's body.
The c orporeal im pression is im agin ed at n ight in dream s.)
43
Both form s of
im pression are en m eshed in the sc en e from Ugetsu: c in em atic ally an d the-
m atic ally, on e witn esses the spec tac le of im pression , the represen tation of
Gen juro's lim in ality. Gen juro has been reduc ed to a c in em atic im pression ,
to a photogram pressed between the surfac es of im agin ary an d real spac e.
In Miz oguc hi's film , the regim es of illusion an d im pression are n ever sub-
lated. They rem ain un til the en d, suspen ded in an ex isten tial em ulsion .
While praisin g Ugetsu, Uen o Ic hiro n otes this disturban c e, "regret[tin g]
that the fan tastic an d real realm s do n ot blen d harm on iously."
44
The divide
separatin g Wakasa's fin gertips from Gen juro's skin an d the spec tator from
the sc reen represen ts the atopic al tissue that holds the em ulsion apart an d
together.
In Kobayashi's Kwaidan, also adapted from a literary work (Lafc adio
Hearn 's 1904 c ollec tion of stories), the em ulsion suffuses an other sc en e,
an other en c oun ter between im m isc ible elem en ts. The en c oun ter between
phan tom an d flesh is sim ilarly m ediated by the liquid in k sc ript. Kobayashi's
vign ette "Hoic hi the Earless" begin s with the depic tion of a battle from
the Tale ofHeike (Heike monogatari), whic h c hron ic les the twelfth-c en tury
defeat of the Heike at the han ds of the Gen ji c lan . The dec isive Battle of
Dan n o-ura in the Straits of Shim on oseki m arks the site where the Heike
"perished utterly, with their wom en an d c hildren , an d their in fan t em peror."
45
A sc en e of total destruc tion .
The story of the blin d m on k Hoic hi un folds at the water's edge. Fam ed
for his m usic al skills on the biwa lute, Hoic hi's rec itation of the "Battle of
Dan n o-ura" is said to have reduc ed even goblin s to tears. Hoic hi's ability to
in duc e tears in m on sters sign als his an om alous status at the threshold of
the n atural world. The trope of phan tom tearsthe tears of phan tom s
an d the tears that are phan tom suggests a lim in al ec on om y that m oves
from blin dn ess to tears to the liquid in k that even tually c on c eals Hoic hi. 1 1 5
Followin g the rhetoric of tears in Augustin e an d Nietz sc he, Derrida n otes
the relation ship between tears an d vision :
Now if tears come to the eyes, if they well up in them, an d if they c an also
veil sight, perhaps they reveal, in the very c ourse of this ex perien c e, in this
c oursin g of water, an essen c e of the eye, of m an 's eye un derstood in the
an thropo-theologic al spac e of the sac red allegory. Deep down , deep down
in side, the eye would be destin ed n ot to see but to weep. For at the
m om en t they veil sight, tears would un veil what is proper to the eye.
46
Eyes are destin ed to weep, n ot to see. Hoic hi's tears c an be seen as a dis-
plac ed form of blin dn ess; his tears are everywherein the oc ean an d eyes
of those who listen , in the ghosts reduc ed to tears. Pure tears, the essen tial
form , perhaps of the form less. Hoic hi's tears are ex terioriz ed, they take
plac e in others as an ex ten sion of his blin dn ess, of the sac red allegory that
destin es eyes to weep rather than see. The tears that Hoic hi in duc es in the
dem on s are blin din g, like an atom ic flash, apoc alyptic . "The revelatory or
apoc alyptic blin dn ess," says Derrida, "the blin dn ess that reveals the very
truth of the eyes, would be the gaz e veiled by tears."
47
Hoic hi is position ed from the begin n in g on the threshold of the sen ses,
between vision an d soun d, the livin g an d the dead, this world an d that
other world. Surroun ded by waves an d tears, Hoic hi is approac hed by the
spirits of the dead warriors who in vite him to rec ite the story of the battle.
Un able to see his patron s, Hoic hi believes he has been sum m on ed to a
palac e. The waves an d tears that wash over Hoic hi an d his audien c e elic it
in Kwaidan what Deleuz e c alls "liquid perc eption ": a displac ed "c en ter of
gravity."
48
Over several n ights, Hoic hi perform s the epic tale at the grave
sites of the Heike warriors.
As Hoic hi's n oc turn es begin to ex haust him an d the sign s of his dec ay
begin to appear on his fac e, an alarm ed priest follows Hoic hi to his n ightly
ren dez vous with the Heike. Upon c on firm in g his suspic ion s, the priest pre-
1 1 6
" H o i c h i t h e Ea r l e s s , " i n K o b a y a s h i M a s a k i , Kwaidan (Kaidan, 19 6 4 ) .
sc ribes the tex tual Buddhist rem edy: Hoic hi's n aked body is to be c overed
with prayers to protec t him from the ghosts drawin g Hoic hi c loser to the
threshold of death, as Wakasa had don e to Gen juro. Durin g the ritual
in sc ription , red pain t is first applied to Hoic hi's body, m ergin g with the
reddish hue that filters the shot, followed by the blac k in k prayers ac ross
the surfac e of Hoic hi's body. The attem pt to saturate the body with prayer
reveals a m aterial shift from tex t to liquid, revealin g a fan tasy of im m ersion .
The fan tasy of a liquid im m ersion in prayer, washed in prayers or displac ed
tears. (This fan tasy also in vokes the n arrative of a Greek em ulsion Ac hilles,
a half-m ortal, half-god warrior who was dipped in the river of im m ortal-
ity.)
49
Un like Gen juro, whose body is m arked strategic ally with the San -
skrit c harac ters, Hoic hi is c overed in wet c alligraphy "on his en tire body
from head to toe." Im m ersed in sc ripture, Hoic hi is in struc ted to rem ain
im m obile an d m ute when the phan tom esc ort c om es for him .
The en c oun ter between Hoic hi an d the phan tom warrior begin s with
the slow m aterializ ation of the phan tom in the tem ple c ourtyard. As its
shape solidifies, stoppin g just short of full den sity, the phan tom starts to
c all Hoic hi's n am e. The trac e of ec ho, pron oun c ed at first, gradually rec edes
as the phan tom 's voic e, like its body, begin s to stabiliz e. The phan tom 's
voic e has en tered the m aterial world of Hoic hi. The poin t of view that deter-
m in es this sc en e position s the spec tator as its subjec t. The phan tom is ren -
dered from the perspec tive of a seein g hum an subjec t. Rec eivin g n o an swer
from Hoic hi, the phan tom en ters the tem ple an d attem pts to loc ate the blin d
m on k. At this poin t, the c am era c aptures Hoic hi, who is n ow shown in a
sem itran sparen t state. At the sam e m om en t, the lightin g shifts, revealin g
n ot on ly two system s of visuality but also two orders of light. The shift in
perspec tive tran sfers the position of the subjec t to the phan tom . Hoic hi's
in visibility is seen from the un seein g perspec tive of the phan tom . The poin t
of view lin gers between two subjec ts, open in g a van tage poin t that belon gs
n either to the phan tom n or to the spec tator. A lim in al poin t of view, an
in terview.
In the shift from on e perspec tive to an other a phan tom view em erges,
ren derin g the en tire sc en e tran sparen t. The trope of tran sparen c y m ediates
the dialec tic of visibility an d in visibility. But the in visible Hoic hi is n ot en -
tirely protec ted from the phan tom 's gaz e. As the title foreshadows, Hoic hi's
ears are vuln erable. Havin g forgotten to c over Hoic hi's ears with prayer,
the priests have left them ac c essible to the phan tom . Hoic hi's ears m ark the
passage between two worlds of visuality; his body traverses both. His body
is visible an d in visible, avisual. Seein g on ly Hoic hi's ears, the phan tom
tears them from his body. The blin d Hoic hi is ren dered earless. 1 1 7
If the blin dn ess, whic h is often a feature of c lassic al m usic ian s in Japan ,
c an also be seen allegoric ally as an effec t of the atom ic flash, the sec on dary
violen c e to Hoic hi's ears at the han ds of the phan tom soldier rein sc ribes
the m em ory of war on to Hoic hi's body. He is disfigured a sec on d tim e by
the sam e violen c e. The trope of atom ic disfiguration c an be seen in two
other ex am ples of postwar Japan ese visuality: the c ase of the so-c alled
Hiroshim a Maiden s of the 1950s an d the figure of an un n am ed wom an in
Teshigahara's 1966 film The Face of Another, who hides a sc ar on the right
side of her fac e ben eath her hair. The Hiroshim a Maiden s were selec ted
from am on g youn g Japan ese wom en whose fac es had been badly burn ed
in the atom ic blasts an d were brought to the Un ited States for rec on struc -
tive plastic surgery startin g in 1955.
50
They bec am e a highly visible em blem
of the relation ship between atom ic radiation an d disfigurem en t. The dialec -
tic of beauty an d disfigurem en t triggered by atom ic radiation also appears
on the fac e of Teshigahara's en igm atic wom an . In the psyc hiatric hospital
where she works she is surroun ded by vic tim s of war an d is taun ted for the
burn on her fac e, whic h m arks her otherwise beautiful fac e. (It divides her
fac e in to two separate spheres of iden tity.) On the eve of her suic ide, the
disfigured wom an asks her brother if he rem em bers the "oc ean at Nagasaki,"
then predic ts a war the n ex t day. When the n ex t day c om es, she drown s
herself in the oc ean un der a glowin g sun while her brother watc hes in
an guish from a win dow. As his sister walks in to the oc ean an d to her death,
the brother sc ream s: at that m om en t, Teshigahara in fuses the shot with what
appears to be a ray of light, overex posin g the im age like an atom ic flash.
The brother's figure in the win dow is tran sform ed in to a c arc ass on m eat
hooks. Fac ial disfigurem en t c an be seen as on e trope of atom ic violen c e, a
figure that destroys all figures. The en d of figuration in disfiguration . In
Kobayashi's film , Hoic hi's eyes an d ears bear the forc e of the atom ic pikadon.
In Kwaidan, the optic al divide separates flesh from shade, the real from
the fan tastic , whereas the ex isten tial threshold in Ugetsu is determ in ed by
the tac tile sen ses. The phan tom warrior is able to tear off Hoic hi's ears but
c an n ot see him , while Wakasa sees Gen juro but c an n ot touc h him . Vision
an d touc hoptic ality an d tac tilitydefin e two m odes of perc eption that
m ediate a series of opposition al elem en ts: m asc ulin e/fem in in e, life/death,
lan guage/body, an d n atural/supern atural. Optic ality an d tac tility surfac e in
these two film s as in adequate m ean s of perc eivin g the ghostly im pression .
The two sen ses c on verge over the in sc ribed body, revealin g, at that site,
their in ability to pen etrate the phan tom world. The n early fatal en c oun ters
in Ugetsu an d Kwaidan c hart a spac e between the two sen ses, at on c e opti-
c al an d tac tile, an d yet properly n either. Som ewhere between the two, a
sen sual topology begin s to take shape. The suspen sion of the tradition al
1 1 8 dialec tic between optic ality an d tac tility effec ts an em ulsion of the sen ses,
open in g the spac e for m ore c om plex sen sualitiesfor im pression s rather
than perc eption s.
The disturbance of the senses in Ugetsu and Kwaidan is engendered in
part by the m ovem en t from literary tex t to c in em atic im age, by the im pres-
sion of the written tex t on to the skin 's surfac e. The relation ships of Ugetsu
an d Kwaidan to their literary origin s are struc tured to a large degree by
their ren derin gs of the tran sition from literature to c in em a, tex t to spec ter.
Within eac h sc en e, the m etam orphic forc e of the literary c orpus is figured
by the writin g that c overs Gen juro's an d Hoic hi's bodies. In both film s,
the gesture of writin g on the body fun c tion s as a m ec han ism for preven t-
in g the destruc tive c on tac t that threaten s to absorb Gen juro an d Hoic hi
in to the other world of the phan tasm . The phan tom s c an be seen here as
figures for atom ic an n ihilation , their m ode of bein g, than atographic ; that
is, they forc e the body to retreat in to the sec rec y of the arc hive, but also
turn those bodies in to arc hives. The arc hive in sc ribed on the surfac e of
the body to ren der it in visible.
The ac t of writin g on the body in the two sc en es suggests a desire to
reestablish the absolute separation between the livin g an d the dead, or un -
dead, life an d death, this world an d that other world. In eac h c ase, an exscrip-
tion seeks to c larify the bodies that have bec om e shadows. The exscription
c an also be seen as a sym ptom of the c ollapse of m ean in g, of surfac e an d
depth, of the boun daries of ex isten c e that are suspen ded by the atom ic
radiation . The supplem en tal tissue in terven es between the lim in al c orpora,
illum in atin g the profoun d c on fusion between the livin g an d the dead in
the wake of 1945.
51
Between literature an d film an other em ulsion form s. Word an d im age,
voic e an d fac e are "dism an tled," to use Gilles Deleuz e an d Felix Guattari's
idiom ; they form a "dem on tage." The assem blageDeleuz e an d Guattari's
figure of an irreduc ible but fun c tion in g heterogen eityresem bles an em ul-
sion , by workin g on ly through dism an tlin g, through demontage, whic h
gen erates an asyn thetic order.
52
Like Germ ain e Dulac 's "dec om position ,"
perhaps, whic h she posits as the fun dam en tal operation of visuality in film ,
the assem blage of literature an d film in Ugetsu an d Kwaidan produc es an
em ulsion , an "ac in em a" based on demontage.
53
Phan tom bein g overflows
in to the livin g world, produc in g an avisual order that is n either ex posed to
n or perc eived by the sen ses. It is relayed through sec ret open in gs an d por-
tals. Both postwar film s revisit pre-World War II literary tex ts that are
them selves reflec tion s on war. The literary tex t itself appears as a trac e, a
m em ory, a rem n an t of the Japan ese arc hive that was virtually destroyed in
World War II. The fin al shot of Oshim a Nagisa's 1976 In the Realm of the
Senses (Ai no Korida) c aptures the c risis: Sada lies alon gside her dead lover,
Kic hi, whom she has dism em bered. On his c orpse, Sada has in sc ribed, with 1 1 9
Kic hi's blood, a dec laration of etern al love. A voic e-over reveals the film 's
historic al fram e, 1936, m arkin g the esc alation of the war an d its disastrous
en d. On the eve of an an tic ipated total war, Sada an d Kic hi have suspen ded
their im possible c on sum m ation , preservin g it in the static tem porality of a
photogrammatical in stan t. A m om en t m arked by liquid in sc ription . Like
Hiroshim a an d Nevers, Sada an d Kic hi are froz en in the m om en t of a c ata-
strophic syn thesis: the phan tasm atic ec on om y of love c an n ot suture the
logic of a disaster that has, ac c ordin g to Blan c hot, already passed an d is yet
still to c om e. "To thin k the disaster," he says, "is to have n o lon ger an y
future in whic h to thin k it."
54
The liquid in sc ription on Kic hi's skin c an be
seen as a form of protec tion again st the im m in en t c atastrophe, a sign of
the graphic even ts to c om e, an d the im possibility of writin g, of arc hivin g
disaster.
If the violen t in sc ription s of light an d shadow on the Japan ese body c an be
seen as a m otif for postatom ic represen tation , then the figure of the in vis-
ible bein g m ay be the logic al destin ation for this trajec tory. It is a way to
avoid what c an n ot be seen , or rather, to m ake that whic h resists represen -
tation in visible. Tan iz aki says: "Our thoughts do n ot travel to what we c an -
n ot see."
55
The Japan ese in visible m an film s, postwar adaptation s of their
prewar Am eric an c oun terparts, in troduc e a form of descriptive subjec tivity,
a figure of an tigraphic visuality. The film s c an be seen as an other attem pt
to figure the un represen table n ature of the atom ic bom bin gs, an attem pt
to ren der visually the radic al avisuality of the postatom ic world. The idio-
m atic shift from in visibility (fukashi) to tran sparen c y (tomei) suggests n ot
the absen c e of visibility but rather the total pen etration of the body by
light, by in visible rays an d fluids. The in visible m an (tomei ningen) is a figure
that rem ain s presen t, even as it disappears. Or, it is presen t on ly in the
in stan c e of its disappearan c e. The fam iliar trope of the in visible bein g un -
ravelin gin the c ase of the tomei ningen, erasin gitself in sc ribes in visi-
bility as a form of erasure. A writin g that erases, that produc es an tigraphic
m arks.
56
Xs. The tran sparen t bein g is on ly there, in the fulln ess of its in vis-
ibility, when it c an perform its own effac em en t. In the idiom of writin g,
the rhetoric of suc h in visibility suggests an an tiwritin g or erasure. The fig-
ure's tran sparen c y is a form of represen tation al erasure. No lon ger the
effec t of a purely in terior or ex terior forc e, the tomei ningen lin gers in the
in terstic es of atom ic destruc tion , oc c upyin g a lim in al spac e between life an d
death, light an d shadow, in side an d outside. As a trope for the postatom ic
Japan ese body, it is n o lon ger c apable of sustain in g an in heren t rac ial or
ethn ic iden tity. The in visible bein g is a figure un der erasure, but also a
120 re of erasure, of antigraphy. B lanchot says: "It [the disaster] is what
esc apes the very possibility of ex perien c eit is the lim it of writin g. This
m ust be repeated: the disaster de-sc ribes."
57
The disaster, whic h c an n ot be
S t a m p s f r o m t i t l e s e q u e n c e o f T e s h i g a h a r a H i r o s h i , W o m an in th e Dunes
(Sunano o nna, 19 6 4) .
desc ribed, itself de-sc ribes, un writes, assails the arc hive by erasin g it. Seen
in this light, the figure of erasure in itiates a graphic system that an n ihilates
graphic s by destroyin g the graphic ality of the graph. The destruc tion of
graphic ality m ust also be un derstood as a form of preservation : it pre-
ven ts, or postpon es in defin itely, the eruption of a c atastrophe. The tomei
ningen, the figure un der erasure, an tic ipates the possibility of a truly atom ic
writin g, a writin g that c an on ly ever be yet to c om e, sin c e its arrival would,
as Derrida im plies, sign al the total destruc tion of writin g itself, of the
future m ade possible by writin g. Atom ic writin g protec ts writin g as suc h,
by erasin g the tex t, tex tuality, an d, in the en d, the very tex ture of the body
on whic h the writin g takes plac e. If an arc hive of the atom ic bom bin g is to
be built, its history m ust first be un written , de-scribed in the rhetoric al
ec on om y of an an tigraphy: X-ed out.
Featurin g a lan dsc ape of fluids an d ash, an im m isc ible m ix ture of water
an d san d, Teshigahara Hiroshi's 1964 Woman in the Dunes (Suna no onna,
based on Abe Kobe's 1962 n ovel) portrays a postatom ic world reduc ed to
ash, reduc ed to desert. It is set in the outer reac hes of postwar Japan , an
in side-out Japan reduc ed to san d an d ash. A shadowless an d ex posed plac e, a
fan tastic geography burn ed by a radian t sun . "Of hum an shadows," says Abe,
"there was n ot a trac e."
58
The film desc ribes a m an 's gradual disappearan c e
in to the san d, absorbed by its forc es, c ulture, an d politic s. A politic s of san d.
The film , like the n ovel on whic h it is based, is m arked by the m ovem en t
121
G r a i n s o f s a n d i n W o m an in the Dunes.
W o m an in the Dunes.
Woman in the Dunes.
from lan guage to im age, the written word to an un writable word; words
written in san d. It takes plac e in the m on th of Japan 's destruc tion , August,
ten years after the en d of the war. "On e day in August a m an disappeared,"
is the n ovel's first lin e.
59
After the title sequen c e, whic h c on sists visually of offic ial stam ps (hanko,
used as sign atures) bearin g the n am es of those listed in the titles, the film
open s on to a high c on trast c lose-up shot of a solid, ston elike objec t. A fade
an d dissolve turn s the shot hotter, brighter, as if burn in g. The third shot
shows a c luster of ston es, from a greater distan c e; they appear tran sluc en t,
still in high c on trast, apparen tly m agn ified, givin g them the look of irradi-
ated or polariz ed im ages. By the fourth shot, from still a greater distan c e,
the ston es c an be rec ogn iz ed as c rystallin e c lusters of san d, still m agn ified,
still tran sluc en t. The fifth shot shows a sea of san d, m ovin g like flowin g
water; eac h in dividual grain has rec eded an d disappeared in to the desert.
The c am era then z oom s out, revealin g a sm ooth an d an im ated desert sur-
fac e, bearin g trails or trac es of m ovem en ts in the san d. Teshigahara estab-
lishes the hom ology between water an d san d, an tithetic al elem en ts, in the
open in g sequen c e, allowin g for the c on fusion of im m isc ible elem en ts.
A m an en ters the sc en e from the bottom of the fram e in a high-an gle
shot an d walks toward the c en ter of the shot, walkin g away from the c am -
era with his bac k to it. The c am era follows him from behin d, his fac e yet
un seen . When the c am era m oves to the other side, to the fron t of the m an ,
his fac e rem ain s hidden by a sun burst, a flash of light that fills the fram e
an d overex poses the shot. The high-c on trast c in em atography, in troduc ed
1 23
124
8:15 a. m . , Woman in the Dunes.
in the open in g sequen c e, determ in es throughout Woman in the Dunes a
c on flic t of dark an d light: deep, in visible in teriority an d vast, overex posed
ex teriority. Sec ret avisuality an d ex c ess visibility.
He begin s an in terior m on ologue: "On e n eeds so m an y c ertific ates: c on -
trac ts, lic en ses, ID c ards, perm its, deeds, c ertific ates, registration s, un ion
c ards, testim on ials, bills, lOUs, tem porary perm its, letters of c on sen t, in -
c om e c ertific ates. An y m ore? Have I forgotten an y?" (The m on ologue is
m arked from start to fin ish by the repetition of "-sho," a suffix m ean in g
paper doc um en t.)
60
A c lose-up of a wom an 's fac e, lookin g down ward an d
in profile, appears superim posed over the desert san d. She turn s her head
to the right, toward the c am era. "Men an d wom en are afraid of a slip-up
som ewhere."
61
At the en d of a slow dissolve between the m an in the desert
an d the tran sluc en t wom an , who n ow walks ac ross the desert, she gradu-
ally m aterializ es in the shot, in the lan dsc ape, like the phan tom warriors of
Kwaidan. The m an c on c ludes his disc ourse on doc um en ts: "No on e kn ows
what the fin al on e will be. It seem s there is n o en d to them ." The wom an is
n ow visible in the fram e, both of them visible in a two-shot. She is there
with him in the desert. The sam e win d ruffles their hair an d c lothes. "You
say I argue too m uc h," he says to her but in an in terior m on ologue. He is
speakin g to the wom an , who is there, but in side. She is in side an d out.
"But it's the fac ts that argue."
His reverie is broken by a voic e, "Sen sei." Loc al villagers appear an d in -
vite him to spen d the n ight with them , n otin g that the last buses have left
for the day an d that there are n o hotels n earby. He ac c epts an d c lim bs
Woman in the Dunes.
down a rope ladder in to a deep hole in the san d, to a house at the bottom
of a san d dun e, where a wom an greets him . In side the dark house, he is
fed. On e gas lam p lights the in terior. A house like the on e Tan iz aki im ag-
in es: subm erged in darkn ess, but forged in san d rather than shadows. He
argues with his host, who in sists several tim es that the san d in vites m ois-
ture an d c auses dec ay. He dism isses her views as in c orrec t an d irration al,
n otin g that san d is form ed by the absen c e of m oisture; "I've n ever heard of
a m oist desert." The dialec tic of san d an d water, dehydration an d liquefac -
tion is suspen ded in the trope of absorption an d im m ersion : her husban d
an d c hild, she tells him , were "swallowed" last year by the san d. While he
eats, she open s an um brella over his head to protec t him from the san d
that falls from above, periodic ally, like rain . San d an d rain , the absen c e of
fluid an d its overabun dan c e, m erge in this abyss in the desert. Both are c a-
pable of swallowin g people. She rem ain s un n am ed (referred to som etim es
as kdchan, slan g for an adult wom an , m ean in g "m other," by the villagers);
he is c alled "the helper" (suketto) by the villagers, an ex pression he fin ds
puz z lin g, an d okyakusan, or guest, by her. (The ac tor is Okada Fiji, who
plays "Hiroshim a" in Resn ais's Hiroshima mon amour an d had earlier, in
1953, starred in Hiroshima, Sekigawa Hideo's film about the atom ic bom b-
in g, ex c erpts of whic h appear in the early sc en es of Resn ais's film .) She im -
plies at several poin ts a lon ger stay than he plan s. He c orrec ts her. His goal
is to disc over a n ew spec ies of in sec t, he tells her, hidden in the rem ote
desert, an d to have his n am e in sc ribed in an in sec t en c yc lopedia. "It's the 1 25
best I c an do." Despite his resistan c e to iden tific ation papers, he wishes to
have his n am e in sc ribed in an en c yc lopedia, an arc hive of sorts. Their first
n ight en ds with her shovelin g san d durin g the m iddle of the n ight. She
does this all n ight, every n ight, to protec t the n earby village from bein g
swallowed by the erodin g san d. Her dun e is on e lin e of defen se again st the
c on sum in g forc e of the san d. He offers to help, but she refuses, sayin g "n ot
on your first day." He c orrec ts her again . She gathers the san d, then sen ds it
above by pulley.
The n ex t m orn in g begin s with a c lose-up of a watc h, seen from his per-
spec tive; it shows 8:15 a.m . Teshigahara's evoc ation of atom ic tim e, the
froz en m om en t of Hiroshim a's destruc tion absen t in Abe's n oveles-
tablishes the referen t, if n ot allegory, of Hiroshim a in Woman in the Dunes.
Okada's fac e an d body, in sc ribed in three film s that referen c e Hiroshim a
two direc tly, on e obliquelybec om e the figure for a tran sfilm ic in sc rip-
tion of Hiroshim a an d atom ic violen c e. A fain t an d sustain ed orc hestral
soun d, m ix ed with the soun d of win d, triggers a series of c uts an d dis-
solves, a m on tage of im ages on e to an other in a sustain ed rhythm . The fac e
of the watc h, sec on dhan d tic kin g, c uts to a c lose-up of his fac e, his illum i-
n ated eyes set apart from his otherwise dark fac e. He turn s his head slightly
to the right an d m oves his eyes to the side, then up, an d for a m om en t
appears to m eet the c am era direc tly before turn in g away. His absorption
bec om es m om en tarily theatric al before it rec edes again in to absorption . A
profile of a wom an 's body, his host's sleepin g body, appears in superim po-
sition over his fac e. From the right side of the fram e, a wipe: the desert
m oves ac ross her body, the waves in the san d m atc h the c urvature of her
hips. San d over the wom an 's body, the wom an 's body over san d. The shot
ec hoes the phan tom addressee that appears earlier, but also the open in g
shots of Hiroshima mon amour. Bodies written in the san d, written with
san d, in sc ribed in an d by it. Sex uality is ren dered in ash, as the ashes of de-
sire an d passion .
The m usic reac hes a feverish pitc h, then sudden ly stops. The shot c uts
to a m edium shot of her m idsec tion , her stom ac h m ovin g as she breathes.
His fac e return s in profile. He appears to be gaz in g in ten tly at her. The
watc h n ow shows 11:20 a.m ., suggestin g that he has been m esm eriz ed by
the view of her n aked, sleepin g body for three hours. It is n ot c lear why he
has waited so lon g, hopin g perhaps to than k her or, m ore likely, un able to
take his eyes from her body. He has bec om e fasc in ated by her. As he pre-
pares to leave, he c on tin ues to survey her sleepin g body, whic h is c overed
in san d. She appears to be m ade of san d, an ex ten sion of it; her elem en tal
body form ed from the san d that surroun ds an d c on stitutes her. The title of
1 26 the n ovel an d film , Suna no onna, is tran slated as the "wom an in the dun es"
but m ean s m ore prec isely, "the wom an of san d."
He hoists his ruc ksac k on to his bac k an d wipes the san d from his hair.
The san d that has already begun to en ter his body. He leaves m on ey for
her, tuc kin g it un der the kettle. A brief shot of the house, seen from above,
shows it overex posed an d overheated. An aerial view, as if seen from an air-
plan e. Outside, he surveys the barren lan dsc ape an d n otic es that the ladder,
whic h he used to desc en d in to the dun e, has disappeared. He tries to c lim b
the side of the dun e, but the san d c rum bles with eac h grasp. An d then he
realiz es that the ladder c an on ly be lowered an d rem oved from above. He
sudden ly un derstan ds his predic am en t, her c om plic ity in his c apture. He is
a prison er of the villagers an d this wom an , but also of the elem en ts, of the
san d that surroun ds him .
His in itial reac tion is an ger an d defian c e. "I'm a registered c itiz en ." His
attem pts to esc ape, to upset the fragile san d struc tures, on ly c ause the san d
to desc en d on him m ore violen tly, in the en d, in jurin g him . Bac k in side,
his n ex t m ove is to take her hostage an d refuse to work. The san d dun es
c on tin ue to c rum ble, the work rem ain s un fin ished. Teshigahara shows a
c loseup of her fac e an d n ec k, the c am era travelin g alon g her c hin an d the
base of her n ec k. The san d stuc k to her dryin g skin appears to seep out of
it. As if she is ex udin g san d from the in side. As if she is turn in g to san d as she
dehydrates. Her in terior bec om in g ex terior. Several m om en ts later, Teshi-
gahara repeats the slow m ovem en t of the c am era ac ross the lin e of the
m an 's c hin . His skin looks like hers; the two are bec om in g in distin guish-
able on the surfac e. He is goin g m ad, losin g his iden tity in her an d in the
san d. The san d deform s the lan dsc ape an d them ; it ren ders the world form -
less, reduc in g everythin g to the atom ic struc tures of san d.
The earth shakes, an d the two c ollapse on to eac h other an d em brac e in
a m om en t of erotic realiz ation . The view of the san d that c overs their bod-
ies an d suspen ds them like the statues of Pom peii rec alls the open in g shots
of Resn ais's film . It is a quotation of it; in deed, the san d falls on the sam e
body. The storm abates, the rain in g san d soften s to a driz z le. Slowly they
rise, self-c on sc iously. She adjusts her blouse an d hurries in to the n ex t room .
He brushes the san d from his pan ts, rem oves his shirt, shakes the san d
from his hair. He follows her to the n ex t room , where she is c han gin g.
Through a tran sluc en t sc reen he asks, "Shall I brush you off?" As he wipes
the san d from her body, she slips in to a sustain ed jouissance, c lutc hin g pas-
sion ately at his body. They fall to the groun d an d m ake love in the san d,
in vokin g again the ash that falls on Resn ais's bodies. Outside, san d drips
slowly alon g the side of the dun e like a thic k liquid.
But the ex c han ge of fluids from body to body does n ot replen ish either
body; it ac c en tuates the lin e between desire an d thirst. The drought c on - 1 27
tin ues, their m adn ess in ten sifies. After he halluc in ates an oasis, he relen ts.
Woman in the Danes.
"My blood will rot," he says. "I surren der, I surren der." He steps in to the
blin din g sun . He lights a rag soaked in alc ohol an d sign als his surren der to
the villagers. A superim position of water soakin g the san d. An d the water
return s, saturates the fram e. A large droplet drips slowly in c loseup. He gives
in to the in evitable forc es of the elem en ts, water an d san d.
Ac c eptin g his fate as a prison er, the guest restrain s his an ger an d adopts
a strategy of patien c e. "It's just a m atter of patien c e," he says, "un til I'm res-
c ued." He begin s a series of quasi-sc ien tific ex perim en ts an d low-grade
en gin eerin g projec ts, lon g-term plan s for esc ape. He c on tin ues his projec ts,
c ollec tin g in sec ts an d buildin g c row traps. Tim e is passin g, slippin g away
in to the san d. When the villagers deliver his ration s, he asks for a favor: he
asks to be let out on c e a day to see the oc ean , just thirty m in utes, twen ty
m in utes is en ough, even ten . "I prom ise I won 't try to esc ape." The villagers
prom ise to c on sider his request. His ration s are n ow m ore elaborate an d
in c lude eyedropssyn thetic tears, perhaps, whic h m ain tain his eyesight.
The san d is in filtratin g his body, en terin g through his eyes.
62
The villagers return with an an swer to his request. They will gran t him
his daily walk alon g the oc ean if he is willin g to have sex with her before
them . A spotlight shin es on him from above. Taiko drum s fill the sc en e.
The en tire village, it seem s, is assem bled above, alon g the rim of the dun e,
m an y of the villagers wearin g m asks. They look down on him from above
in an ex trem e high an gle: a c erem on y of self-debasem en t or effac em en t that
128 will allow or forc e him to bec om e on e of them . They are m asked, defac ed.
When he appeals to her, she dism isses the in sult at on c e. Lured by the
possibility of esc ape, he assaults her, but is un able to c om plete the ac t.
The villagers disperse, the sc en e ex hausted. He has bec om e their spec tac le.
An in sec t.
He return s to his traps an d disc overs on e filled with water. He tastes the
water, whic h is fresh. The c on traption works like a pum p, drawin g m ois-
ture from the san d. The disc overy provides him with a m ean s of self-
suffic ien c y an d resistan c e. He is overc om e with joy an d im m ediately buries
him self in work, hopin g to im prove its effic ien c y. In his dehydrated hole,
an other hole that draws m oisture from the earth. A mise-en-abime, a hole
within a hole, in the earth, whic h reac hes to the other side, to life. In the
win ter, she c ollapses in pain . She is pregn an t, the pain a sign , perhaps, of
an irregularity. The villagers lift her from the dun e, an d he watc hes her van -
ish above, in to the outside. While the villagers are in his house, he resists
the urge to c on fide his disc overy to the village leader. When they leave,
they forget to retrieve the rope ladder, leavin g him free to esc ape.
He c lim bs out of his prison . He walks alon g the win dswept dun es an d
reac hes the oc ean . Outside, it is still light. He c an esc ape. In a c lose-up, he
turn s his head, pan n in g ac ross the lan dsc ape like a c am era, surveyin g it
like a geographer. He turn s away from the c am era an d fac es the oc ean . Cut
to a profile, in ex trem e c lose-up. He looks out on to the oc ean . A shot of
footprin ts in the san d. Then , he is c lim bin g bac k in to his dun e, in to his
prison . He c hec ks his water pum p, m easures its level. As he peers in to it, he
n otic es a figure in the reflec tion , above an d behin d him . He turn s to look.
A boy, peerin g down at him . He looks upward, the boy withdraws. A glim pse
of his future life, perhaps. In in terior m on ologue, he begin s to speak: "There's
n o n eed to rush an ywhere just yet I'm free to do as I like n ow. At the
m om en t, his foc us is on his ex perim en ts, on tellin g som eon e of his disc ov-
ery. After that, "I c an thin k of esc apin g."
In side an d out, im prison ed an d free, lost an d foun d, this m an is an em ul-
sion . He operates ac c ordin g to the logic an d visual ec on om y of the film :
superim position . On e over the other, on e in side an d alon gside an other.
Two sc en es that c oex ist un c om fortably, n ever m ix in g: san d an d water, sm ooth
an d striated spac es, letters an d san d, m an an d wom an , the sam e m an an d
an other wom an , this m om en t an d that, this world an d an other. He is
in side an d outside her, she of him . This world in that, that world in this.
The san d swallows the san d an d everythin g else, eac h surfac e c ollapses
on to an other.
In the film 's fin al shot, a han dwritten doc um en t appears superim posed
over the dun es. The words appear to have been written on the san d in rigid,
striated tex t c on trastin g the san d's sm ooth an d un stable surfac e.
63
The doc u-
m en t, a m issin g person 's report, rec ords the n am e of the protagon ist, "Niki 1 29
Jun pei, born 7 Marc h 1927." (Abe spec ifies the date of the report as 18
August 1955; the even ts of the n arrative traverse the ten th an n iversary of
1 3 0
M i s s i n g p e r s o n ' s r e p o r t , l a s t s h o t i n W o m an in th e Dunes.
Japan 's surren der on 15 August 1945.) Yet an other doc um en t, the last on e.
The first tim e his n am e is m en tion ed. It c om es to him , his n am e, at the
m om en t it is n o lon ger his: he is n o lon ger Niki lun pei, Niki Jun pei is n o
lon ger him . A posthum ous n am e attac hed to him like tex t, to his body,
whic h has van ished. His form er n am e n ow on ly a series of arbitrary lin es,
etc hed in the san d. Of the lin e that van ishes in the san d, in the sm ooth
arc hive, losin g its figurative an d spatial forc es, Deleuz e an d Guattari say:
A line that delimits nothing, that describes no contour, that n o lon ger goes
from on e poin t to an other but in stead passes between poin ts, that is always
dec lin in g from the horiz on tal an d vertic al an d deviatin g from the diago-
n al, that is c on stan tly c han gin g direc tion , a m utan t lin e of this kin d that
is without outside or in side, form or bac kgroun d, begin n in g or en d an d
that is alive as a c on tin uous variation suc h a lin e is truly an abstrac t lin e,
an d desc ribes a sm ooth spac e.
64
His n am e has left him , leavin g behin d a life "without outside or in side."
The report c on c ludes that after seven years, he is n ow c on sidered lost. He
has disappeared. An in visible m an , n either livin g n or dead, suspen ded in
an in terstic e like Sc hrodin ger's c at, an em ulsion . The in sc ription of his
n am e, whic h he in itially resisted an d whic h led him to the desert, he also
sought in the form of rec ogn ition in the in sec t en c yc lopedia. The fin al
doc um en ts that erase Niki Jun pei from the world in voke the hanko seals
that appear on the open in g c redits. Fram ed by two form s of in sc ription ,
Niki Jun pei has been in sc ribed an tigraphic ally in an arc hive of sorts, an ar-
c hive of the van ished. He has been in sc ribed, n am e an d body, in an arc hive
of san d. It is an an tigraphic arc hive, written an d erased in the san d. Like
thousan ds of dehydrated atom s, Niki Jun pei, iden tified on ly on the oc c a-
sion of his disappearan c e, has bec om e in visible to the world, lost to lan -
guage. His n am e a series of abstrac t lin es in the sm ooth san d, his body a
guest in the desert. He is dispersed in a un iverse of san d, in divisible from it
an d in visible in itavisual an d atom ic .
1 3 1
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6. P hantom Cures:
O b s c u r i t y a n d E m p t i n e s s
wo film s at the en d of the twen tieth c en tury reflec t a c on tin ued distur-
ban c e in the visual ec on om y of Japan ese c in em a, sustain ed sin c e the
en d of World War II. The film s, n either on e represen tative of late-
twen tieth-c en tury Japan ese c in em a, are n on etheless ex em plary in their
ex am in ation s of the fragile relation between avisuality an d un im agin able
destruc tion . Kore-eda Hirokaz u's 1995 Maborosi (Maboroshi no hikari) an d
Kurosawa Kiyoshi's 1997 Cure ex plore them atic ally an d m aterially the phe-
n om en a of superfic ial obsc urityan opac ity that ren ders the surfac e
in wardan d em pty depth, an abyss without volum e. Fifty years after the
en d of World War II, on e hun dred years after the disc overy of X-rays,
psyc hoan alysis, an d c in em a, Freud's un resolved problem of psyc hic repre-
sen tation , of a psyc hic visuality (of a visuality spec ific to the psyc he) return s
in two film s haun ted by a displac ed in teriority, by the evaporation of in te-
riority in to the atm osphere. Maborosi an d Cure offer shadow psyc hes,
available on ly as obsc ure trac es of an in side projec ted again st the surfac e;
1 3 3
T
an im possible psyc hoan alysis that is itself the very origin an d essen c e of
psyc hoan alysis. Eac h work gen erates a spec tac le of in visibility, an avisuality
that fram es death as a form of opaque vitality.
"Maboroshi n o hikari" (the phan tom light or light of illusion ) refers to
an ex plan ation offered to Yum iko, who seeks to un derstan d her husban d's
un ex plain ed suic ide. She is haun ted throughout the film by the un c an n y
repetition of loss: first her gran dm other, whose suic ide she failed to pre-
ven t as a youn g girl, then her husban d, Ikuo, who kills him self on e n ight,
sudden ly an d without ex plan ation , by walkin g alon g the train trac ks in to
an on c om in g train . In both in stan c es, Yum iko feels suspen ded between re-
spon sibility an d guilt, boun d to an d aban don ed by eac h figure. The phan -
tom light is in voked by Yum iko's sec on d husban d, Tam io, as folk wisdom
am on g loc al fisherm en who c laim that a light som etim es appears to lon e
figures at sea an d lures them to their deaths in the oc ean . Tam io n ever uses
the ex pression "m aboroshi n o hikari"; he says "a beautiful light" (kirei na
hikari). The film 's title an d the phan tom light are in Maborosi n on diegetic ,
projec ted in ward from elsewhere, from a spac e outside. Kore-eda's film is
suffused with fain t phan tom lights that en ter the dark in teriors of Maborosi s
world. Natural lightin g throughout m uc h of the film establishes a dim
lum in osity that m akes, at tim es, Maborosi virtually in visible: sm all win -
dows, street lam ps, an d light bulbs often ac t as the sole sourc es of light
in dark sc en es, shot m ost often in m edium an d lon g shots, m ain tain in g
throughout the film a sen se of irreduc ible distan c e an d obsc urity. The phan -
tom lightin g of Maborosi suspen ds the film in a lim in al state, on the thresh-
olds of perc eption , always at risk of disappearin g en tirely.
1
Min im al light
an d visibility ten d to c on den se deep spac e, ren derin g the film its world
an d c harac tersopaque an d obsc ure: fain t trac es on the film 's ex terior
surfac es.
The film open s with a dream , un m arked as suc h un til Yum iko awaken s
an d the diegesis of the film is established retrospec tively. Yum iko's dream
c oin c ides with the film 's first sc en e. The film fades in to a fron tal m edium
shot of a youn g girl sittin g in a dark room lookin g at herself in a han dheld
m irror. She hears a bic yc le bell an d turn s away from the c am era to look, as
a blurry figure passes swiftly behin d her, outside. She follows the soun d,
stan ds up, an d ex its the room . Outside in an other dark spac e, she sees a
boy ridin g a bic yc le through a tun n el toward the other side. Som eon e, pre-
sum ably his m other, c alls after him , "Ikuo, c om e an d help." He ign ores her
an d c on tin ues. After a brief shot of an em pty doorway seen from in side a
dark alley, the view return s to the tun n el. A figure walks through the dark
134 tun n el toward a sun lit street at its en d, m ovin g away from the c am era. An
old wom an . She reac hes the other en d an d ex its on to the street to the left.
As soon as she disappears, the youn g girl en ters the tun n el run n in g in pur-
suit. In the n ex t shot, an elderly wom an on an arc hed bridge turn s to fac e
the youn g girl, who pleads for her to return . "I wan t to die at hom e," the
old wom an says, iden tifyin g herself as the girl's gran dm other. The girl tries
to dissuade her, but the gran dm other in sists an d leaves the girl, walkin g
away from the c am era toward the other side of the bridge an d her death.
The girl stan ds in the distan c e, in a lon g shot with her bac k to the c am era
as her gran dm other leaves.
The dream , still un m arked, c on tin ues. Un der a streetlight, a m an an d
two boys light sparklers on the street. The girl, again with her bac k to the
c am era, stares outside a win dow in to the dark n ight. Her father return s,
havin g failed to loc ate the m issin g gran dm other. "What if she n ever return s,"
says the girl. "It's n ot your fault," her m other respon ds, iden tifyin g the girl
as Yum iko. The sc en e return s to the bridge at n ight, lit on ly with street
lam ps. Yum iko run s ac ross the bridge in the dark in the direc tion of her
gran dm other. She stops, her figure barely visible in the dark, at the sam e
poin t where she left her gran dm other. Yum iko walks dejec tedly through
the tun n el that leads bac k to her hom e. She hears a bic yc le bell an d then
sees a boy pushin g his bic yc le. The two stare at eac h other, an d, as the sc en e
fades to blac k, a wom an 's voic e asks, with a slight trac e of ec ho, "Iku-c han ?"
This voic e, m arked by the ex teriority of an ec ho an d the ec ho of ex teri-
ority, ac ousm atic an d for the m om en t n on diegetic , serves as a tran sition
from the dream . A tun n el. In the dark, the voic e repeats with less reverber-
ation , "Iku-c han ?" A m an groan s. "I had that dream again . I have it often
rec en tly. I won der why," says Yum iko, to whic h Ikuo respon ds, "I'm n ot the
rein c arn ation of your gran dm other." Yum iko turn s on a light, an d the two
are visible for the first tim e in the presen t. He turn s off the light, plun gin g
the sc en e bac k in to the dark. "Go bac k to sleep. Keep dream in g. Maybe
your gran dm other will return ." "Maybe you're right," says Yum iko. "But
why c ouldn 't I have stopped her then ?" In the darkn ess, from it perhaps,
n on diegetic m usic en ters the film , an d the title appears, followed by the
first shot of the film after the title, a m an ridin g a bic yc le toward the c am era,
on what appears to be the sam e bridge c rossed by Yum iko's gran dm other.
A rein c arn ation perhaps, Ikuo return s from the other side.
Yum iko an d Ikuo's ex c han ge in the dark in vokes the open in g lin es of
Alain Resn ais's Hiroshima mon amour. Ac ousm atic voic es that pierc e a world
n ot yet ac kn owledged, n ot yet given . An ac ousm atic ex c han ge between two
phan tom s, tim eless. The open in g of Maborosi establishes an atem poral flash-
bac k, a flash bac kward in tim e folded in to the spac e of a dream .
2
A past
outside tim e, like Hiroshim a, a phan tasm atic history outside history. A
past that falls, like Ralph Ellison 's "in visible m an ," "outside history." A c atas- 135
trophe, tim eless in its en duran c e, an d atem poral in its resistan c e to the
laws of tim e, to c hron ology. Yum iko's prelim in ary voic e arrives before her,
in advan c e, before the film 's open in g: a voic e that c om es from outside an d
establishes the im possibility of seein g, of un derstan din g. The im possibility
of return in g to that voic e a visuality an d tem porality proper to it. "You
saw n othin g in Hiroshim a." The voic es have n ot yet been em bodied, they
have n ot yet assum ed the c orporeality an d visibility of in dividual hum an
bein gs. They are n ot yet proper to an yon e. They sign al the avisuality of disas-
ter, the im possibility of its represen tation . Past history folded in to a dream ,
displac ed in the film from the diegesis proper to it. Yum iko's dream is an
elem en t of the film 's story, but also a glim pse in to an in teriority c on sti-
tuted like the phan tom lights that pierc e Maborosi, from the outside. The
film is c on stituted arc hitec turally as an outside in teriority, an d an in side
ex teriority: as the im possibility of establishin g stable orders of in side an d out.
Cen tral to the n arrative of Maborosi is the illegible suic ide of Yum iko's
first husban d, Ikuo. His disappearan c e in itiates the n arrative an d haun ts
the film as its em pty c en ter. On e n ight, Ikuo fails to return from work an d
is disc overed dead later that n ight. In the m iddle of the n ight, Yum iko is
asked to iden tify his c orpse. Ikuo walked direc tly, she is told, in to an on c om -
in g train , ign orin g its warn in g lights an d horn s. He provided n o ex plan a-
tion , n o sign of his in ten tion . "It's as if he left behin d a riddle," says Yum iko's
m other.
Ikuo's death in vokes the fan tasy an d spec tac le of train c ollision s in early
c in em a. In a sen se, a c in em atic death. Im ages of train s c rissc ross Maborosi,
c arvin g lin es in the film spac e that m ove ac ross the surfac e of the film an d
also in to its phan tasm atic depths. Train s are part of the lan dsc ape of Japan ,
but they also ec ho the train s an d their trajec tories that struc ture early c in -
em a. On e hun dred years after the Lum ieres' first film s, Kore-eda's train s
still establish illusory depths, lin es that van ish in to phan tasm atic distan c es
an d those that sec ure the m ateriality of m etaphysic al surfac es, to use Gilles
Deleuz e's ex pression . "Un seen en ergies swallowin g spac e." In a later sc en e,
Yum iko's son , Yuic hi, an d Tam io's daughter, Tom oko, ride a train through
a tun n el, alludin g to the "phan tom ride" film s popular in early c in em a.
The shot is film ed from in side the train direc tly ahead. It begin s with an
abrupt c ut from the previous sc en e. Neither c hild is yet visible in the train .
As the train approac hes then en ters the tun n el, the fram e gradually darken s,
leavin g on ly the light at the other en d. The sc en e c uts to a dark fram e, the
soun d of c hildren sin gin g. Barely visible at first in the darkn ess of the tun n el,
the two c hildren gradually appear in the light, shot from behin d, lookin g
out from a win dow on the side of the train . The view in to the tun n el has
n ot been established by an y of the c harac ters, by an y subjec tivity loc ated
1 3 6 within the film , but rather as a disem bodied poin t of view, a phan tom ride.
The geography of Maborosi is m apped as a sequen c e of passages through
tun n els, in terior c orridors, alleys, an d m oun tain roads, an d ac ross bridges:
m ovem en ts from on e side to an other, to the other side. Yum iko's gran d-
m other passes ac ross the bridge to the other side. A dark tun n el leads to
an d from the n eighborhood where Yum iko an d Ikuo spen t their c hild-
hoods, sm aller on es lead from Yum iko an d Ikuo's residen c e when they are
adults to their surroun din gs. A win din g m oun tain road takes Yum iko to
her sec on d husban d, Tam io, in Noto. In side, dark c orridors c on n ec t on e
dark spac e to an other. Throughout Maborosi, c harac ters pass through tun -
n els on foot, on bic yc les, an d in vehic les. In Noto, Yuic hi an d Tom oko run
through a dark tun n el toward the bright green light at the other en d. Bi-
c yc les, train s, autom obiles plun ge in to an d em erge from dark tun n els, van ish
in to distan t spac e. Again st the flat surfac es that c on stitute the in terior vol-
um e of Maborosi, those trajec tories that tran sport the c harac ters in to the
film 's phan tasm atic in terior establish a spatial order that is ex em plarily
c in em atic . Flat depth: a world ren dered superfic ial, a m etaphysic al surfac e.
Every passage to the other side, every return from the other side, leads to
an other surfac e, an other plan e. In this way, sequen tiality without depth is
developed.
The flat volum e of Maborosi is c on struc ted by a series of plan es, a mise-
en-abime of flat surfac es ex ten din g within flat surfac es, rec edin g in to a per-
petually superfic ial depth. Flatn ess in side flatn ess, behin d an d on either
side. On the other side, the c on tin uation of the surfac e. Eac h passage fram ed
by a threshold: win dows, door fram es, tun n el en tran c es produc e dark abysses.
Room s behin d room s, seen from a distan c e, the fram es an d borders usually
an elem en t of the im age. Movin g usually from on e dark spac e to an other.
(Kore-eda c laim s to have used n atural lightin g ex c lusively, ex c ept in the
sc en e in whic h the n ewly c on stituted fam ily eats waterm elon on the veran da.)
Plan es an d surfac es rec edin g in spac e; behin d every flatten ed spac e, it seem s,
an other dark surfac e. An ex ten sion of surfac es, on e beyon d the other, but
also an in ten sity of surfac es that m ove in ward. The superfic ial struc ture of
Maborosi m akes a spatial logic of in sides an d outsides ultim ately un ten able.
Kore-eda's organ iz ation of spac e in Maborosi, his arc hitec ton ic order, is
largely vertic al an d horiz on tal, with few oblique an gles an d diagon al c om -
position s. Alm ost every shot an d everythin g in it, every objec t an d figure,
is fram ed by a flat opac ity. The low c am era an gles an d fron tal c om position ,
still figures an d lon g takes suggest a darkly photographic world, stran gely
im m obile, paralyz ed, an d tim eless. Em balm ed, like An dre Baz in 's photog-
raphy. What m oves through the film , what in fuses vitality in to its static life
is a phan tom drive: the death drive that Ikuo projec ts in to an otherwise
quiet world.
Yum iko's return to Osaka where she on c e lived to visit her m other re- 137
in troduc es the them e of haun tin g an d phan tasm atic life. Eac h spac e
streets, c offee shop, workplac e, apartm en tis m arked by an absen c e, the
absen c e of Ikuo, but an absen c e already at work when he was alive. The
ghosts that lin ger in Yum iko's past world are rean im ated upon her return
by the ac ousm atic soun d of the bic yc le bell. As Yum iko walks through a fa-
m iliar passage toward the c am era, the soun d of a bic yc le bell pierc es the
sc en e. Yum iko turn s in respon se; a wom an bic yc list c rosses the plan e hori-
z on tally behin d Yum iko. Som eon e else. The phan tom soun d in tac t, c arried
by an other body. Yum iko return s to the fac tory where Ikuo worked, re-
peatin g an earlier sequen c e of shots in whic h Yum iko observes him there.
She retrac es her steps to Ikuo's workplac e. Kore-eda c om poses a view of
Yum iko from in side the fac tory, a haun ted poin t of view, like the ghost
shots of Kobayashi Masaki's tran sluc en t warriors in "Hoic hi the Earless."
No on e is there to see her, but she is seen , from in side. Yum iko walks to the
win dow an d peers in . The c am era watc hes her from outside an d behin d.
First an em pty reac tion shot of Yum iko, taken from the phan tom perspec -
tive of an absen t Ikuo, then her view in to the em pty fac tory spac e where
she had earlier observed him . No on e is there n ow. But n o on e was ever
there. Ikuo's blan k stare in respon se to Yum iko's ex aggerated ex pression s in
the earlier episode suggests that he was already absen t then , already tran slu-
c en t an d phan tasm atic . (In the subsequen t sc en e she teases him for n ot
havin g n otic ed her watc hin g him . "How c ould I kn ow?" he says. "7 would
have," she an swers.)
In the hallway of the apartm en t she on c e shared with Ikuo, Yum iko
walks away from the c am era, toward a haz y light c ast by a sem iopaque
win dow. As she reac hes the en tran c e to her apartm en t, she stops an d turn s.
She is fram ed in a low-an gle lon g shot. A c ut m oves the c am era c loser an d
fram es her in a m edium shot. Slowly Yum iko turn s her head toward the
right an d, for a brief in stan t, stares in to the c am era, whic h seem s to have
taken the plac e of som e absen t figure. An arrest, m om en tary an d photo-
graphic , lost in the resum ption of tim e. Ikuo is in the c am era, is him self
the c am era. An un seen en ergy. Slowly Yum iko pulls away from the eyelin e
m atc h, breakin g the phan tasm atic c on tac t with the em pty figure there. Her
gesture is tran sposed from an apparen t perc eption (of a phan tom figure
loc ated at the poin t of the c am era) to a c on tem plation . There an d n ot there,
in an in stan t. A flash.
Ikuo is in fac t there an d n ot there, always. Never fully there when alive,
he is n ever en tirely absen t after his death. His trac e is c arried, m ost m ateri-
ally, in the various m an ifestation s of the bic yc le. In a Noto m arketplac e,
Ikuo's son , Yuic hi, shows in terest in a green bic yc le as Yum iko watc hes. She
is struc k it seem s, by Yuic hi's c hoic e, whic h ec hoes the bic yc le his father left
1 3 8 behin d. (In the open in g sc en es of Maborosi, Ikuo, who has stolen a bic yc le,
pain ts it green .)
3
Maborosi is haun ted by bic yc les, by on e bic yc le in partic -
ular, whic h serves, perhaps, as a m eton ym y of the train s that m ap the world
Y u m i k o , in K o r e - e d a H i r o k a zu , Mabo ro si (Mabo ro shi no hikari, 19 9 5 ) .
of Maborosi. (In n um erous sc en es, bic yc les an d their riders are set again st
train s that speed by in the bac kgroun d.) On e n ight, after return in g hom e
drun k to a worried Yum iko, Tam io hears the bic yc le key in Yum iko's han d.
The soun d resem bles the bells that ec ho throughout the film . He c an n ot
see her; his head restin g on the table, turn ed away. Although drun k, he
hears the soun d of the bell in Yum iko's han d an d asks what it is. "What did
you just hide?" Yum iko in sists that she wasn 't hidin g an ythin g; she had
plan n ed to rem ove the keyc hain bell from an old bic yc le key. The phan tom
bic yc le, the soun d of this tran sportation that sutures spac es an d histories,
bodies an d gen eration s, rem ain s the on ly audible trac e of an otherwise silen t
Ikuo. He is c on stituted aurally an d in the dark by this soun d, a m eton ym y
of the bic yc le he rides, leaves behin d, an d has bec om e.
The c on fusion of reality with dream spac es, a trope that ec hoes Miz o-
guc hi Ken ji's Ugetsu an d Kobayashi Masaki's Kwaidan, adds to the obsc u-
rity of Maborosi, a shadow world suspen ded between life an d death, past
1 3 9
an d presen t, visibility an d in visibility, visuality an d avisuality. From her
win dow early in the m orn in g, Yum iko watc hes Tom en o, a loc al fisherwom an ,
leave for the oc ean . The dark room is pierc ed on ly by the sm all open in g of
the win dow from whic h Yum iko peers. The dark m orn in g provides a deep
blue light to the otherwise blac k spac e of the room , whic h fills m ost of the
sc reen . Like a dream sc ape that open s outward an d beyon d from the c am -
era obsc ura in whic h Tam io sleeps, the sc en e of Tom en o's departure like a
projec tion . Tom en o n otic es Yum iko watc hin g an d the two c on verse; Tom en o
speaks, Yum iko respon ds with han d gestures. In a c ut, the c am era leaps out
of the room , outdoors, in to the spac e where Tom en o stan ds. Tom en o m oves
away from the c am era, away from the plac e where Yum iko watc hes, an d
leaves the fram e to the right. Tom en o's m ovem en ts ec ho those of Yum iko's
gran dm other in the dream -m em ory that open s the film . A haun ted ges-
ture. A c ut return s the view to Yum iko, seen from the side, the profile of
her fac e barely visible in the fain t twilight. The sc en e en ds when Tam io
c alls to Yum iko from the dark, from offsc reen , "What are you lookin g at?"
Yum iko turn s away, leavin g a dark fram e with a sm all sliver of dark blue.
Yum iko c loses the win dow an d return s to bed. When Tam io asks if she
is hom esic k, if she wan ts to return to Osaka (Am agasaki), Yum iko says n o.
"I just had a dream it woke m e up." A dream or the sc en e of Tom en o,
an old wom an like Yum iko's lost gran dm other, leavin g in to the dark? The
in terior an d ex terior worlds are c on fused in Maborosi, fused together in an
un easy balan c ean em ulsion m arked by the shiftin g lights that illum in ate
the film .
The un even light of Maborosi, an effec t of the n atural un derlightin g
that Kore-eda m ain tain s throughout the film , establishes a dyn am ic an d pul-
satin g lum in osity. The m an y sc en es of people an d vehic les passin g through
tun n els c reate opportun ities for the lightin g to c han ge from dark to light
an d vic e versa durin g a sin gle shot. Yum iko's fac e again st the win dow of
the polic e c ar that takes her through the rain to Ikuo's lifeless body, her
fac e in the train as she watc hes Yuic hi an d Tom oko begin n in g to form a
frien dship, pass from light to shadow, visibility to obsc urity. The rain that
falls on the polic e c ar win dow is like displac ed tears; her em otion s have
m oved outside her body an d in to the en viron m en t. The in teriority that
fails to erupt at this m om en t of her loss return s in the form of an ex terior
elem en t, rain . Her in teriority takes plac e outside an d return s to her like
blac k rain , poison in g an d m arkin g her from the outside. The c ar win dow
c an be seen as a displac ed surfac e, a sec on d skin . (All of the plan es in
Maborosi c an be seen perhaps as displac ed hum an surfac es, the film itself a
140 tran sluc en t body.) Light pulses an d pulsates in Maborosi, addin g a type of
lim in al vitality to the film , a phan tom light. Although a dark film , a film
about darkn ess, n early in visible an d im pen etrable, Maborosi establishes a
Y u m i k o ' s d i s p l a c e d t e a r s , Mabo ro si.
dark lum in osity. It follows the logic of Tan iz aki's shadowa darkn ess that
is posited, illum in ated in the dark by other darkn esses. Darkn ess, a form of
phan tom light.
In the film 's c losin g sc en es, Yum iko, who has perhaps dec ided to flee
Noto, sits in side a sm all struc ture that serves as a bus stop. An attem pt to
leave like her gran dm other, like Ikuo; to m ove to the other side. She is
barely visible, a dark figure in side a dark spac e. Seen from a distan c e, a bus
arrives an d leaves, Yum iko's dec ision n ot yet apparen t. Slowly Yum iko
em erges from the struc ture. She n otic es a fun eral proc ession as it m oves
toward the oc ean . In an ex trem e lon g shot, the proc ession m oves horiz on -
tally ac ross the fram e, set again st the dark sky an d oc ean . As the proc ession
m oves from right to left, Yum iko en ters the fram e, followin g the proc es-
sion from several pac es behin d. Tam io arrives in a c ar, drawn to the oc ean 's
edge by the fun eral pyre. The fun eral is over, the fire c on tin ues to burn .
Still in ex trem e lon g shot, Tam io an d Yum iko fac e eac h other. As she m oves
141
142
Mabo ro si.
toward him from left to right, he retreats, m ovin g bac kward at first, then
turn in g aroun d an d walkin g to the right of the shot. From a distan c e, their
in ten tion s are hard to disc ern . The c am era follows their m ovem en ts in a
pan . Two dark figures, silhouettes, again st the purple sky an d dark oc ean .
"I just don 't un derstan d," Yum iko says, "why he killed him self. Why was he
walkin g alon g the trac ks?" "Why do you thin k he did it?" she asks Tam io.
Tam io an swers after a pause: "The oc ean c alls to you, he said. My father
used to go out to sea. He says when he was out alon e, he would see a beau-
tiful light, shim m erin g in the distan c e, c allin g to him . I thin k it c an happen
to an yon e." The fin al sc en e in vokes the first. Despite Yum iko an d Tam io's
visibility in an ex trem e lon g shot, their voic es are ac ousm atic , disem bodied,
phan tasm atic . Again st the sky an d sea, Yum iko an d Tam io are distan t,
atom ic figures. Reduc ed to atom s, swallowed by the elem en ts, by the post-
c atastrophic world. On ly their voic es rem ain , it seem s, on ly their voic es
are visible.
In the en d, Ikuo's in teriority, the in ac c essible forc es that drove him to
take his own life, m ay have c om e from outside. But from a displac ed, phan -
tasm atic outside. The phan tom light, the seduc tive phan tasm that c alls
when on e is alon e, serves as the sourc e of Ikuo's desire. In his c ase, the
light of the on c om in g train , perhaps. Ikuo is reduc ed to a light, has bec om e
him self a solitary light, a projec tion dispersed atom ic ally in to the world.
Body an d voic e, life an d death, in side an d out, visual an d avisual light,
ex ist in Maborosi as suspen ded dialec tic s. As em ulsion s. Yum iko's searc h
for an ex plan ation of Ikuo's death, for som e in sight or glim pse in side that
m ight reveal his m otivation , his desire to die, c on sc ious or un c on sc ious, is
im possible in a world where the lin es between in side an d out have been
obsc ured. A world in side out, depth ren dered en tirely on the surfac e, visi-
bility m arked by a profoun d an d c on sisten t in visibility. What is lost with
Ikuo is n ot on ly his psyc he an d its sec ret arc hives but the psyc he as suc h.
Maborosi c an be seen in this sen se as a profoun dly n on psyc hologic al film ,
apsyc hologic al, without psyc he, a psyc he tran sposed without, on the out-
side. An ex terioriz ed, superfic ial psyc he that c an n ot be probed bec ause its
depths are on the surfac e. Ikuo, alive an d dead, represen ts the film 's displac ed
in terior. He is in side out, an in side projec ted outward, visible on ly on the
outside as an aftereffec t of his life. When visible, his fac e is in sc rutable;
his ac tion s im pen etrable, his figure en tirely avisual, Ikuo is an in visible
m an , radiatin g a dark lum in osity over the world that surroun ds him . Like
Tan iz aki's Orien tal body, Ikuo projec ts a darkn ess outward that stain s the
world aroun d him ; he c asts a shadow over the film , ex ten ds his darkn ess
ac ross it, ren derin g the film , like him , opaque an d obsc ure. This darkn ess is
Ikuo's in teriority, his im pen etrable psyc he, dispersed atom ic ally ac ross the
film 's surfac e. It is visible in the first in stan c e on ly from the outside. Even
m ore than his visage or figure, his iden tity or in terior, Ikuo's darkn ess c om es
to saturate the film an d its world. He is a skiagraph, a phan tom an d illusion ,
a maboroshi. An atom ic light projec ted in to an d out of a shadow world
ren ders the world blin d, blin ded like an gels. A shadow optic s.
On e hun dred years after H. G. Wells's 1897 The Invisible Man, Kurosawa
Kiyoshi's Cure portrays an other type of in visible figure in the person of his
protagon ist, Mam iya Kun ihiko. Mam iya, an am n esic form er psyc hology
studen t, hypn otiz es his vic tim s, who in turn kill others, often those c lose
by. In eac h in stan c e, the m esm eriz ed killer is able to rem em ber the m urder,
its prec ise details, but n ot its ration ale or m otivation . Non e are able to rec all
their en c oun ters with Mam iya. It is as if he van ishes on the oc c asion of the
en c oun ter, en terin g, like a phan tom , their ex terioriz ed psyc hes, but leavin g
n o trac e.
Cure operates in at least two gen res, psyc hologic al thriller an d horror,
an d follows the protoc ols of eac h: the logic of detec tion an d the forc e of
supern aturalism , c ausality an d c atastrophe. The two worlds are n ever rec -
on c iled, on e order n ever supersedes the other. Cure rem ain s in an un easy
balan c e between the two, between in c reasin g c larity an d deeper obsc urity.
Between a m ovem en t toward the surfac e an d an abyssal plun ge. Sin c e
Mam iya does n ot him self c om m it m urder but ac ts rather as an in stigator,
the very struc ture of c rim e is displac ed in Cure: the c rim es oc c ur else-
where, as deferred aftereffec ts, outside the ec on om y of c rim in als an d vic -
tim s. As the film un folds, Mam iya's m ethod gradually bec om es visible: he
143
hypn otiz es his vic tim s usin g the flam e of a lighter or run n in g water, forc -
in g eac h vic tim to c on fron t som e aspec t of his or her own psyc he from the
outside. Eac h killin g is m arked by an "x " c arved on the vic tim 's body. A sig-
n ature of sorts, an operation that open s the body of the other surgic ally, an d
also an erasure. Cure c arries throughout its n arrative the c om plex sem iol-
ogy an d asem iology of the figure "x ." Sign an d design , an ex -sign .
The film open s at the sc en e of a m urder. A m an has killed a prostitute,
leavin g an "x " on her c orpse. Mam iya is first seen at the beac h, where he
m eets Han aoka, who brin gs Mam iya hom e an d tries to solve the riddle of
Mam iya's am n esia. Han aoka disc overs Mam iya's n am e in sc ribed on his
c lothes, but Mam iya has lost his m em ory an d has n o sen se of his own iden -
tity. He seem s to forget everythin g from m om en t to m om en t, often repeat-
in g the sam e question s shortly after they have been an swered. The n ex t
m orn in g Han aoka tries to kill him self after realiz in g that he has m urdered
his wife. After Han aoka, Mam iya's n ex t vic tim is a polic em an , Oida, who
brin gs Mam iya to his polic e box after watc hin g Mam iya jum p from a sm all
buildin g. Durin g the n ight, Mam iya plac es a lit lighter on the table an d
says to Oida, "Look at this. You hear m y voic e, don 't you?" The n ex t m orn -
in g Oida kills his partn er by shootin g him in the bac k of the head for n o
apparen t reason while they prepare for their m orn in g roun ds. Mam iya
m oves, it seem s, aim lessly from vic tim to vic tim , eac h n ew vic tim the result
of a c han c e en c oun ter.
Takabe Ken ic hi, the lead detec tive in vestigatin g the series of apparen tly
related but seem in gly in ex plic able m urders, is warn ed by his frien d an d
c on sultan t, Sakum a Makoto, a psyc hologist, n ot to "get too deep [fukairi]
in side a person 's soul." Like the deaths of Maborosi, the grisly m urders in
Cure seem un m otivated. They fall outside the realm of psyc hology, resistin g
the idea of a deeply in terioriz ed c ause. In eac h c ase, the perpetrator adm its
the c rim e, but is un able to provide a satisfac tory m otivation for it.
Mam iya has n o in side, n o in teriority, a c on dition m an ifested in the film
as am n esia an d the absen c e of self-kn owledge. He ex plain s his c on dition to
Dr. Miyajim a, the wom an doc tor whom he also en tic es to kill. When Miya-
jim a asks Mam iya durin g a m edic al ex am in ation if he has an y worries, an y
un ease, he respon ds with a provoc ation , "You're the on e with worries." When
she presses Mam iya on his assertion , he c laim s to have forgotten . Run n in g
water from a tap, Mam iya begin s to fill a glass of water while en gagin g the
doc tor in c on versation : "All the thin gs that used to be in side m e are n ow
on the outside. So I c an see all of the thin gs in side you, doc tor. But I m yself
am em pty." He is apparen tly aware of his em ptin ess, whic h he lin ks to an
en han c ed ability to see others, their in teriorities in partic ular. On e prec ipi-
tates the other, an ex c han ge of on e's own in teriority for ex trasen sory vision .
144
Mam iya kn oc ks the full glass of water over, c ausin g the water to spread
ac ross the floor.
In Mam iya's brief disc ourse, the first sign of self-kn owledge, he ren ders
him self in side out. His in teriority has been tran sferred outward in to the
world, expressed. He c an n ow see the in sides of others, but is him self em pty.
His em ptin ess in duc es a form of X-ray vision , an d his in visibility is an
effec t of his em ptin ess as is his ex travisuality, x -visuality. Mam iya is a type
of in visible m an ; he sees bec ause he is n o lon ger there but elsewhere, out-
side, everywhere.
4
Mam iya return s m em ories an d desires (an d later future
im ages) to his vic tim s from the outside; he restores to his vic tim s an un -
fam iliar in teriority, like an X-ray im age. An outside in teriority. Mam iya
him self leaves n o im pression on those he c om es in to c on tac t with; he is
un rem arkable. No trac e or m em ory of an en c oun ter rem ain s.
An an tec eden t to Mam iya c an be foun d in Dr. Jam es Xavier, the protag-
on ist of Roger Gorm an 's 1963 X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes. Xavier de-
velops a m ethod "to sen sitiz e the hum an eye so it sees radiation , up to an d
in c ludin g the gam m a rays an d the m eson wave." He bec om es his own first
test subjec t. The first effec t on Xavier's vision after plac in g drops of the
serum in to his eyesthey serve as syn thetic or prosthetic tears, perhaps,
like those of Niki Jun pei in The Woman in the Dunesis that he sees through
his own eyelids. He bec om es perpetually vigilan t, un able to stop seein g.
"It's like a splittin g of the world," he says, in vokin g the n uc lear age, a pre-
m on ition of total c atastrophe destin ed to follow. "Vision is fragm en ted," he
says in disjoin ted syn tax , "m ore light than I've ever seen ." Xavier's vision is
atom ic , a vision of atom ic apoc alypse, but also an atom ic vision that an n i-
hilates the world in his look. Xavier's n ew eyes give him pen etratin g X-ray
vision , a fan tasy Xavier shares with Freud, at the ex pen se of his san ity. The
effec ts of X-ray vision are irreversible, an d they c on tin ue to develop, pen e-
tratin g further an d deeper un til the world is ren dered tran sparen t, lim it-
less, an d em pty. By pen etratin g every surfac e to the en ds of vision , n othin g
rem ain s hidden . Nothin g rem ain s un ex posed. Like Tan iz aki's n ightm are
of a world overillum in ated, "the m an with x -ray eyes" has an n ihilated dark-
n ess, tran sform in g the world in to a lum in ous void, an abyss, n othin g. Like
all of the version s of in visible m en before him , Xavier is driven m ad by his
ex c essive visuality.
At first, Xavier uses his en han c ed vision for m edic al purposes, diagn os-
in g a girl's c on dition by seein g through her body to the sourc e of her ail-
m en t. An organ ic X-ray m ac hin e. Then , he uses his talen t for pleasure, see-
in g through the c lothes of youn g wom en at a party. The shift from sc ien c e
to porn ography un dersc ores the un stable c on tours that shaped the X-ray
im age from the m om en t of its appearan c e. After in adverten tly killin g a
145
c olleague, Xavier slips in to the un derworld, servin g as a c arn ival attrac tion ,
"Mr. Men talo," then as a "healer," a hustler spiritualist. All the while, he
seeks to reverse the effec ts of his X-ray vision .
Xavier's world has bec om e c om pletely illum in ated, ec static . Absolute
an d ex c essive in its c larity. "I'd give an ythin g to have dark," he says. While
attem ptin g to flee his c aptive ex isten c e, Xavier c om m en ts on the world he
sees aroun d him , the world he c reates with his m on strous vision . "A c ity
un born . Its flesh dissolved in an ac id of light. A c ity of the dead." Ex c ess
light destroys the world, dissolves it, an d turn s the world in to a "c ity of the
dead." A postatom ic world. To c on tin ue to fun d his researc h, Xavier travels
to Las Vegas, where he uses his ex trasen sory perc eption to gam ble. He sees
through slot m ac hin es an d through c ards, win n in g at every turn . Ulti-
m ately, Xavier raises too m an y suspic ion s. Con fron ted by the c asin o m an -
agem en t, he is un m asked, his eyes ex posed. His eyes have c han ged physic ally:
they have darken ed, gold pupils surroun ded by blac k, seared, perhaps from
the ex c ess an d c on stan t forc e of light. Eyes "m elted out of sheer ec stasy," to
return again to Willem de Koon in g's ex pression .
Xavier has bec om e blin ded by his ex travision , his eyes burn ed in his
fac e. "So blin ded by am bition ," reads the prom otion al m aterial for X: The
Man with X-Ray Eyes, "that he dared to glim pse etern ity." X-ray vision an d
blin dn ess, visuality an d tim e: the lin es between visuality an d visibility, visu-
ality an d tim e blurred in to an apoc alyptic avisuality. Xavier flees the c asin o
an d drives in to the desert, pursued by the polic e. He wan ders deeper in to
the desert, toward the en d of the world, toward etern ity. The film 's last
sc en e takes plac e in a prayer m eetin g. The preac her asks Xavier, who walks
in to the revival, "Do you wish to be saved?" "Saved?" he respon ds, his eyes
n ow c om pletely blac k, "No, I've c om e to tell you what I see. There are great
darkn esses. Farther than tim e itself. An d beyon d the darkn ess, a light that
glows an d c han ges. An d in the c en ter of the un iverse, the eye that sees us
all..." The preac her respon ds, "You see sin an d the devil. But the Lord has
told us what to do about it. Said Matthew in Chapter Five, 'If thin e eye
offen ds thee, pluc k it out!' Pluc k it out! Pluc k it out!" As if realiz in g the
solution for the first tim e, Xavier tears his eyes from his head. The fin al
shot of the film is of Xavier's em pty eye soc kets.
Xavier's X-ray vision hollows out the world, floodin g it with light un til
every trac e of darkn ess is dispelled an d the world is ex posed to the searin g
light of atom s. The arc hive has been burn ed, leavin g behin d a vast em pti-
n ess. The em ptin ess return s to Xavier's eyes, whic h, like those of Brother
lac k, the n em esis of Ellison 's in visible m an , suffer from a fragile relation -
ship to his body. They have been swallowed by the em ptin ess, by the un seen
en ergies of the world that ren der Xavier, in the en d, em pty. An d like Xavier,
146
Mam iya survives the em ptin ess that he witn esses an d produc es by bec om -
in g the em ptin ess him self, by m ergin g with it, en terin g in an d out of the
em ptin ess through the sign "x ." In Cure, the "x " sign is a m ark of erasure,
an allusion to X-rays, perhaps, to X-ray vision , but also an open in g: the
slic es through whic h in teriority esc apes to the outside, an d the ex teriority
en ters in side. It leaves both sides of the world ex hausted, depleted, an d
em pty.
Kurosawa desc ribes his desire to follow the origin ary em ptin ess he por-
trays in Cure by selec tin g loc ation s that illustrate the em ptin ess of his c har-
ac ters. In his 2001 c ollec tion of essays, Cinema Is Horrible (Eiga wa osoroshi),
Kurosawa ex plain s that he sought in Cure to portray the sen se that eac h
c harac ter is in flec ted by som e form of em ptin ess, c arries som ewhere in
her or in him an irreduc ible em ptin ess. He says: "Of c ourse a person 's soul
c an n ot be photographed. So I dec ided to c hoose as m y loc ation s spac es
that felt som ewhat em pty.... But how c an on e photograph em ptin ess?"
5
In teriority projec ted on to the world, the world as a vast an d displac ed in te-
riority. The in visible in side of eac h person , the em pty in terior that haun ts
eac h c harac ter, ex plodes in to the world as a m aterial in teriority thrust out-
ward. What is visible in the world as the world is an em ptin ess m ade vis-
ible on the oc c asion of its projec tion .
At the sc en e of her hypn osis, a displac ed, in verse seduc tion , Miyajim a
seem s lulled, en tran c ed. After several c uts between Miyajim a's subdued fac e
an d the stream in g water, she looks toward Mam iya, who respon ds, "Don 't
look at m e." She looks away, down toward the floor. She is absorbed, in the
sen se that Mic hael Fried defin es absorption , absorbed in herself, but is also
absorbin g herself from the outside, a self rein troduc ed to her by Mam iya.
"Now tell m e about yourself," Mam iya says. "You're just a wom an . Why
did you bec om e a doc tor?" "Just a wom an ?" Miyajim a asks. To whic h Mam iya
respon ds, "That's what people said, isn 't it?" Mam iya plac es his han d on
Miyajim a's head an d relates to her a m em ory from her tim e as a m edic al
studen t. He desc ribes her first dissec tion of a hum an c orpse, a m an . He
tells her it was the first tim e she'd seen a m an un c lothed, that it felt good to
c ut in to his flesh with a sc alpel. Mam iya's m em ory from without en ds when
he tells her that what she really wan ted was to c ut m en open . Mam iya throws
a glass of water on Miyajim a's fac e, whic h brin gs her violen tly bac k to c on -
sc iousn ess. After Mam iya leaves, Miyajim a disc overs a large blac k drippin g
"x " pain ted on her wall. She wipes the "x " from the wall as the sc en e en ds.
Durin g Oida's in terrogation , Sakum a reproduc es Oida's origin al hyp-
n otic state, in duc in g him to perform the gesture of c arvin g an "x " in to a
detec tive's c hest. The sc en e c uts to a subjec tive shot, han dheld. The c am era
m oves aroun d a c orn er an d in to a m en 's room . As the lavatory c om es in to
147
148
"X," K ur osawa K i yos hi , Cure (1997).
view, a m an is seen on the groun d, bleedin g heavily, with Miyajim a
c rouc hed over him holdin g a sc alpel to his n ec k. The c am era stabiliz es,
then c uts 180 degrees to a view of the sc en e from the other side. No on e
holds the poin t of view of the previous shot, n o subjec t fills the spac e of
the subjec tive shot. A m an walks in to the m en 's room an d stops when he
sees the sc en e. From his poin t of view, Miyajim a tears the fac e from her
vic tim . She looks up at him , an d the eyelin e m atc h c on firm s it as a reac tion
shot. Miyajim a looks c on fused as she proc eeds to rem ove the skin from her
vic tim 's fac e.
Mean while, Takabe's in vestigation c on tin ues. He loc ates Mam iya's resi-
den c e, a sm all room , un in habited, he learn s, for the past six m on ths. In
Mam iya's room , Takabe disc overs books on Fran z An ton Mesm er, psyc ho-
logic al an d psyc hoan alytic theory, suic ide, an d depression , am on g others,
an d a paper by Mam iya on an im al m agn etism . Mam iya's researc h in terests
appear to in c lude theoretic al an d tec hn ic al aspec ts of psyc hology, its his-
tory an d prac tic e. Mam iya's foc us appears to be on the vic issitudes of iden -
tity, in partic ular, the m ovem en t of iden tity from on e bein g to an other. A
phan tasm atic m ovem en t between bein gs. Mesm er, pron oun c ed in Japan ese
mesumd, rhym es with Mam iya.
Like Maborosi, Cure's c om position in c ludes n um erous sin gle lights,
sm all lum in esc en t spots again st an d from within dark sc reen s. They form
sm all m om en ts of avisuality, an im m isc ible m ix ture of in visibility an d
hypervisibility, like the "therm optic " in visibility desc ribed in Oshii Mam oru's
1995 Ghost in the Shell (Kokaku kidotai), a m an ipulation of heat that
reduc es the tem peratures of visibility, ren derin g on e in visible. Flic kerin g
n eon an d fluoresc en t lights in dark en c losed spac es, blin kin g c ity lights in
the distan c es, the sm all flam es an d drippin g water that m ark Mam iya's
seduc tion . But even diffuse light c an produc e the effec t of a sm all, poin ted
light. When Takabe dec ides to in c arc erate his wife, Fum ie, who has been
throughout the film slippin g in to psyc hosis, the two are seen seated in the
rear of a bus. Behin d them an d through the rear win dow, c louds en velop
the bus as if they are in the sky, flyin g. Takabe an d Fum ie have been swal-
lowed by the bright sky, by the vast aerial ex pan se that seem s to absorb
them . A projec tion , perhaps of Fum ie's in teriority, or of Takabe's. Lost, light,
floatin g. The sc en e return s later.
Even tually Mam iya is apprehen ded, or rather c eases to resist. He has
n ever really sought to evade the authorities, wan derin g c arelessly in an d
out of their grasp. The c on c lusion of Cure represen ts som ethin g of a n ar-
rative c ollapse: the slow developm en t of the story shifts to an ac c elerated
c ollec tion of flash sc en es in whic h the distin c tion between reality an d hal-
luc in ation van ishes. A series of im ages erupts in side Takabe, leadin g him to
halluc in ate the sc en e of his wife's suic ide. Un able to resist a sudden urge,
Takabe rushes hom e to disc over Fum ie han gin g from a rope in the kitc hen .
Takabe falls to the floor sc ream in g. His fan tasy, projec tion , wish is broken
by Fum ie, who is sudden ly in fron t of him , alive. She asks him , "What's
wron g?" Like dream s, these sc en es are m arked by their urgen c y, their sen se
or im pression of reality. An d by wish fulfillm en t. Visually, they are in dis-
tin guishable from an y other sc en e, fram ed as fan tasies or illusion s on ly in
tran sition . The c rim in al c ase gradually rec edes, taken over by a series of
un stable sc en es an d elem en ts n o lon ger boun d within the logic of detec tion .
Near the en d of the film , Sakum a shows Takabe a n ew piec e of eviden c e,
a prim al sc en e of sorts, of c in em a an d hypn osis: an 1898 film that features
a wom an hysteric , Murakawa Suz u, who, Sakum a says, killed her son an d
c ut a c ross in his n ec k. Sakum a dates the work from the late n in eteen th
c en tury, addin g that it represen ts the oldest rec ord of hypn otism in Japan .
In the brief actualite, a han d barely visible at the edges of the fram e ges-
tures in the shape of an "x ." A hypn otist, perhaps, a radiographer who sign s
"x ." Sakum a spec ulates that Mam iya follows a lon g lin e of hypn otists, spir-
itualists, an d oc c ultists who have been suppressed politic ally throughout
the m odern history of Japan . Sakum a sits in a c hair, his fac e an d body
darken ed by a shadow. The c am era m oves toward his fac e. Abruptly, the
sc en e c uts to Mam iya's apartm en t, furn ac es blastin g, an im als in c ages. The
c am era seem s to sin gle out a c aged m on key. The subjec tive c am era m oves
through Mam iya's residen c e, whic h detec tives are searc hin g for eviden c e.
For the first tim e, Sakum a appears in the sc en e. He walks to Mam iya's desk
149
an d lifts a book titled Heresies an d open s it to c hapter 4, "Mesm erian ."
Sakum a turn s the page to the im age of a m an , his fac e erased, whose birth-
date is filled by a question m ark, his death in sc ribed as 1898. The sc en e
c han ges. Sakum a stan ds outside a large, dilapidated buildin g. Som eon e barely
visible, perhaps the fac eless m an in the im age, peers at him from behin d a
win dow. In side the buildin g, apparen tly the psyc hiatric ward where Mam iya
is held, Sakum a en ters Mam iya's em pty c ell room . The c am era pan s aroun d
the em pty room , then m oves alon g with Sakum a toward a sourc e of light.
In the bath area, an an im al, a sm all m um m ified m on key, has been strun g
above the bathtub in a pose suggestin g c ruc ifix ion . The c am era swivels swiftly
to a dark c orn er of the room , followed by a shot of Sakum a repeatin g the
m ovem en t, turn in g his head toward the dark c orn er. A figure em erges from
the darkn ess, it is Takabe. He m oves toward the c am era an d, on c e the shot
c han ges, toward Sakum a, who retreats in to a c orn er. As Takabe presses toward
Sakum a, a voic e, "Sakum a... Sakum a..." The sc en e return s to Sakum a's
apartm en t. He is seated in a c hair in the c orn er, his forehead dren c hed in
sweat. The previous sc en es have been a halluc in ation , form ed perhaps from
a m ix ture of m em ory an d fan tasy.
"Sakum a," Takabe c on tin ues, "so what is Mam iya? What's your guess.
Tell m e." "A m ission ary [dendoshi]. Sen t to propagate the c erem on y." Sud-
den ly, the spell seem s broken . Sakum a laughs, "I'm im agin in g thin gs. What
am I sayin g? Takabe, don 't take m e too seriously. I'm a little tired. Let's c all
it a day. Now I'm gettin g in too deep [fukairi] ."
6
Sakum a en ters his bedroom
150
"X," Cure.
an d turn s on the light, revealin g a large "x " m arked on his wall. Takabe
n otic es the m ark an d asks about it. Sakum a seem s c on fused by the m ark as
he fran tic ally tries to erase it from his wall. "You saw Mam iya," says Takabe.
Sakum a den ies it, but Takabe in sists. "It's stran ge," says Sakum a, "but I
c an 't rem em ber."
In the n ex t sc en e, Mam iya esc apes from the ward where he is held.
Takabe rec eives a phon e c all in his c ar. Takabe return s to Sakum a's apart-
m en t an d en ters the sc en e of an in vestigation . He learn s that Sakum a has
killed him self. Takabe listen s im passively to the polic em an 's ac c oun t; the
room is splattered with blood. Takabe is seen again seated in a bus, the sky
open in g behin d him , then walkin g in to the large hospital seen earlier in
Sakum a's fan tasy. In side on e of the dark room s, Takabe fin ds a photograph
of the fac eless boy, suspen ded in the air.
Kurosawa desc ribes his attem pts to represen t the avisuality of fear in a
m aterial way. He adopts the idiom of spac e an d geom etry, surfac e an d in te-
rior. "Fear (= death) is everywhere on the sc reen . At the sam e tim e hum an
bein gs (= life) sudden ly em erge from in side. On ly c in em a, perhaps, c an
m an age suc h n on sen sic al tric k represen tation s."
7
On ly c in em a c an c over
the sc reen with fear (itaru tokoro ni kyofu wo haritsukeru) an d fram e in side
this m etaphysic al surfac e a hum an figure.
Takabe en ters a sem ien c losed room an d sits on a ben c h. The c am era
stays on him for several sec on ds, un stable an d trem blin g slightly, before
pan n in g to the right, toward a doorway through whic h Mam iya en ters. "So
you've fin ally c om e, detec tive." The c am era follows Mam iya un til he reac hes
Takabe, still seated, holdin g his head in his han ds. The two are fram ed
together in a m an n er that evokes the sc en es of Mam iya's assaults. "Why did
you let m e esc ape?... I kn ow why. You let m e go so that you c ould learn
m y true sec ret... all by yourself." The han dheld c am era trac ks Mam iya as
he walks away from Takabe an d toward the c am era. A gulf open s between
the two. Mam iya stops an d sits down . In the distan c e, Takabe still sits with
his head lowered. Mam iya c on tin ues. "You didn 't have to do that. An yon e
who wan ts to en c oun ter his or her own true self always c om es here. It's
fate." Takabe rises abruptly an d, reac hin g in to his breast poc ket while walk-
in g toward Mam iya, draws a revolver from his poc ket an d shoots Mam iya,
who c ollapses after the first few shots. Mam iya falls out of the fram e, Takabe
c on tin ues to advan c e. A reverse shot shows Mam iya on the groun d, bleed-
in g, Takabe stan din g over him . A low an gle shot of Takabe in c lose-up.
"Do you rem em ber n ow? Do you rem em ber everythin g?" Mam iya n ods.
"You do? This is the en d for you." Mam iya raises his han d in the air, his
in dex fin ger poin tin g toward Takabe. Mam iya's han d is shown in c lose-up
as he begin s to sketc h an "x " figure.
8
As he c om pletes the gesture, Takabe's
1 51
"X," h a n d a n d f i n g e r , C ure.
gun en ters the fram e from the right, c oun terac tin g the lin e of Mam iya's
han d, an d begin s to shoot. In a lon g shot, Takabe c on tin ues to fire in to
Mam iya's body.
Takabe en ters a flooded ex am in ation room , the sam e on e apparen tly
featured in the film s of Murakawa Suz u. He fin ds an an tique phon ograph,
sets the n eedle on the disk, an d sits down to listen . A m an 's voic e utters a
series of brief, m ystic al, an d perhaps therapeutic statem en ts that refer to
healin g an d ex isten c e. Perhaps a hypn otic in c an tation . The sc en e return s
to the other hospital, where Takabe's wife, Fum ie, resides. A n urse walks
down a dark c orridor toward the c am era, a sc en e n ow fam iliar as a refrain
in Cure. She stops an d turn s toward a soun d that rises from behin d her.
For a brief m om en t, an im age of Fum ie appears, on ly her head, apparen tly
on som e type of m ovin g c ruc ifix . A quic k c ut to Takabe alon e, eatin g din -
n er in a restauran t. He is well groom ed an d seem s in vigorated, his plate
em pty. In a previous sc en e at the sam e restauran t, he had barely touc hed
his m eal. He pushes away his plate, asks for c offee, an d reac hes for a c iga-
rette when his m obile phon e rin gs. He respon ds to the c all buoyan tly,
un affec ted: "Yes? Alright. Brin g the c ar aroun d." He puts down the phon e
an d lights a c igarette. Takabe seem s relax ed. The waitress brin gs his c offee.
A c lose-up of Takabe's fac e in profile. He c on tin ues to sm oke as the wait-
ress c lears his plac e an d leaves. The c am era wan ders away from Takabe
an d, refoc usin g, fin ds the waitress in the distan c e. It trac ks her m ovem en ts
from a distan c e, although it is n ot c lear if the views of her are from Takabe's
perspec tive. A wom an , perhaps her supervisor, approac hes her from behin d
an d, plac in g her han d on the waitress's shoulder, says som ethin g to her.
152
The waitress n ods, an d as her supervisor walks away, she seem s briefly
absorbed in thought. The waitress resum es her work, an d the c am era again
follows her. The poin t of view is c lose to where Takabe is seated, but
rem ain s am biguous. As the sc en e an d film draw to a c lose, the waitress
pic ks up a butc her kn ife an d, still seen in a lon g shot, walks to the right. At
the very lim it of the film , at its virtual en d, the c yc le seem s to have resum ed,
triggered perhaps by Takabe, who is n ow Mam iya, or som e version of him .
The sc en e c uts to a view of a dark street that rec edes in to the distan c e.
Credits appear on the sc reen through what appears to be a shattered glass
surfac e, a win dow, whic h was n ot visible un til the letterin g appeared. The
n am es of the c ast are fragm en ted an d lac erated. They form an in visible,
shattered surfac e.
The fin al m om en ts of Cure are n ot en tirely legible, the c on c lusion elu-
sive. Takabe has been revitaliz ed; he rec eives n ews of his wife's death, or
perhaps of an other death. The stran ge ellipsis of perspec tive an d the foc us
on the otherwise m argin al figure of the waitress suggests perhaps the dis-
solution of Takabe as a sin gle subjec t. He m ay be in habited or possessed by
an other, m aybe even by Mam iya, but he is n o lon ger haun ted by a desire he
c an n ot ex press; he has been c ured of his desire, whic h has been released.
Takabe has been released from the shadow that has em an ated from him
throughout the film ; Mam iya has been released in to the world. If Takabe is
n ow Mam iya, if Takabe has in c orporated Mam iya, then Mam iya, the m an
with n o in teriority, has him self bec om e an in terior. Mam iya has filled Takabe
with (his) em ptin ess, with the em ptin ess that he is. An in teriority c on sti-
tuted by the lac k of in teriority. Takabe is filled with em ptin ess. By en terin g
Takabe, Mam iya has en tered the world: he has been dispersed atom ic ally
in to the outside.
Mam iya has in habited Takabe, like the sun god Aten in Freud's spec ula-
tive ac c oun t of Mosaic Judaism . "The c en tral fac t of the developm en t of
the Jewish religion ," says Freud, "was that in the c ourse of tim e the god
Yahweh lost his own c harac teristic s an d grew m ore an d m ore to resem ble
the old god of Moses, the Aten ."
9
This in c orporation keeps the other alive
an d ac tive, on e body hidden within an other. Like Takabe an d Mam iya,
Gen juro an d Wakasa, Hoic hi an d the Heike phan tom s, like atom ic radia-
tion : an in teriority haun ted an d c on stituted by an im m aterial ex teriority.
Mam iya c an be read again st the sc reen of Freud's spec ulation on Moses, a
"m ission ary [dendoshi]" as Sakum a c alls him , "sen t to propagate the c ere-
m on y."
10
Mam iya's tran sm ission of the c erem on y from on e body to an other,
on e c ulture to an other, on e epoc h to an other, takes the form of a c ut, an
in c ision that m arks the body. X. On e c ould say, a c irc um c ision . Circ um c i-
sion , the origin ary violen c e that foun ds the Jewish c om m un ity an d m arks
its m em bers as suc h was, in sists Freud, an Egyptian c ustom , whose origin s
1 53
were erased. An "im m em orial arc hive" right on the body an d ex terior, says
Jac ques Derrida.
11
The lac eration passes from on e body to an other, its sourc e
erased. Mam iya's m odus operan di, MO, his Moses.
Am on g the effec ts of a hidden religion , a sec ret God that takes up resi-
den c e in the c orpus of an other, is a figural in visibility or, m ore prec isely,
avisuality.
Am on g the prec epts of the Moses religion there is on e that is of greater
im portan c e than appears to begin with. This is the prohibition again st
m akin g an im age of Godthe c om pulsion to worship a God whom on e
c an n ot see But if this prohibition were ac c epted, it m ust have a pro-
foun d effec t. For it m ean t that a sen sory perc eption was given sec on d plac e
to what m ay be c alled an abstrac t ideaa trium ph of in tellec tuality over
sen suality or, an in stin c tual ren un c iation , with all its n ec essary psyc hologi-
c al c on sequen c es.
12
In tellec tuality over sen suality. The very dilem m a of Cure, resolved in the
form of an in stin c tual ren un c iation : Takabe ren oun c es his desire by in vit-
in g the other in side, by in vitin g the em ptin ess of the other in side him . By
takin g on in c orporatin gthe desire of the other in plac e of on e's own .
"The fan tasy of in c orporation ," Nic olas Abraham an d Maria Torok say,
"sim ulates profoun d psyc hic tran sform ation through m agic ."
13
A m agic al
tran sform ation of the psyc he, ac hieved through a m agic al c on tac t an d
allian c e with the lost other. "So in order n ot to have to have to 'swallow' a
loss, we fan tasiz e swallowin g (or havin g swallowed) that whic h was lost, as
if it were som e kin d of thin g."
14
The fan tasy of swallowin g an other
through an orific e, an open in g, or c ut. This bec om es the solution or cure.
"The m agic al 'c ure' by in c orporation ex em pts the subjec t from the pain ful
proc ess of reorgan iz ation ."
15
An other feature that rem ain s obsc ure in Kurosawa's film is its title,
Cure, whic h like the film 's protagon ist represen ts an avisual dilem m a: visu-
ality without visibility. The title, offered in En glish an d without a defin ite
artic le, hovers between a n oun an d a verb, a solution an d an im perative.
The c ure or to c ure. An d of what? What is the c ure im agin ed by this film ,
what is the illn ess or ailm en t? Suggested throughout the film is Takabe's
afflic tion , Takabe as the truer sourc e of disorder, of disease, a c on dition re-
in forc ed by Mam iya's prac tic e, whic h rein troduc es from the outside the in -
tern al an x ieties an d disquiet of others. The doc tor treatin g Takabe's wife
says to him , "From m y perspec tive, you look sic ker than your wife." The
c ure, as an an tidote an d c om m an d, c an refer to the spec ific n eeds that are
ex pressed by the vic tim /m urderers in their c rim es, but also to a struc tural
restoration of in teriority from the on e plac e where it c an be seen , the out-
side. In an d by an other, an other that sees what the subjec t c an n ot see.
154
Obscure. A psyc hoan alysis, a psyc hoptic s. A spec tral visuality, X-ray psyc ho-
an alysis, X-an alysis, from the outside in , ex -an alysis.
16
Takabe suffers, it seem s, as do all the c harac ters of Cure, from an ex c ess
of self, from a desire that is forc ed outside. Or rather, from a self c on sti-
tuted on ly as an ex c ess, ac c essible on ly outside as an effec t of the other. Eac h
c harac ter suffers from the irreduc ible ex teriority of on eself, the im possibil-
ity of bein g on e, an d the shoc k of disc overin g on eself outside. The c ure
arrives in the destruc tion of an other, of the other that sustain s the surplus.
But n ot on ly in destruc tion , as the en din g suggests, but rather in yieldin g
to the outside, to the other from the outside. To be c ured (of on eself, of a
desire that is always outside) is to open on eself to an other, to allow an other
to en ter from the outside. No lon ger on eself, on eself alon e, the arc hive
arrives from the other, is itself other. The other arc hive.
Maborosi an d Cure portray dark worlds forged in the c ollapse of light an d
psyc he. The in side erupts outward, fillin g the atm osphere with in teriority;
the outside pours in ward, suffusin g the in side with the world. Between
obsc urity an d em ptin ess, in teriority an d ex teriority, deep an d flat spac e,
Maborosi an d Cure stage a global fragm en tation of surfac es that turn s the
in side out, the outside in . In teriority swallowed by the un seen en ergies of
the world, psyc hic em ptin ess pourin g outward like in visible in k, an in te-
rior an d avisual blac k rain an d light that stain the atm osphere, ren derin g
the outside un c on sc ious. In both film s, the world is n o lon ger on e, n o
lon ger c on tain ed, an arc hived. The worlds are porous, a series of atom ic
surfac es that allow the light to pass through eac h lim it to the other side.
As eac h threshold is passed, an other world open s up beyon d the surfac e.
An other side. Eac h film m aps a sec ret ex it, a way out in to an d through the
surfac e, to its other side, the other side of c in em a. Eac h film van ishes in to
the surfac e, leavin g on ly a surfac e, obsc ure an d em pty, a flash of atom ic
light: atom iz ed an d destruc tive. The darken in g world of Maborosi dissolves
in to the m aterial em ptin ess of Cure. Obsc urity an d em ptin ess, two form s
of avisualiz in g spac e, of establishin g the m aterial avisuality of a c in em a, are
n o lon ger visible in these two film s, whic h establish two lim its of a Japa-
n ese visual ec on om y at the en d of the c en tury still haun ted by the psyc hic ,
aesthetic , an d violen t ex perien c es of World War II. A world swallowed by
darkn ess, a un iversal darkn ess. A dark arc hive form ed in the shadow, an d
by a shadow optic s. By a sec ret an d other arc hive, an other m ode of seein g,
an arc hivin g.
Eac h film establishes an address to an other, to an other that withdraws;
trac e an d phan tom , an other that refuses to step in to the light, c astin g the
avisual shadow of an atom ic sen suality, a shadow optic s. An other dispersed
1 55
throughout the atm osphere, everywhere, in everythin g, like Tan iz aki's shad-
ows, an d n owhere. An atom ic other. Maborosi an d Cure, phan tom an d c ure,
c hart sec ret passages to an other, to a sec ret other, a sec ret you. Maborosfs
Yum iko seeks a respon se from the figures that aban don her, the phan tom s
that slip in to the darkn essin to n ight, in to dream san d fill the world
with their darkn ess, trac es of their disappearan c e. Her world is filled with a
dark disappearan c e. The respon se c om es to her in the form of a phan tom
light, a sin gle light at the edge of the oc ean . Takabe seeks a c ure, a respite
from the m adn ess that seeps in to the world aroun d him an d overtakes
him . A m adn ess that reac hes him through others, through Fum ie, Sakum a,
Mam iya. A sec ret orific e, like the illic it pun c ture that Freud dream s in Irm a's
body, through whic h the m adn ess en ters him . Takabe is able to ac hieve a
m easure of relief or evac uation through his c on tac t with Mam iya, who
c ures Takabe of him self. Mam iya provides Takabe with em ptin ess, fills him
with it, allowin g him to ex perien c e the voluptuous em ptin ess of an other,
of othern ess itself, as a deep an d m aterial vac uum .
An en c oun ter with n othin g at the lim it, at the en d of light an d of c in -
em a. An en d already figured in the "un seen en ergies" apparen t in its begin -
n in gs. Swallowin g spac e. Paul Virilio im agin es a "sightless vision " at the
en d of c in em a. The spec tator replac ed by a "vision m ac hin e": a m ac hin e
that c on trols a c am era, a c am era that return s "im ages" legible to the m ac hin e,
bypassin g the "televiewer" en tirely.
17
The virtual im age c om es, for Virilio,
at the en d of c in em a, at the en d of a system of viewin g relation s n o lon ger
n ec essary an d n o lon ger possible. "Every im age (visual, soun d) is the m an i-
festation of an en ergy, of an un rec ogn iz ed power."
18
On e effec t of the vision
m ac hin e, for Virilio, is a tran sform ation of im ages in to en ergy, in to a
"sightless vision " an d ec static blin dn ess.
Blin dn ess is thus very m uc h at the heart of the c om in g "vision m ac hin e."
The produc tion of sightless vision is itself m erely the reproduc tion of an
in ten se blin dn ess that will bec om e the latest an d last form of in dustrialisa-
tion : the industrialisation of the non-gaze.
19
The vision m ac hin e arrives at the en d of c in em a, m arks the en d of c in em a,
an d en ds c in em a as a visual phen om en on , c on vertin gor restorin git
to a set of avisual en ergies.
The tec hn oc en tric future that Virilio im agin es, the tran sform ation of
visuality in to vision m ac hin es that en gen der sightless vision , in visible an d
avisual im ages, was already at work in the eruption of radic al in teriority in
1895: psyc hic , c orporeal, an d vital in teriority were already m arked as avisual
an d m ediated by vision m ac hin espsyc hoan alysis, X-rays, an d c in em a.
These vision m ac hin es, apparatuses, tec hn iques, an d tec hn ologies were al-
ready dism an tlin g the visible world, produc in g an irreversible demontage
1 56
of the world of im ages an d the im age of the world at the fin de siec le.
20
The
tran sposition of in teriority in to the world, its ex pression , was already the
m om en t of a lost visuality.
21
Cin em a has always been a vision m ac hin e, a
sec ret an d shadow arc hive produc in g again st its metaphysical surface an d
throughout the atom ic un iverse that it projec ted, an ec static , avisual you.
Cin em a has ex trac ted you from the un iverse an d at the sam e tim e open ed
in you a un iverse. Every possible form of an d form less you; a c in em a about
you, on ly you. Un iversal.
1 57
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N o t e s
0. U n i v e r s e s
1. Jorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel," in Labyrinths: Selected Stories and
Other Writings, ed. Don ald A. Yates an d Jam es E. Irby, tran s. Jam es E. Irby (New
York: New Direc tion s, 1964), 57.
2. Walter Ben jam in , "The Task of the Tran slator," in Illuminations: Essays and
Reflections, ed. Han n ah Aren dt, tran s. Harry Zohn (New York: Sc hoc ken , 1968), 70.
3. Borges, "Library of Babel," 53.
4. Ibid., 54.
5. Dan iel Tiffan y, Toy Medium: Materialism and Modern Lyric (Berkeley: Un i-
versity of Californ ia Press, 2000), 45.
6. Deleuz e says: "The paradox of this pure bec om in g, with its c apac ity to elude
the presen t, is the paradox of in fin ite iden tity (the in fin ite iden tity of both direc -
tion s or sen ses at the sam e tim eof future an d past, of the day before an d the day
after, of m ore or less, of too m uc h an d n ot en ough, of ac tive an d passive, an d of
c ause an d effec t)" (Gilles Deleuz e, The Logic of Sense, ed. Con stan tin V. Boun das,
tran s. Mark Lester with Charles Stivale [New York: Colum bia Un iversity Press,
1990], 3).
7. Borges, "Library of Babel," 52.
8. Ibid., 51.
9. Ibid., 54-55.
10. Ibid., 55.
11. In his parable "Before the Law," Fran z Kafka desc ribes a struc ture of Law
that ex ists for on e in dividual on ly an d n o on e else. " 'Everyon e strives to reac h the
1 59
Law,' says the m an , 'so how does it happen that for all these m an y years n o on e but
m yself has ever begged for adm ittan c e?' The doorkeeper rec ogn iz es that the m an
has reac hed his en d, an d, to let his failin g sen ses c atc h the words, roars in his ear:
'No on e else c ould ever be adm itted here, sin c e this gate was m ade on ly for you. I
am n ow goin g to shut it'" (Fran z Kafka, The Complete Stories, ed. Nahum N. Glatz er,
tran s. Willa Muir an d Edwin Muir [New York: Sc hoc ken , 1971], 4).
12. Borges, "Library of Babel," 51.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., 52 (origin al em phasis).
15. Ibid., 58.
16. Nic olas Abraham an d Maria Torok, "The Topography of Reality: Sketc hin g
a Metapsyc hology of Sec rets," in The Shell and the Kernel: Renewals of Psychoanalysis,
ed. an d tran s. Nic holas T. Ran d (Chic ago: Un iversity of Chic ago Press, 1994), 157
(origin al em phasis). Abraham an d Torok add in a footn ote: "When c on sidered as a
m etapsyc hologic al c on c ept, the word 'reality' n eeds to be c apitaliz ed, espec ially
sin c e all other form s of reality presuppose an d derive from it. The m etapsyc hologic al
Reality of the sec ret is a c oun terpart to the reality of the outside world; the n ega-
tion of the on e en tails the refusal of the other" (157n ).
17. Jac ques Derrida, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, tran s. Eric Pren owitz
(Chic ago: Un iversity of Chic ago Press, 1996), 100.
18. Jac ques Derrida, The Gift of Death, tran s. David Wills (Chic ago: Un iversity
of Chic ago Press, 1995), 92.
19. Derrida, Archive Fever, 3 (origin al em phases).
20. In Archive Fever, Derrida trac es the etym ology of the arc hive to its origin s
in the law, the house of the law, the plac e where the archons "rec all the law an d c all
on or im pose the law" (2).
21. Ibid., 66. "We are en mal d'archive: in n eed of arc hives To be en mal
d'archive c an m ean som ethin g else than to suffer from a sic kn ess, from a trouble, or
from what the n oun mal m ight n am e. It is to burn with a passion " (91).
22. Jean -Claude Leben sz tejn suggested this an alogy. Carolyn Steedm an disc overs,
in the figure of arc hive fever, an un derlyin g historic al an d m aterial pathogen . What
Steedm an c alls "arc hive fever proper" was c aused, she believes, by bac teriologic al
agen ts that resided in the books them selves an d were c arried by dust in to the bodies
of sc holars. She says: "Medic al m en like [John ] Forbes an d [Charles] Thac krah were
able to provide physiologic al an d psyc hologic al c auses of the fevers of sc holarship
(lac k of ex erc ise, bad air, an d its 'passion s,' whic h were ex c item en t an d am bition ). By
the tim e that a bac teriologic al ex plan ation for their fevers was available, 'the liter-
ary m an ' as a vic tim of oc c upation al disease had disappeared as a c ategory. Lac kin g
bac teriologic al un derstan din g of the dust that preoc c upied them , early in vestiga-
tors did n ot c on sider the book, the very stuff of the sc holar's life, as a poten tial c ause
of his fever. An d yet the book an d its c om pon en ts (leather bin din g, various glues
an d adhesives, paper an d its edgin g, an d dec reasin gly, parc hm en ts an d vellum s of
various types) c on c en trated in on e objec t m an y of the in dustrial haz ards an d dis-
eases that were m apped out in the c ourse of the c en tury" (Carolyn Steedm an , Dust:
The Archive and Cultural History [New Brun swic k, NJ: Rutgers Un iversity Press,
160
2001], 22). Gilles Deleuz e says, "The task of perc eption en tails pulveriz in g the
world, but also on e of spiritualiz in g its dust" (Gilles Deleuz e, The Fold: Leibniz and
the Baroque, tran s. Tom Con ley [Min n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press,
1993], 87).
23. Derrida, Gift of Death, 21.
24. Derrida, Archive Fever, 64. "Com m e si on n e pouvait pas, prec isem en t, rap-
peler et arc hiver c ela m em e qu'on refoule, 1'arc hiver en le refoulan t (c ar le refoule-
m en t est un e arc hivation ), c 'est-a-dire arc hiver autrement, refouler 1'arc hive en
arc hivan t le refoulem en t" (Jac ques Derrida, Mai d'archive: Une impression freudi-
enne [Paris: Galilee, 1995], 103, origin al em phasis).
25. Giorgio Agam ben , Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive,
tran s. Dan iel Heller-Roaz en (New York: Zon e, 1999), 144.
26. Derrida, Gift of Death, 60.
27. Agam ben , Remnants of Auschwitz, 144.
1 . T h e S h a d o w A r c h i v e ( A S e c r e t L i g h t )
1. Jac ques Derrida, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, tran s. Eric Pren owitz
(Chic ago: Un iversity of Chic ago Press, 1996), 34. "Freudian psyc hoan alysis proposes
a n ew theory of the arc hive; it takes in to ac c oun t a topic an d a death drive without
whic h there would n ot in effec t be an y desire or possibility for the arc hive" (29).
2. Sigm un d Freud, "Moses an d Mon otheism : Three Essays," in The Standard
Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es
Strac hey (Lon don : Hogarth, 1955), 23:56.
3. Ibid, (em phasis added). Apparen tly, Freud had written the first essays four
years earlier in 1934.
4. Jac ques Derrida, The Gift of Death, tran s. David Wills (Chic ago: Un iversity
of Chic ago Press, 1995), 29-30.
5. Freud, "Moses an d Mon otheism ," 7.
6. Ibid., 10-11.
7. Ibid., 16.
8. Ibid., 50.
9. Ibid., 50-51.
10. Ibid., 53.
11. Ibid., 54.
12. Ibid., 55.
13. Jac ques Derrida, Given Time: I. Counterfeit Money, tran s. Peggy Kam uf
(Chic ago: Un iversity of Chic ago Press, 1992), 17.
14. Ibid., 14 (origin al em phasis).
15. For Derrida, "The arc hon tic prin c iple of the arc hive is also a prin c iple of
c on sign ation , that is, of gatherin g together" (Archive Fever, 3). "Consignation aim s
to c oordin ate a sin gle c orpus, in a system or a syn c hron y in whic h all the elem en ts
artic ulate the un ity of an ideal c on figuration " (3).
16. Derrida, Archive Fever, 11 (origin al em phasis).
17. Ibid., 19 (origin al em phasis).
161
18. Freud, "Moses an d Mon otheism ," 57.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid., 58 (origin al em phasis).
21. Ibid., 57.
22. Ibid., 58 (em phasis added). Agam ben desc ribes, in Giorgio Man gan elli, the
phen om en on of "hom opseudon ym y," whic h "c on sists in usin g a pseudon ym that is
in every respec t iden tic al to on e's own n am e" (Giorgio Agam ben , Remnants of
Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive, tran s. Dan iel Heller-Roaz en [New York:
Zon e, 1999], 130). Like Freud's tex t, whic h is sign ed by him but written by an other,
estran ged in the ac t of sign in g, the effec t of a hom opseudon ym ic m ark is to tear
the author from the tex t, but also from him self or herself. "The hom opseudon ym is
absolutely foreign an d perfec tly in tim ate, both un c on dition ally real an d n ec essarily
n on -ex isten t, so m uc h so that n o lan guage c ould desc ribe it; n o tex t c ould guaran tee
its c on sisten c y" (131). Derrida lin ks the pseudon ym to both sec rec y an d patron ym y,
c laim in g that all pseudon ym s "are destin ed to keep sec ret the real n am e as patron ym ,
the n am e of the father of the work, in fac t the n am e of the father of the father of
the work" (Gift of Death, 58).
23. Freud, "Moses an d Mon otheism ," 66. In Freud's an alysis, presc ien tific in tui-
tion s about solar power as the sourc e of life serve as the first step toward m on o-
theism . Of the Egyptian pharaoh, the youn g Am en ophis IV, who em brac ed the re-
ligion of Aten an d the worship of the sun , Freud says: "In an aston ishin g presen tim en t
of later sc ien tific disc overy he rec ogn iz ed in the en ergy of solar radiation the
sourc e of all life on earth an d worshipped it as a sym bol of the power of his god"
(59). Metaphors of light an d power, darkn ess an d sec rec y, en ergy an d radiation
sustain the rhetoric al struc ture of Freud's work.
24. Ibid., 70. Freud ex plain s: "The phen om en on of laten c y in the history of the
Jewish religion , with whic h we are dealin g, m ay be ex plain ed, then , by the c irc um -
stan c e that the fac ts an d ideas whic h were in ten tion ally disavowed by what m ay be
c alled the offic ial historian s were in fac t n ever lost. In form ation about them per-
sisted in tradition s whic h survived am on g the people" (69). Tradition s an d the
people who prac tic e them serve as arc hives of the sec ret, sec ret arc hives where the
disavowed idea lives in hidin g, in sec rec y, in laten c y.
25. Ibid., 70.
26. Ibid., 69.
27. Ibid., 70.
28. Ibid., 69.
29. Derrida, Archive Fever, 10 (origin al em phasis).
30. Ibid., 94. For Derrida, "Freudian psyc hoan alysis proposes a n ew theory of
the arc hive; it takes in to ac c oun t a topic an d death drive without whic h there would
n ot in effec t be an y desire or an y possibility for the arc hive" (29).
31. Ibid., 84.
32. Ibid., 86.
33. Freud, "Moses an d Mon otheism ," 103.
34. Ibid., 105.
1 62
35. Derrida, Archive Fever, 2. "But it also shelters itself from this m em ory whic h
it shelters," Derrida adds, "whic h c om es down to sayin g also that it forgets it."
36. Jun 'ic hiro Tan iz aki, In Praise of Shadows, tran s. Thom as J. Harper an d Ed-
ward G. Seiden stic ker (New Haven , CT: Leete's Islan d Books, 1977), 30.
37. Martin Heidegger, "The Question c on c ern in g Tec hn ology" in The Question
concerning Technology and Other Essays, tran s. William Lovitt (New York: Harper
an d Row, 1977), 20.
38. Tan iz aki, In Praise of Shadows, 5.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid., 11.
41. Ibid., 11-12.
42. Ibid., 36.
43. Ibid., 37.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid., 35.
47. Ibid., 42.
48. Jac ques Derrida, "NO APOCALYPSE, NOT NOW (full speed ahead, seven
m issiles, seven m issives)," tran s. Catherin e Porter an d Philip Lewis, Diacritics 14.2
(1984): 26.
49. Ibid., 28.
50. Ibid., 27. "If we are boun d an d determ in ed to speak in term s of referen c e,
n uc lear war is the on ly possible referen t of an y disc ourse an d an y ex perien c e that
would share their c on dition with that of literature" (28).
51. Ibid., 23.
52. Jac ques Derrida, Cinders, tran s, an d ed. Ned Lukac her (Lin c oln : Un iversity
of Nebraska Press, 1991), 57.
53. Ibid., 73.
54. Jac ques Derrida, "Passagesfrom Traum atism to Prom ise," in Points...
Interviews, 1974-1994, ed. Elisabeth Weber, tran s. Peggy Kam uf et al. (Stan ford,
CA: Stan ford Un iversity Press, 1995), 391. "The differen c e between the trac e 'c in der'
an d other trac es is that the body of whic h c in ders is the trac e has totally disap-
peared, it has totally lost its c on tours, its form , its c olors, its n atural determ in ation .
Non -iden tifiable. An d forgettin g itself is forgotten . Everythin g is an n ihilated in the
c in ders" (391).
55. Derrida, Cinders, 37.
56. Derrida, Archive Fever, I .
57. Ibid., 100.
58. Derrida, Cinders, 61.
59. Derrida, Archive Fever, 20 (origin al em phasis). Derrida is referrin g to an
in sc ription , c ited by Yosef Hayim Yerushalm i, in a Bible given to Freud by his father,
Jakob, on the son 's thirty-fifth birthday. Derrida reads the lin e "a c over of n ew skin " as
a "sign of c irc um c ision " (42). See Yosef Hayim Yerushalm i, Freud's Moses: Judaism
Terminable and Interminable (New Haven , CT: Yale Un iversity Press, 1991).
163
60. Derrida, Archive Fever, 20.
61. Ibid., 42.
62. Ibid., 11.
63. In The Gift of Death, Derrida relates sec rec y an d death to patern ity, spec ific ally
the relation ship between a father an d son , to a version of the gift, sac rific e. Refer-
rin g to Abraham 's gift to God of his own son Isaac , Derrida c laim s that this sac rific e,
this gift belon gs an d return s both to Abraham an d Isaac : "It is the sac rific e of both
of them , it is the gift of death on e m akes to the other in puttin g oneself to death,
m ortifyin g on eself in order to m ake a gift of this death as a sac rific ial offerin g to
God" (69). This m ode of sac rific e an d sec rec y, the gift of on eself an d of death,
m arks for Derrida a c ertain im possibility of the gift of death between an d of the
father an d son , on the very groun ds that the patern al relation ship is c on stituted.
"Dyin g," he says, "c an n ever be taken , borrowed, tran sferred, delivered, prom ised,
or tran sm itted" (44).
64. Ibid., 53-55.
65. Derrida, Archive Fever, 26 (origin al em phasis).
66. Mauric e Merleau-Pon ty, "Eye an d Min d," in The Primacy of Perception: And
Other Essays on Phenomenological Psychology, the Philosophy of Art, History, and
Politics, ed. Jam es M. Edie, tran s. Carleton Dallery (Evan ston , IL: Northwestern
Un iversity Press, 1964), 164 (em phasis added).
67. Derrida, Gift of Death, 88.
68. Ibid., 88-89.
69. "Quality, light, c olor, depth, whic h are there before us, are there on ly
bec ause they awaken an ec ho in our body an d bec ause the body welc om es them "
(Merleau-Pon ty, "Eye an d Min d," 164).
70. Derrida, Gift of Death, 91.
71. Ibid., 89.
72. Ibid., 90.
73. Ibid.
74. Ibid.
75. Ibid.
76. Ibid., 89.
77. Ibid.
2 . M o d e s o f A v i s u a l i t y
1. After a series of diagn oses an d un suc c essful an alyses, Freud had referred
Em m a Ec kstein to his m en tor-frien d Wilhelm Fliess, a n asologist, who had per-
form ed an operation on Ec kstein 's n ose, rem ovin g her turbin al bon es. Ec kstein
had n ot rec overed, an d Freud began to have doubts, first about his own m ethods of
an alysis an d then about the surgic al skills of Fliess. His fear was c on firm ed when he
disc overed that Fliess had failed to rem ove "at least half a m eter of gauz e" from
Ec kstein 's n ose, whic h had bec om e in fec ted. Ec kstein was hem orrhagin g profusely
an d alm ost died before Freud disc overed Fliess's m alprac tic e. In a letter to Fliess
dated 8 Marc h 1895, Freud desc ribes the horren dous disc overy: "There was still
164
m oderate bleedin g from the n ose an d m outh; the fetid odor was very bad. Rosan es
c lean ed the area surroun din g the open in g, rem oved som e stic ky blood c lots, an d
sudden ly pulled at som ethin g like a thread, kept on pullin g. Before either of us
had tim e to thin k, at least half a m eter of gauz e had been rem oved from the c avity.
The n ex t m om en t c am e a flood of blood. The patien t turn ed white, her eyes bulged,
an d she had n o pulse. Im m ediately thereafter, however, he again pac ked the c avity
with fresh iodoform gauz e an d the hem orrhage stopped. It lasted about half a
m in ute, but this was en ough to m ake the poor c reature, whom we had lyin g flat,
un rec ogn iz able (Sigm un d Freud, The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm
Fliess, 1887-1904, ed. an d tran s. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson [Cam bridge, MA: Belk-
n ap Press of Harvard Un iversity Press, 1985], 116-17). The un rec ogn iz able c rea-
ture is for a m om en t dead: "She had n o pulse." Freud disc overs in side Ec kstein 's
body a foreign objec t, disc arded by Fliess. Freud in sists to Fliess that his n ausea at
the sc en e of this episode c om es n ot from the "flood of blood" but from the in jus-
tic e: "So we had don e her an in justic e; she was n ot at all abn orm al, rather a piec e of
iodoform gauz e had gotten torn off as you were rem ovin g it an d stayed in for four-
teen days, preven tin g healin g; at the en d it tore off an d provoked bleedin g" (117).
The affair is m arked by an ethic s of in teriority an d ex teriority, of n orm alc y an d
abn orm alc y, an d the ec on om y of a foreign body deposited in the c avity of Em m a
Ec kstein 's c om plex body.
2. Freud return ed to the question of the border between psyc he an d body,
in tern al an d ex tern al stim uli repeatedly. In "In stin c ts an d Their Vic issitudes"
(1915), Freud offers the followin g psyc hoc orporeal an alogy: "Let us im agin e our-
selves in the situation of an alm ost en tirely helpless livin g organ ism , as yet un -
orien tated in the world, whic h is rec eivin g stim uli in its n ervous substan c e. This
organ ism will very soon be in a position to m ake a first distin c tion an d a first ori-
en tation . On the on e han d, it will be aware of stim uli whic h c an be avoided by
m usc ular ac tion (flight); these it asc ribes to the ex tern al world. On the other han d,
it will also be aware of stim uli again st whic h suc h ac tion is of n o avail an d whose
c harac ter an d c on stan t pressure persists in spite of it; these stim uli are the sign s of
an in tern al world, the eviden c e of in stin c tual n eeds. The perc eptual substan c e of
the livin g organ ism will thus have foun d in the effic ac y of its m usc ular ac tivity
a basis for distin guishin g between an 'outside' an d an 'in side'" (Sigm un d Freud,
"In stin c ts an d Their Vic issitudes," in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psycho-
logical Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es Strac hey [Lon don : Hogarth,
1957], 14:119). The gen esis of an organ ism 's rec ogn ition of in side an d outside
spac es follows the distin c tion between its c orporeal (m usc ular) an d psyc hic (in -
stin c tual) fun c tion s. Later in the sam e essay Freud says, "If we n ow apply ourselves
to c on siderin g m en tal life from a biological poin t of view, an 'in stin c t' [ Trieb] appears
to us as a concept on the frontier between the mental and the somatic, as the psyc hic al
represen tative of the stim uli origin atin g from within the organ ism an d reac hin g
the m in d, as a m easure of the dem an d m ade upon the m in d for work in c on se-
quen c e of its c on n ec tion with the body" (121-22, sec on d em phasis added).
3. Sigm un d Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 12 Jun e 1900, in Freud, Complete Letters
of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 417.
165
4. Sigm un d Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, in The Standard Edition of
the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es Strac hey
(Lon don : Hogarth, 1958), 4:107.
5. Freud adds this c om m en tary: "I m ight have said this to her in wakin g life
It was m y view at the tim e (though I have sin c e rec ogn iz ed it was a wron g on e) that
m y task was fulfilled when I in form ed patien ts of the hidden m ean in g of his sym p-
tom s" (Interpretation of Dreams, 108).
6. See An n e Friedberg, Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern (Berke-
ley: Un iversity of Californ ia Press, 1993). Friedberg desc ribes the reorgan iz ation of
urban an d psyc hic spac e that followed from the developm en t of iron an d glass
arc hitec ture, whic h in stalled win dows between private an d public spac es. "The
on c e-private in terior bec am e a public realm , the on c e-public ex terior bec am e
privatiz ed" (64). Seen in this light, Freud's dream win dow m ay reflec t an arc hitec -
ton ic desire, the ex terioriz ation of his desire to see in to the private in teriority
of Irm a.
7. Like Tan iz aki's ex oskeletal house, Freud's c arn al arc hitec ture, psyc hoarc hi-
tec tural dream edific e, erases m an y of the borders between the body an d the world,
determ in in g a form of visuality that is at on c e in terior an d ex terior, private an d
public . Of the body an d its relation to the world of visuality, Mauric e Merleau-
Pon ty says, "Thin gs have an in tern al equivalen t in m e; they arouse in m e a c arn al
presen c e. Why shouldn 't these [c orrespon den c es] in turn give rise to som e [ex ter-
n al] visible shape in whic h an yon e else would rec ogn iz e these m otifs whic h sup-
port his own in spec tion of the world?" (Mauric e Merleau-Pon ty, "Eye an d Min d,"
in The Primacy of Perception: And Other Essays on Phenomenological Psychology, the
Philosophy of Art, History, and Politics, ed. Jam es M. Edie, tran s. Carleton Dallery
[Evan ston , IL: Northwestern Un iversity Press, 1964], 164).
8. Freud, Interpretation of Dreams, 107.
9. Ibid.
10. In his an alysis of this sec tion , Freud disavows his fan tastic vision , n otin g
on ly that it was c om m on prac tic e to ex am in e adult wom en , as opposed to c hildren ,
fully c lothed. "Further than this," Freud says, "I c ould n ot see. Fran kly, I had n o
desire to pen etrate m ore deeply at this poin t" (ibid., 113).
11. Ibid., 107.
12. Ibid., 109.
13. Ibid.
14. In the dream work, all ideas c an share equal value, sin c e the forc e of an y
partic ular idea is given by the affec t attac hed to it. Thus people, objec ts, words,
soun ds, an d an y other form of sign ifier c an c on vey im portan t aspec ts of the dream .
Freud even tually loc ates a possible sourc e of this dream displac em en t, suggestin g
that he m ight have wan ted to substitute this other wom an for Irm a bec ause "she
[the other] would have opened her mouth properly, an d have told m e m ore than
Irm a" (ibid., I l l , origin al em phasis). Wilhelm Fliess also haun ts this dream an d
m ay be its sec ret subjec t.
15. Freud n ever foun d a satisfac tory m odel for the ac tivities of the psyc hic
apparatus an d ac tively c ritic iz ed the dem an d for spatial or graphic figures of the
1 66
psyc he. In Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud writes of the un c on sc ious: "The
fac t rem ain s that on ly in the m in d is suc h a preservation of all the earlier stages
alon gside the fin al form possible, an d that we are n ot in a position to represen t this
phen om en on in pic torial term s" (Sigm un d Freud, "Civiliz ation an d Its Disc on -
ten ts," in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund
Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es Strac hey [Lon don : Hogarth, 1964], 21:71). The on e
ex c eption m ay be the Mystic Writin g-Pad or "Wunderblock." See Sigm un d Freud,
"A Note Upon the 'Mystic Writin g-Pad,'" in The Standard Edition of the Complete
Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es Strac hey (Lon don :
Hogarth, 1961), 19:227-31.
16. Freud c om m en ts on this dream thought: "This, as m ay well be believed, is a
perpetual sourc e of an x iety to a spec ialist whose prac tic e is alm ost lim ited to n eu-
rotic patien ts an d who is in the habit of attributin g to hysteria a great n um ber of
sym ptom s whic h other physic ian s treat as organ ic " (Freud, Interpretation of Dreams,
109). On this subjec t, Judith Butler says, "If there is a m ateriality of the body that
esc apes from the figures it c on dition s an d by whic h it is c orroded an d haun ted,
then this body is n either a surfac e n or a substan c e, but the lin guistic oc c asion of
the body's separation from itself, on e that eludes its c apture by the figure it c om -
pels" (Judith Butler, "How Can I Den y That These Han ds an d This Body Are Min e?"
in Material Events: Paul de Man and the Afterlife of Theory, ed. Tom Cohen , Barbara
Cohen , J. Hillis Miller, an d An drz ej Warm in ski [Min n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n e-
sota Press, 2001], 271-72).
17. Jac ques Lac an , "The Dream of Irm a's In jec tion ," in The Seminar of Jacques
Lacan, Book II: The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis,
1954-1955, ed. Jac ques-Alain Miller, tran s. Sylvan a Tom aselli (New York: Norton ,
1988), 154-55 (origin al em phasis).
18. In the idiom of Gilles Deleuz e an d Felix Guattari, Irm a's form less, avisual,
an d in side-out body is organ less, in organ ic , a "body without an im age" (Gilles Deleuz e
an d Felix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, tran s. Robert Hur-
ley, Mark Seem , an d Helen R. Lan e [Min n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press,
1983], 8). "The body without organ s is n ot the proof of an origin al n othin gn ess,
n or is it what rem ain s of a lost totality. Above all it is n ot a projec tion ; it has n oth-
in g whatsoever to do with the body itself, or with an im age of the body" (8).
19. Trin h T. Min h-ha, "The World as a Foreign Lan d," in When the Moon Waxes
Red: Representation, Gender, and Cultural Politics (New York: Routledge, 1991), 187.
20. Lac an , "Dream of Irm a's In jec tion ," 170.
21. Ern st Cassirer, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment, tran s. Fritz C. A. Koelln
an d Jam es P. Pettegrove (Prin c eton , NJ: Prin c eton Un iversity Press, 1951).
22. Max Horkheim er an d Theodor Adorn o, Dialectic of Enlightenment, tran s.
John Gum m in g (New York: Con tin uum , 1944), 6.
23. Gilles Deleuz e, The Logic of Sense, ed. Con stan tin V. Boun das, tran s. Mark
Lester with Charles Stivale (New York: Colum bia Un iversity Press, 1990), 87.
24. Ibid., 87 (em phasis added).
25. Catherin e Waldby, The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Post-
human Medicine (Lon don : Routledge, 2000), 91.
1 67
26. Lin da Dalrym ple Hen derson , "X Rays an d the Quest for In visible Reality in
the Art of Kupka, Duc ham p, an d the Cubists," Art Journal 47.4 (1988): 324. See also
Lin da Dalrym ple Hen derson , "A Note on Fran c is Pic abia, Radiom eters, an d X Rays
in 1913," Art Bulletin 71.1 (1989): 114-23; W. Robert Nitske, The Life ofWilhelm
Conrad Rontgen, Discoverer of the X Ray (Tuc son : Un iversity of Ariz on a Press, 1971).
27. Horkheim er an d Adorn o, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 3 (em phasis added).
28. Ric hard F. Mould, A Century ofX-Rays and Radioactivity in Medicine: With
Emphasis on Photographic Records of the Early Years (Bristol, PA: In stitute of Physic s
Publishin g, 1993), 1.
29. Lisa Cartwright, "Wom en , X-rays, an d the Public Culture of Prophylac tic
Im agin g," Camera Obscura 29 (May 1992): 30. A revised version of Cartwright's
essay appears in her study of m edic al im agery, Screening the Body: Tracing Medi-
cine's Visual Culture (Min n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press, 1995). Operatin g
sim ultan eously in the fields of film history, m edic al rhetoric an d c ulture, an d fem i-
n ist theory an d c ritic ism , Cartwright's searc hin g an alysis situates the X-ray at the
c rossroads of twen tieth-c en tury arts an d sc ien c es. She writes: "The X ray is the piv-
otal site of in vestigation for this book's ex ploration of m edic in e's tec hn ologic al/visual
kn owledge, desire, an d power. It is also the m ost c on flic ted site, em bodyin g m ultiple
paradigm s of visuality an d m ultiple politic al agen das" (Screening the Body, 108).
30. Cartwright, Screening the Body, 115. Han ds, says Mould, were also am on g
the m ost vuln erable areas of the hum an body, where m an y of the earliest sign s of
X-ray in juries to pion eer physic ian s an d tec hn ic ian s first appeared. Ron tgen 's own
han ds were un sc athed. Alon gside a photograph of a plaster c ast m ade of Ron tgen 's
han ds "im m ediately after his death in 1923," Mould n otes that "un like the han ds of
other X-ray pion eers, it is seen that Ron tgen 's are un dam aged" (Century ofX-Rays, 5).
31. Cartwright, Screening the Body, 115.
32. Ibid.
33. Otto Glasser, Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen and the Early History of the Roentgen
Rays (Sprin gfield, IL: Thom as, 1934), 81. "Man y people," ac c ordin g to Glasser, "re-
ac ted stron gly to the ghost pic tures. The editor of the Grazer Tageblatt had a roen t-
gen pic ture taken of his head an d upon seein g the pic ture 'absolutely refused to
show it to an ybody but a sc ien tist. He had n ot c losed an eye sin c e he saw his own
death's head'" (81).
34. Lac an , "Dream of Irm a's In jec tion ," 163-64.
35. Hen derson , "X Rays an d the Quest for In visible Reality," 324.
36. Ibid., 336. A sim ilar pattern of im m ersion in the fan tastic properties of
un kn own fluids followed Marie Curie's disc overy of radium in 1898, in the wake of
Hen ri Bec querel's disc overy of radioac tivity in 1896. The sam e im agin ary properties
that were attributed to X-rays ac c rued to radium , whic h was seen as an elix ir of life,
as the sourc e of life itself. A fran tic effort to in troduc e radium in to the body en sued,
floodin g the m arketplac e with radioac tive c om m odities an d servic es: toothpaste,
c oc ktails, spas, as well as bug sprays, whic h also c lean ed an d polished furn iture. In
pure form , bottled Agua Radium allowed the fastest m ean s of in gestion . After the
in itial euphoria began to fade, the tox ic but also photographic effec ts of radioac tivity
began to appear, glowin g. At watc h fac tories where wom en pain ted the han ds an d
1 68
Ra d i o a c t i v e m o u t h .
dials of watc hes with radium , a prac tic e kn own as "tippin g" (lic kin g the brushes to
form a poin t at the tip) served as a m ethod for tran sportin g the radium in to their
bodies. Like a Cheshire c at, the im age of a wom an 's m outh survives. Her teeth ab-
sorbed so m uc h radium she c ould develop film in her m outh. Her radioac tive
m outh had bec om e a c am era lab, a camera dentata. Pierre Curie him self, says
Mould, hoped that "radium m ight help restore eyesight to the blin d" (Century of
X-Rays, 21). See Claudia Clark, Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform,
1910-1935 (Chapel Hill: Un iversity of North Carolin a Press, 1997).
37. Waldby, Visible Human Project, 14. "The Visible Wom an ," Waldby n otes,
"represen ts a tec hn ic al im provem en t on the Man : the body was plan ed in to m uc h
fin er c ross-sec tion s (5,189 sec tion s [as opposed to 1,878 sec tion s of the Man ]) whic h
produc ed higher resolution in the resultin g im ages, an d a m uc h larger data file" (15).
38. Lisa Cartwright, "A Cultural An atom y of the Visible Hum an Projec t," in
The Visible Woman: Imagining Technologies, Gender, and Science, ed. Paula A. Treic h-
ler, Lisa Cartwright, an d Con stan c e Pen ley (New York: New York Un iversity Press,
1998), 39.
39. Waldby, Visible Human Project, 13.
40. Ibid., 63.
41. Ibid., 63 (origin al em phasis).
42. Ibid., 64.
43. Ibid., 5.
44. Ibid., 92 (origin al em phasis).
45. Ibid., 159.
46. Ibid., 14.
47. William Haver, The Body of This Death: Historicity and Sociality in the Time
of AIDS (Stan ford, CA: Stan ford Un iversity Press, 1996), 55. Haver is followin g the
1 69
idiom an d ton e of Derrida's "NO APOCALYPSE, NOT NOW (full speed ahead,
seven m issiles, seven m issives)," tran s. Catherin e Porter an d Philip Lewis, Diacritics
14.2 (1984): 26.
48. Haver, Body of This Death, 55 (origin al em phasis). The apoc alypse is
fram ed, in Haver's disc ussion , by the atom ic bom bin gs of Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki
an d the AIDS pan dem ic , by "the forc e of an Outside that is n ot m erely the outside
of an in side, but the outside that is in side, the in sidious in side" (53).
49. Rolan d Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, tran s. Ric hard
Howard (New York: Hill an d Wan g, 1981). Barthes writes: "A photograph's punctum
is that accident which pric ks m e (but also bruises m e, is poign an t to m e)" (26-27,
em phasis added).
50. Vic tor Bouillion , "War an d Medic in em a: The X-ray an d Irradiation in Var-
ious Theaters of Operation ," in Incorporations, ed. Jon athan Crary an d San ford
Kwin ter (New York: Zon e, 1992), 253.
51. Con c ern in g the partn ership between the field of physic s an d X-ray tec h-
n ology durin g the twen tieth c en tury, the dec ision of the 1994 Nobel Priz e c om m it-
tee m ay have sign aled a c ritic al m om en t. Am on g the rec ipien ts of the awards in sc i-
en c e were two physic ists, Clifford G. Shull an d Bertram N. Broc khouse, who had
suc c eeded in developin g "n eutron probes [that] gave sc ien tists a set of tools m ore
powerful than X-rays an d other form s of radiation used for ex plorin g the atom ic
struc ture of m atter" (Malc olm W. Brown , "Am eric an Awarded Nobel Priz e in Chem -
istry," New York Times, 13 Oc tober 1994). X-rays m ay have been superseded, even
ren dered obsolete, on the eve of the c en ten n ial of their disc overy. Ron tgen him self
was the rec ipien t of the first Nobel Priz e for sc ien c e in 1901.
52. Felix Nadar, Nadar: Dessins et Ecrits, 2 vols. (Paris: Hubsc hm id, 1979), 2:978
(m y tran slation ). "Don e selon Balz ac , c haque c orps dan s la n ature se trouve c om -
pose de series de spec tres, en c ouc hes superposees a 1'in fin i, foliac ees en pellic ules
in fin ite'sim ales, dan s tous les sen s ou 1'optique pe^oit c e c orps. L'hom m e a jam ais n e
pouvan t c reer,c 'est a dire d'un e apparition , de I'im palpable, c on stituer un e c hose
solide, ou de rien faire un e chose,c haque operation Daguerrien n e ven ait don e
surpren dre, detac hait et reten ait en se 1'appliquan t un e des c ouc hes du c orps objec te."
53. A version of this phobia also ex isted in Meiji Japan (1868-1912). "Durin g
this tim e," writes Sakum a Rika, "n um erous superstition s were assoc iated with pho-
tography, in c ludin g the beliefs that 'posin g for a photograph drain ed on e's shadow,'
'posin g for a sec on d shorten ed on e's life,' an d 'when three subjec ts posed for a pho-
tograph, the on e in the m iddle would die'" (Sakum a Rika, "Shashin to joseiatarashi
shikaku m edia n o tojo to 'm iru/m irareru' jibun n o shutsugen " ["Photography an d
Wom en : The Adven t of New Visual Media an d the Creation of a Self That Looks/Is
Looked At"], in Onna to otoko no jiku: semegiau onna to otoko [The Timespace of
Women and Men: The Confrontation of Women and Men], vol. 5 of Nihon joseishi
saiko [Redefining Japanese Women's History], ed. Okuda Akiko [Tokyo: Fujihara
Shoten , 1995], 200 (m y tran slation ). Regardin g the photoic on ography of han ds an d
the im age of Berthe Ron tgen 's left han d, m an y Japan ese wom en at that tim e feared
havin g their han ds photographed. Sm all han ds were c on sidered a sign of fem in in e
beauty, an d, ac c ordin g to Sakum a, these wom en believed that their han ds n ot on ly
1 70
looked bigger in photographs but that the photographic proc ess ac tually m ade
their han ds swell (228).
54. See Akira Miz uta Lippit, "Photographin g Nagasaki: From Fac t to Artefact,"
in Nagasaki Journey: The Photographs of Yosuke Yamahata, August 10, 1945, ed.
Rupert Jen kin s (San Fran c isc o: Pom egran ate, 1995), 25-29.
55. Mic hel Friz ot, "The All-Powerful Eye: The Form s of the In visible," in A New
History of Photography, ed. Mic hel Friz ot, tran s. Susan Ben n ett, Liz Clegg, John
Crook, an d Carolin e Higgitt (Cologn e: Kon em an n , 1998), 281.
56. Glasser, Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, 82.
57. Ibid., 83.
58. Dan iel Tiffan y, Radio Corpse: Imagism and the Cryptaesthetic of Ezra Pound
(Cam bridge, MA: Harvard Un iversity Press, 1995), 226. "On the on e han d," says
Tiffan y of the relation between radium an d the X-ray, "we have a substan c e whose
radian t en ergy is in visible, whereas on the other we have a form of radian t en ergy
that produc es im ages of the un seen " (226).
59. Lasz lo Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion (Chic ago: Theobald, 1947), 252.
60. Cartwright, Screening the Body, 113.
61. David Sylvester, The Brutality of Fact: Interviews with Francis Bacon (Ox ford:
Tham es an d Hudson , 1987). Of the photograph, Bac on , who c laim s to have been
in fluen c ed by radiographic im ages, says: "I thin k it's the slight rem ove from fac t,
whic h return s m e on to the fac t m ore violen tly" (30).
62. In Camera Lucida, Barthes says: "A spec ific photograph, in effec t, is n ever
distin guished from its referen t It is as if the Photograph always c arries its refer-
en t with itself, both affec ted by the sam e am orous or fun ereal im m obility, at the
very heart of the m ovin g world The Photograph belon gs to that c lass of lam i-
n ated objec ts whose leaves c an n ot be separated without destroyin g them both" (5-6).
63. Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 252.
64. Tiffan y c ites "Poun d's fasc in ation with radium an d radioac tivity" as an
ex am ple of the "n egativity of the m odern ist Im agea n egativity that is sign aled by
the Im age's resistan c e to visuality" (Radio Corpse, 226).
65. Jac ques Derrida, "Differen c e," in Margins of Philosophy, tran s. Alan Bass
(Chic ago: Un iversity of Chic ago Press, 1982), 24 (em phasis added).
66. Fran c ois Dagogn et, Etienne-Jules Marey: A Passion for the Trace, tran s.
Robert Galeta with Jean in e Herm an (New York: Zon e, 1992).
67. Ric hard Cran gle says that in the British press, for ex am ple, ex c ited disc us-
sion s in 1896 about the "New Photography" referred n ot to the Cin em atographe
but to the X-ray. "The in terest surroun din g the New Photography in early 1896
seem s, a c en tury later, to have ec lipsed the alm ost parallel laun c h in Britain of an
optic al sen sation whic h bec am e far m ore in fluen tial: the projec ted m ovin g pic -
ture" (Ric hard Cran gle, "Saturday Night at the X-raysThe Movin g Pic ture an d
'The New Photography' in Britain , 1896," in Celebrating 1895: The Centenary of
Cinema, ed. John Fullerton [Sydn ey: Libbey, 1998], 138).
68. Paula Dragosh suggested the relation ship between the logic of reversibility
an d an n iversaries, "a c hiasm us, after the Greek n am e for the letter 'x '" (letter to
author, Jun e 2005).
1 71
69. Wilhelm Con rad Ron tgen , "On a New Kin d of Rays (Prelim in ary Com m u-
n ic ation )," in Glasser, Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, 41-52. The artic le was reprin ted in
the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution in 1897.
70. Other advan c es in film tec hn ology durin g 1895 in c lude the in troduc tion of
R. W. Paul an d Brit Ac res's m ovie c am era in Marc h, the adven t of the so-c alled
Latham loop by Woodville Latham an d his son s in April, an d the debut of C. Fran c is
Jen kin s an d Thom as Arm at's Phan tosc ope in Oc tober. Thom as Alva Edison 's
"Kin etosc ope" an d "Vitasc ope" ex hibition s straddled 1895, takin g plac e in 1894 an d
1896, respec tively.
71. Em m an uelle Toulet, Birth of the Motion Picture, tran s. Susan Em an uel
(New York: Abram s, 1995), 40.
72. Ac c ordin g to Bertran d Tavern ier's n arration on the Kin o Video c ollec tion
of the Lum ieres' film s, The Lumiere Brothers' First Films (1996).
73. Noel Burc h, Life to Those Shadows, ed. an d tran s. Ben Brewster (Berkeley:
Un iversity of Californ ia Press, 1990), 15.
74. Josef Breuer an d Sigm un d Freud, Studies on Hysteria, in The Standard Edi-
tion of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es
Strac hey (Lon don : Hogarth, 1955), vol. 2.
75. Sigm un d Freud, "The Metapsyc hologic al Supplem en t to the Theory of
Dream s," in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund
Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es Strac hey (Lon don : Hogarth, 1957), 14:223 (origin al
em phasis). "A dream tells us," Freud writes, "that som ethin g was goin g on whic h
ten ded to in terrupt sleep, an d it en ables us to un derstan d in what way it has been
possible to fen d off this in terruption . The fin al outc om e is that the sleeper has
dream t an d is able to go on sleepin g; the in tern al dem an d whic h was strivin g to
oc c upy him has been replac ed by an ex tern al ex perien c e, whose dem an d has been
disposed of. A dream is therefore, am on g other thin gs a projection: an ex tern aliz a-
tion of an in tern al proc ess."
76. Hen derson , "X rays an d the Quest for In visible Reality," 325.
77. Lisa Cartwright an d Brian Goldfarb, "Radiography, Cin em atography an d
the Dec lin e of the Len s," in Incorporations (New York: Zon e, 1992), 190-201.
78. Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 210. See in this c on n ec tion Thom as Man n ,
The Magic Mountain, tran s. H. T. Lowe-Porter (New York: Kn opf, 1951).
79. Walter Ben jam in , "The Work of Art in the Age of Mec han ic al Reproduc -
tion ," in Illuminations, ed. Han n ah Aren dt, tran s. Harry Zohn (New York:
Sc hoc ken , 1968), 236-37 (em phasis added).
80. Adden dum to 1895: Albert de Roc has published in 1895 his c ollec tion of
spec tral an d psyc hic im ages, L'Exteriorisation de la sensibilite: Etude experimentale et
historique in Paris. Also in 1895, Hippolyte Baraduc began work on psyc hic photog-
raphyac c om plished by in duc in g the subjec t to ex c rete "psyc ho-odo-fluidiques"
that were then c aptured on the photographic plate. His L'Ame humaine, ses mouve-
ments, ses lumieres et I'iconographie de I'invisible appeared the followin g year (Paris:
Carre, 1896). Baraduc , a gyn ec ologist, believed that the hum an soul em itted a "sub-
tle forc e" on ly perc eptible to the c am era. The spec ter of wom en 's in teriority is
again in voked to provide a figure for the represen tation of the in visible. Regardin g
1 72
the popularity of spirit photography that erupted in the late n in eteen th c en tury,
Tom Gun n in g writes: "The m edium herself bec am e a sort of c am era, her spiritual
n egativity bodyin g forth a positive im age, as the hum an body behaves like an un -
c an n y photom at, dispen sin g im ages from its orific es" (Tom Gun n in g, "Phan tom
Im ages an d Modern Man ifestation s: Spirit Photography, Magic Theater, Tric k
Film s, an d Photography's Un c an n y," in Fugitive Images: From Photography to Video,
ed. Patric e Petro [Bloom in gton : In dian a Un iversity Press, 1995], 58).
81. Jac ques Derrida, Of Grammatology, tran s. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Balti-
m ore, MD: John s Hopkin s Un iversity Press, 1976), 70.
3 . C i n e m a S u r f a c e D e s i g n
1. Germ ain e Dulac , "Visual an d An ti-visual Film s," in The Avant-Garde Film:
A Reader of Theory and Criticism, ed. P. Adam s Sitn ey, tran s. Robert Lam berton
(New York: An thology Film Arc hives, 1987), 31.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., 32.
4. Mauric e Merleau-Pon ty, "Eye an d Min d," in The Primacy of Perception: And
Other Essays on Phenomenological Psychology, the Philosophy of Art, History, and
Politics, ed. Jam es M. Edie, tran s. Carleton Dallery (Evan ston , IL: Northwestern
Un iversity Press, 1964), 170.
5. Laura U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Min n e-
apolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press, 2002), 8. See also Laura U. Marks, The Skin of
the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses (Durham , NC: Duke
Un iversity Press, 2000).
6. Dulac , "Visual an d An ti-visual Film s," 32.
7. Germ ain e Dulac , "The Essen c e of Cin em a: The Visual Idea," in Sitn ey,
Avant-Garde Film, 37.
8. Dulac , "Visual an d An ti-visual Film s," 32.
9. Walter Ben jam in , "The Work of Art in the Age of Mec han ic al Reproduc -
tion ," in Illuminations, ed. Han n ah Aren dt, tran s. Harry Zohn (New York: Sc hoc ken ,
1968), 236.
10. W. K. L. Dic kson an d An ton ia Dic kson , History of the Kinetograph, Kineto-
scope, and Kinetophonograph (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2000), 43. W. K. L.
Dic kson was him self a key figure in the developm en t of early c in em a an d worked
with Thom as Alva Edison on the kin etograph, kin etosc ope, an d kin etophon ograph.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Dulac , "Visual an d An ti-visual Film s," 32.
14. Tom Gun n in g, "An Aesthetic of Aston ishm en t: Early Film an d the (In )
Credulous Spec tator," in Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, ed. Leo
Braudy an d Marshall Cohen (New York: Ox ford Un iversity Press, 1999), 819.
15. Ibid., 822. The Lum iere episode is c ited in Thom as Edison 's 1902 film , Uncle
Josh at the Moving Picture Show (direc ted by Edwin S. Porter), whic h features a
film within a film . At the m ovin g pic ture show, Un c le Josh reac ts to a series of
1 73
film s as if they were real, rec oilin g in fright to the film of an on c om in g train . Edi-
son 's film en ds when the sc reen is torn down an d the projec tion ist is ex posed
behin d it.
16. Gun n in g refers to the m yth as a "prim al sc en e," whic h c on tin ues to haun t
later theories of spec tatorship: "The terroriz ed spec tator of the Gran d Cafe still
stalks the im agin ation of film theorists who en vision audien c es subm ittin g pas-
sively to an all-dom in atin g apparatus, hypn otiz ed an d tran sfix ed by its illusion ist
power" ("Aesthetic of Aston ishm en t," 819).
17. Ibid., 820.
18. From the New York Mail and Express, 25 Septem ber 1897, reprin ted in
Kem p R. Niver, The Biograph Bulletins, 1896-1908 (Los An geles: Loc are Researc h
Group, 1971), 27. Cited in Gun n in g, "Aesthetic of Aston ishm en t," 829. See Tom
Gun n in g, "An Un seen En ergy Swallows Spac e: The Spac e in Early Film an d Its
Relation to Am eric an Avan t-Garde Film ," in Film before Griffith, ed. John Fell
(Berkeley: Un iversity of Californ ia Press, 1983), 355-66. Here, "an un seen en ergy
swallows spac e."
19. For Deleuz e, forc es m ake represen tation possible; they drive represen tation ,
but are them selves outside represen tation , n on represen tation al, un represen table.
See "Pain tin g Forc es" in Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation, tran s. Dan iel W.
Sm ith (Min n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press, 2003), 48-54.
20. Gun n in g, "Aesthetic of Aston ishm en t," 827 (em phasis added).
21. Ibid., 826.
22. Mic hael Fried, Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the
Age of Diderot (Chic ago: Un iversity of Chic ago Press, 1980), 50. Fried is referrin g to
the effec t of duration in absorption , the "illusion of im m in en t or gradual or even
fairly abrupt c han ge" (50). The still im age is about to m ove, its stilln ess an effec t of
"time filled," says Fried (51, origin al em phasis). In this sen se, the tran sition from
still im age to m ovin g im age, whic h the Lum ieres perform ed at their early sc reen -
in gs, evokes the ex perien c e of tim e Fried desc ribes as absorption .
23. A n um ber of the early film s disc ussed here are available on the Kin o Video
c ollec tion , The Movies Begin, 4 vols. (New York: Kin o In tern ation al Corporation ,
2002). Program n otes are by Charles Musser.
24. Reversibility seem s to have been a prin c iple of c in em a from the outset, rec og-
n iz ed by the Lum ieres, who projec ted Demolition of a Wall (Demolition d'un mur,
n o. 40, 1895) first forward, then bac kward, first destroyin g then restorin g the wall.
25. The "deflation of spac e," says Sobc hac k of this phen om en on in sc ien c e fic tion
film s, "is presen ted n ot as a loss of dim en sion , but rather as an ex c ess of surfac e"
(Vivian Sobc hac k, Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film [New York:
Un gar, 1987], 256).
26. An in verse projec tile pierc es Georges Melies's 1902 film A Trip to the Moon
(Le voyage dans la lune), when a roc ket pen etrates the m oon 's surfac e, literally the
person ified fac e of the m oon in its eye. The fac e of the m oon , an d in partic ular the
loc us of its eye, c an be seen as a figure of the spec tator, a displac ed site of en c oun ter
between the spec tator an d c in em a, like the slic ed eye in Luis Bun uel an d Salvador
Dali's 1928 film Un Chien Andalou.
174
27. Several other early film s c ollec ted in The Movies Begin suggest folded
spac es, other spac es within or behin d visible spac es, an d spac es mise-en-abime. In
Jam es William son 's 1901 Stop Thief! a thief is c hased in to a large barrel, where he
seeks to hide from his pursuers. Four dogs follow the thief in to the barrel, where
they appear to attac k him out of view. Even tually the robbed m an arrives an d
rem oves the dogs on e by on e from the barrel, usin g c uts to c reate the effec t of a dog
pac k in the barrel with the thief. The on -sc reen but folded in teriority of the barrel
bec om es in Stop Thief! an ex pan ded an d virtual spac e in to whic h the thief an d four
dogs are deposited. On -sc reen but un seen , the barrel represen ts an avisual in terior
film ic spac e.
Cec il Hepworth's 1905 film The Other Side of the Hedge (direc ted by Lewis
Fitz ham on ) deploys a hedge as a sec on d sc reen or plan e within the diegetic spac e,
n ot un like the fac tory wall of the Lum ieres' Leaving the Lumiere Factory, whic h
allows an eager c ouple to evade the surveillan c e of a c haperon e. Their am orous
pursuit is revealed on ly to the spec tator through a 180-degree c ut, whic h shifts the
poin t of view to the other side, where they have staged a rusehats propped on
stic ks, whic h are visible from the side of the c haperon e an d appear to be set apart at
a safe distan c eto further delay disc overy. The hedge fun c tion s perhaps as a
m eton ym y of the sc reen , the other side as a fan tastic other spac e, replete with re-
stric ted pleasures.
28. Gilles Deleuz e, The Logic of Sense, ed. Con stan tin V. Boun das, tran s. Mark
Lester with Charles Stivale (New York: Colum bia Un iversity Press, 1990), 125 (orig-
in al em phasis). Deleuz e also desc ribes the "m etaphysic al surfac e" as a "surfac e of
pure thought" (208) an d as a "sec on d sc reen " (221).
29. Deleuz e's "m etaphysic al surfac e," whic h establishes spatial c on tin uities where
there are n on e"a physic s whic h en dlessly assem bles the variation s an d pulsa-
tion s of the en tire un iverse"is a fun dam en tal feature of what Charles Musser
c alls "sc reen prac tic e," an ex pan ded field of c in em a that predates the in ven tion of
the basic apparatus. Of the m agic lan tern shows popular prior to the adven t of
c in em a, Musser says, "Spatial c on tin uities bec am e im portan t in the later part of the
n in eteen th c en tury. Survivin g doc um en tation , som e as early as 1860, in dic ates that
in sequen c in g photographic views, prac tition ers were often preoc c upied with the
c reation of a spatial world" (Charles Musser, The Emergence of Cinema: The Amer-
ican Screen to 1907 [Berkeley: Un iversity of Californ ia Press, 1990], 38). A spatial
world em erges from sc reen prac tic e, on e that in volves at this m om en t, ac c ordin g to
Musser, "frequen t dissolves from ex terior to in terior" (38). This world to that, here
to there, this side to that through a m etaphysic al sc reen prac tic e.
30. Interior New York Subway is c ollec ted on Treasures from American Film
Archives: Fifty Preserved Films, 4 vols. (Nation al Film Preservation Foun dation ,
2000). Program n otes are by Sc ott Sim m on , n otes on the m usic by Martin Marks.
Bitz er is best kn own for his later c ollaboration s with D. W. Griffith, espec ially for
his ac tion c in em atography in Griffith's 1915 Birth of a Nation.
31. In his "Program Notes" for The Movies Begin, Musser poin ts out the popu-
larity of film s depic tin g train s plun gin g in to tun n els, "phan tom rides," followin g
Biograph's 1897 Haverstraw Tunnel.
1 75
32. In the "Program Notes" for Treasures from American Film Archives, Sim -
m on adds: "The visual syn c opation of the pillars in the subway tun n el was diffic ult
to rec ordboth on film an d on our tran sfer to videoan d was a c ause for c on -
c ern when the subway open ed. 'Is subway travel in jurious to the eyes?' the New
York Times asked in its open in g day reportage, an d it provided a prac tic al an swer:
'A well kn own oc ulist says that lookin g at the rows of white c olum n s is very strain -
in g. Therefore don 't look at them '" (97). Sim m on 's ac c oun t align s the visuality of
c in em a with that of train s, espec ially with regard to rapid, repetitive, high c on -
trast, an d abstrac t im agery. Interior New York Subway also prefigures the work
of ex perim en tal film m akers like Peter Kubelka, Ton y Con rad, an d Paul Sharks,
am on g others, who ex perim en ted with flic ker effec ts. Ern ie Gehr's 1970 Serene
Velocity in partic ular ec hoes the illusory depths an d m ovem en ts of Interior New
York Subway.
33. Alfred Hitc hc oc k uses this tec hn ique of editin g again st dark sc reen s, c uts
on dark fram es, to produc e the illusion of a c on tin uityon e un in terrupted shot
in Rope (1948).
34. Siegfried Krac auer says: "An y huge c lose-up reveals n ew an d un suspec ted
form ation s of m atter; skin tex tures are rem in isc en t of aerial photographs, eyes turn
in to lakes or volc an ic c raters. Suc h im ages blow up our en viron m en t in a double
sen se: they en large it literally; an d in doin g so, they blast the prison of c on ven tion al
reality, open in g up ex pan ses whic h we have ex plored at best in dream s before"
(Siegfried Krac auer, Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality [New York:
Ox ford Un iversity Press, 1965], 48). In Krac auer's rhetoric , ex trem e prox im ity erases
the distin c tion between in teriority an d ex teriority; X-rays, dream s, an d the world
c om e to share a c om m on geography.
35. An dre Baz in , "Pain tin g an d Cin em a," in What Is Cinema? ed. an d tran s.
Hugh Gray (Berkeley: Un iversity of Californ ia Press, 1967), 1:166 (em phasis added).
36. Deleuz e, Logic of Sense, 223.
37. Nic olas Abraham an d Maria Torok loc ate the m outh as a c ritic al loc us for
the proc essin g of loss. Its dual fun c tion as the plac e of eatin g an d speakin g ren ders
it the passage through whic h the literal (food) an d figurative (lan guage) are c on -
fused in the fac e of loss. At the m om en t of in surm oun table loss, they say, the
m outh reverts to the site of "an tim etaphor." The m outh loses its c apac ity to speak,
turn in g words an d everythin g else in the world in to som e form of food. This
m om en t m arks the tran sition from m ourn in g to m elan c holia, in trojec tion to
in c orporation : "The c ruc ial m ove away from in trojec tion (c learly ren dered im pos-
sible) to in c orporation is m ade when words fail to fill the subjec t's void an d hen c e
an im agin ary thin g is in serted in their plac e. The desperate ploy of fillin g the
m outh with illusory n ourishm en t has the equally illusory effec t of eradic atin g the
idea of a void to be filled with words" (Nic olas Abraham an d Maria Torok,
"Mourn in g or Melan c holia: In trojec tion versus In c orporation ," in The Shell and the
Kernel: Renewals of Psychoanalysis, ed. an d tran s. Nic holas T. Ran d [Chic ago: Un i-
versity of Chic ago Press, 1994], 128-29, origin al em phasis). Seen in the light of
Abraham an d Torok's theory of radic al loss, The Big Swallow, a silen t film about
losin g on eself in side an ex pan din g m outh, suggests a c om edy based on an an x iety
176
of early c in em a: dem etaphoriz ation , the tran sform ation of represen tation in to
reality, an d the dan ger of on e's disappearan c e in it.
38. Deleuz e, Logic of Sense, 9. Deleuz e is followin g here the logic an d trajec tory
of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
Deleuz e desc ribes Alic e's adven ture as sin gular: a "c lim b to the surfac e" an d "dis-
avowal of false depth," "her disc overy that everythin g happen s at the border" (9).
39. Merleau-Pon ty, "Eye an d Min d," 180 (origin al em phasis).
40. Noel Burc h, "A Prim itive Mode of Represen tation ?" in Early Cinema: Space,
Frame, Narrative, ed. Thom as Elsaesser with Adam Barker (Lon don : British Film
In stitute, 1990), 221. Burc h in sists on a spatial form ulation in establishin g a system
spec ific to the prim itive m ode, on e that is form ed through what he c alls an irre-
duc ible "prim itive ex tern ality" (220).
41. Deleuz e says of the phan tasm , its m obility an d geography: "It belon gs as
suc h to an ideation al surfac e over whic h it is produc ed. It tran sc en ds in side an d
outside, sin c e its topologic al property is to brin g 'its' in tern al an d ex tern al sides in to
c on tac t, in order for them to un fold on to a sin gle side" (Deleuz e, Logic of Sense, 211).
42. Ibid., 203.
43. Sigm un d Freud, "Beyon d the Pleasure Prin c iple," in The Standard Edition of
the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es Strac hey
(Lon don : Hogarth, 1955), 18:24.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid., 26.
47. Ibid., 27.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. Albert Liu, letter to author, Marc h 2004.
51. Deleuz e, Logic of Sense, 213.
52. Ibid., 199.
53. Ibid., 217.
54. "Cin em a, in c on trast to soun d rec ordin g," says Friedric h Kittler, "began with
reels, c uts, an d splic es" (Friedric h A. Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, tran s.
Geoffrey Win throp-Youn g an d Mic hael Wutz [Stan ford, CA: Stan ford Un iversity
Press, 1999], 115).
55. Deleuz e, Logic of Sense, 155.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid., 156.
58. Sigm un d Freud, "The Ego an d the Id," in The Standard Edition of the Com-
plete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es Strac hey (Lon don :
Hogarth, 1961), 19:25 (origin al em phases). Freud c on tin ues by desc ribin g pain as a
sen sation through whic h n ew kn owledge about the in side of on e's body arrives.
"Pain , too, seem s to play a part in the proc ess, an d the way we gain n ew kn owledge
of our organ s durin g pain ful illn ess is perhaps a m odel of the way by whic h in gen -
eral we arrive at the idea of our body" (25-26).
59. Ibid., 26.
1 77
60. Ibid., 26n . Freud m en tion s this poin t of c on tac t between the Pcpt.-Cs. an d
the brain in "Moses an d Mon otheism : Three Essays" (1939). While desc ribin g the
topographic al c on figuration of the psyc hic al apparatus, Freud appears to disavow
the relation between psyc he an d an atom y: "I will add the further c om m en t that the
psyc hic al topography I have developed here has n othin g to do with the an atom y of
the brain , and actually only touches it at one point" (Sigm un d Freud, "Moses an d
Mon otheism : Three Essays," in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological
Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es Strac hey [Lon don : Hogarth, 1964],
23:97; em phasis added). The two system s do touc h at on ly on e poin t.
61. Freud, "The Un c on sc ious," in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psycho-
logical Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es Strac hey (Lon don : Hogarth,
1957), 14:187.
62. Bertram Lewin , "Sleep, the Mouth, an d the Dream Sc reen ," Psychoanalytic
Quarterly 15 (1946): 419-43.
63. Jean -Louis Baudry, "The Apparatus: Metapsyc hologic al Approac hes to the
Im pression of Reality in Cin em a," in Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: A Film Theory
Reader, ed. Philip Rosen , tran s. Jean An drews an d Bertran d Augst (New York:
Colum bia Un iversity Press, 1986), 310.
64. Dulac , "Visual an d An ti-visual Film s," 34.
65. An ton in Artaud, "Cin em a an d Reality," in Antonin Artaud: Selected Writ-
ings, ed. Susan Son tag, tran s. Helen Weaver (New York: Farrar, Straus an d Giroux ,
1976), 151.
66. Deleuz e, Logic of Sense, 103-4 (origin al em phasis).
67. Ibid., 93.
4 . A n A t o m i c T r a c e
1. Willem de Koon in g, "What Abstrac t Art Mean s to Me" (1951), in Collected
Writings, ed. George Sc rivan i (New York: Han um an , 1988), 60. Of perverts an d
their an gelic fan tasies, Gilles Deleuz e asks: "Why does the pervert have the ten -
den c y to im agin e him self as a radian t an gel, an an gel of helium an d fire?" (Gilles
Deleuz e, The Logic of Sense, ed. Con stan tin V. Boun das, tran s. Mark Lester with
Charles Stivale [New York: Colum bia Un iversity Press, 1990], 319).
2. The un n am ed protagon ist of Chris Marker's 1962 film La Jetee survives a
n uc lear war by c lin gin g to the m em ory of a wom an he had seen just before the
bom bs struc k. Aided by this im age, whic h the film 's n arrator desc ribes as "a sc ar,"
the protagon ist travels bac k through tim e to be with her. Marker's film is c om -
posed for the m ost part of still im ages, whic h m ake the tran sition from presen t
to past, m em ory to reality, an d im age to life, a m ovem en t from on e static im age to
an other.
3. Hollywood produc ed several version s of the in visible m an (an d wom an )
film s before an d durin g the war, from 1933 to 1944. The m ost fam ous of these is
Jam es Whale's 1933 adaptation of H. G. Wells's n ovel The Invisible Man, whic h fea-
tures Claude Rain s. Others in c lude The Invisible Man Returns (1940), The Invisible
Woman (1941), Invisible Agent (1942), an d The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944).
1 78
4. For m ore on im posed an d in tern al c en sorship in postwar Japan ese c in em a,
see Kyoko Hiran o's Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo: Japanese Cinema under the American
Occupation, 1945-1952 (Washin gton , DC: Sm ithson ian In stitution Press, 1992),
espec ially c hapter 2, "Prohibited Subjec ts," 47-103.
5. In the registers of postatom ic urban plan n in g an d arc hitec ture, Edward
Dim en dberg desc ribes the im perative to disperse as a key elem en t of urban defen se
again st n uc lear assault. "Postwar urban plan n ers n oted that of the war's two atom ic
weapon targets, the n um ber of deaths at Nagasaki were half those at Hiroshim a, a
c on sequen c e of the dispersed urban population . 'In an atom ic war, c on gested c ities
would bec om e death traps,' write Edward Teller an d two fellow n uc lear physic ists
in The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1946 Fear of den sity pervaded m uc h plan -
n in g disc ourse of the early 1950s an d in its m ost ex trem e form equated urban c on -
c en tration tout court with susc eptibility to m ilitary attac k" (Edward Dim en dberg,
"City of Fear: Defen sive Dispersal an d the En d of Film Noir," Any 18 [1997]: 15).
The dialec tic of c on c en tration an d dispersal, ex c ess visibility an d vuln erability, seem s
to c irc ulate from body to c ity in the im m ediate afterm ath of the atom ic war.
6. The relation ship between ex trem e eros an d the pursuit of sc ien c e figures
prom in en tly, ac c ordin g to Jerom e F. Shapiro, in atom ic bom b c in em a. He says, "In
suc h film s there is usually a sc ien tist who postpon es m arriage to devote him self to
sc ien tific ex perim en ts that usurp the laws of n ature" (Jerom e F. Shapiro, Atomic
Bomb Cinema [New York: Routledge, 2002], 45).
7. Mitsuhiro Yoshim oto, Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema (Durham ,
NC: Duke Un iversity Press, 2000), 195.
8. Teshigahara's film , based on Abe Kobe's 1964 n ovel about a fac eless m an ,
also referen c es Georges Fran ju's 1960 Eyes without a Face (Les yeux sans visage).
9. H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man, in The Time Machine and the Invisible Man
(New York: Sign et, 1984), 214.
10. Dan iel Tiffan y, Toy Medium: Materialism and Modern Lyric (Berkeley: Un i-
versity of Californ ia Press, 2000), 226.
11. The in visible or tran sparen t m an in The Invisible Man has been thus ren -
dered as a result of ex perim en ts c on duc ted by the Japan ese Im perial Arm y on its
own soldiers. His rage again st m ilitarism in gen eral an d Japan ese m ilitarism in
partic ular sign als the m ove toward an ex plic it referen c e to the even ts of World War
II an d a departure from the fan tastic an d allusive n ature of the earlier The Invisible
Man Appears.
12. A n um ber of film s m ade after 1952, suc h as Miz oguc hi Ken ji's 1953 Ugetsu
(Ugetsu Monogatari) an d Hon da Ishiro's 1954 Godzilla (Gojira), are frequen tly read
as allegories of World War II, as attem pts to ren der what otherwise defies desc rip-
tion . It is perhaps im portan t to rem em ber that as a rhetoric al devic e, allegoric al
struc tures n ever restore a un ity to the work, but rather c on tin ue to divide the work
from itself, again st itself, produc in g, in the proc ess, a series of phan tom trajec tories
that m ove away from the m an ifest c on ten t of a work. Thus outside fac ts or stated
in ten tion s (by authors, for ex am ple) c an n ot always verify the presen c e of an alle-
goric al subtex t, ultim ately. Allegories are often in tim ated, un c on sc ious, or in visible,
c ulled, as it were, from an in ac c essible referen t.
1 79
13. It is also worth n otin g, perhaps, that the gen dered subjec t "m an " has
c han ged to the n eutral "hum an bein g" (ningen), although the in visible or tran spar-
en t bein gs rem ain m en in the Japan ese film s. This erasure of the gen dered figure in
the title is in terestin g in part bec ause the ec on om ies of sex uality an d eros c on tin ue
to play an ac tive role in the Japan ese film s. In a subplot of the 1949 film , a m em ber
of the all-fem ale Takaraz uka revue appears in a n um ber of sc en es, in c ludin g a
c abaret perform an c e in whic h she portrays a m asc ulin e figure. Later, the Takaraz uka
star, Miz uki Ryuko, who is also the youn ger sister of Kurokawa, the in visible m an ,
m asquerades as the in visible m an in ban dages an d sun glassesin an effort to
resc ue the kidn apped sc ien tist.
An erotic c abaret perform an c e also appears in the 1954 version at a n ightc lub
n am ed "Kurofun e," or "blac k ship," whic h was the n am e given by the Japan ese to
Com m odore Matthew Perry's Am eric an ships when they approac hed the shores of
a then c losed Japan on 8 July 1853. (On e hun dred years before The Invisible Man
on 31 Marc h 1854, the Un ited States an d Japan sign ed a treaty open in g som e of
Japan 's ports to Am eric an vessels.) The blac k ships c am e to be seen as, am on g other
thin gs, sym bols of an erotic iz ed foreign n ess, blen din g a libidin al in terest in an d
fear of the other. In The Invisible Man Meets the Fly, the own er of the n ightc lub Ajia
(Asia) is n am ed Kuroki. This in stallm en t of the series also features ex ten sive erotic
c abaret perform an c es. Som e form of the word black, kuro, appears in eac h of the
three in visible m an film s.
14. Murayam a later direc ted fan tastic TV program s, in c ludin g Ultraman, Ultra
Q, an d Ultra Seven.
15. Dan iel Paul Sc hreber, a n in eteen th-c en tury presidin g judge to the Leipz ig
Court of Appeals in Germ an y, ex perien c ed a severe form of psyc hosis for whic h he
was hospitaliz ed. On e of his sym ptom s in volved an overwhelm in g fear of sun light,
whic h he believed was an attem pt by God to im pregn ate him . He saw the rays as
divin e sem en , n otin g in his m em oirs, "En lighten m en t rarely given to m ortals has
been given to m e" (D. P. Sc hreber, Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, ed. an d tran s. Ida
Mac Alpin e an d Ric hard Hun ter [Cam bridge, MA: Harvard Un iversity Press, 1988],
167). Freud studies the Sc hreber c ase in "Psyc ho-An alytic Notes on an Auto-
biographic al Ac c oun t of a Case of Paran oia (Dem en tia Paran oides)," in The Standard
Edition of the Complete Psychological Works ofSigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es
Strac hey (Lon don : Hogarth, 1953-74), vol. 12. Of Sc hreber's photophobia, Lac an
suggests that the "rays, whic h ex c eed the boun ds of rec ogn iz ed hum an in dividual-
ity" an d whic h are "un lim ited," are c apable of an n ihilatin g n ot on ly in dividual
hum an bein gs but hum an subjec tivity itself (Jac ques Lac an , The Seminar of Jacques
Lacan: The Psychoses 1955-1956, ed. Jac ques Alain -Miller, tran s. Russell Grigg [New
York: Norton , 1993], 3:26).
16. Two n otion s of in teriority are at work, physic al an d psyc hologic al. Mon o-
c ain e appears to un ite those two form s of in terior hum an spac e. It suggests a "sin gle,
un itary, an d atom ic " elem en t, says Albert Liu (letter to author, Marc h 2004).
17. The ex c han ge of visibility for life rem ain s an un ex plain ed trope in m ost
"in visible m an " works. On c e ren dered in visible, the afflic ted organ ism regain s visi-
bility on ly at the m om en t of death. This syn c hron ic ity, repeated in the n ovel an d
180
film version s, puts in to play an ec on om y of visuality an d life, a bio-optic c irc uit
that establishes in visibility as a tem porary c on dition , un sustain able, in the en d, as a
m ode of livin g.
18. Mic hel Chion , Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, tran s. Claudia Gorbm an (New
York: Colum bia Un iversity Press, 1994), 128.
19. Wells, Invisible Man, 146.
20. Ibid., 146 (origin al em phasis).
21. Ibid.
22. Liu, letter to author.
23. Wells, Invisible Man, 208.
24. Ibid., 207.
25. Ibid. Later in the n ovel, Wells/Griffin refers to his lan dlord as "an old Polish
Jew in a lon g grey c oat an d greasy slippers" (217).
26. Ibid., 207 (em phasis added).
27. Ibid., 208.
28. Ibid., 209-10 (origin al em phases).
29. Ibid., 211.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid., 213-14.
33. Ibid., 214. An in visible c at also appears in Tomei ningen arawaru.
34. Ibid., 215.
35. Ibid., 219.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid., 236.
38. Ibid., 236 (em phasis added).
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid., 274.
41. Ibid., 274-75.
42. In a 1955 report "Chorioretin itis Produc ed by Atom ic Bom b Ex plosion ,"
Dr. Jac ques Lan desberg desc ribes the c ase of an Arm y sec on d lieuten an t who wit-
n essed an atom ic ex plosion test at Yuc c a Flats. Despite in struc tion s n ot to look
direc tly in to the ex plosion , the soldier peered over his shoulder at the blast an d saw
"a very bright, white, blin din g light." For several days afterward, he ex perien c ed
partial blin dn ess in on e eye. On c loser ex am in ation , doc tors disc overed a retin al
burn . "The shape," writes Lan desberg, "is roughly that of an in verted m ushroom "
(Archives of Ophthalmology 54 [Oc tober 1955]): 539-40). In an otherwise stric tly
sc ien tific idiom , Lan desberg allows for this figure. The "m ushroom ," it seem s, had
burn ed itself direc tly on to the soldier's eye.
43. Paul Virilio, War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception, tran s. Patric k
Cam iller (Lon don : Verso, 1989), 81 (origin al em phasis).
44. The fun c tion an d properties of writin g as a form of stain in g play a c ritic al
role in the dyn am ic of atom ic represen tation . Freud speaks of psyc hoan alysis as a
kin d of stain in g of the un c on sc ious, a gesture that brin gs in to relief its in visible
c on tours. In a sim ilar m an n er, on e fin ds "sc en es of writin g," as Derrida m ight c all
181
them , in a n um ber of postwar Japan ese film s. In m an y suc h in stan c es, the ac t of
writin g brin gs the in visible form to light, while the ac t of erasin g, whic h frequen tly
ac c om pan ies it, thrusts the body bac k in to the rec esses of darkn ess. In The Invisible
Man, the tran sparen t person "passes" his days as a c irc us c lown . This form of body
writin g or pain tin g allows him to partic ipate in the visible world as in visible. When
he dec ides to reveal his true form to a journ alist, he wipes the m akeup from his
fac e, in effec t, erasin g him self from sight.
45. Virilio, War and Cinema, 81. Of the relation between war an d perc eption ,
Virilio says, "The history of battle is primarily the history of radically changing fields
of perception War c on sists n ot so m uc h in sc orin g territorial, ec on om ic , or other
m aterial vic tories as in appropriatin g the 'im m ateriality' of perc eptual fields" (7,
origin al em phasis).
46. In this sen se, the Japan ese "fly" resem bles m ore c losely the irradiated shrin k-
in g m an of Jac k Arn old's 1957 film The Incredible Shrinking Man than it does the
in sec t-hum an hybrid of Kurt Neum an n 's 1958 film The Fly. Durin g World War II,
the U.S. m ilitary ex perim en ted with "bat bom bs," in c en diary devic es attac hed to
livin g bats, whic h were design ed to ign ite fires in Japan . The plan was to drop bat
bom bs over Japan ese c ities an d then trigger the bom bs on c e the bats had sought
refuge in wooden Japan ese hom es. After several un suc c essful tests, the projec t was
suspen ded an d ultim ately ren dered obsolete with the adven t of the atom ic bom b.
The Departm en t of the Navy c alled the bat bom b ex perim en ts "Projec t X-Ray."
47. Liu, letter to author.
48. In Audio-Vision, Mic hel Chion c on siders The Invisible Man on e of the first
great soun d film s. "The im pac t of The Invisible Man," says Chion , "stem s from the
c in em a's disc overy of the powers of the in visible voic e The speakin g body of
Wells's hero Griffin is n ot in visible by virtue of bein g offsc reen or hidden behin d a
c urtain , but apparen tly really in the im age, even an d above allwhen we don 't
see him there" (126, origin al em phasis). Chion c alls suc h an "in visible voic e" ac ous-
m atic phan tom soun ds whose sourc es are n ot visible. They partic ipate in the
visible world as in visible, lin kin g audio to vision through displac em en t. Griffin 's
"down fall an d death," says Chion , "is lin ked to his c om m on fate of visibility"; the
c ollapse of his avisuality m arks his return to the visible world an d his death (127).
49. See Shuhei Hosokawa, "Atom ic Overton es an d Prim itive Un derton es: Akira
Ifukube's Soun d Design for Godzilla," in Off the Planet: Music, Sound, and Science
Fiction Cinema, ed. Philip Hayward (Lon don : Libbey, 2004), 42-60.
50. Wells, Invisible Man, 223.
51. The in suffic ien c ies of lan guage are etc hed in to the very appellation of the
atom ic m om en t. The authors of The Day Man Lost: Hiroshima, 6 August 1945
ex plain : "Those who did n ot hear the bom b c alled it pika'the flash'; those who
did hear it c alled it the pikadon'the flash-boom '" (Pac ific War Researc h Soc iety,
The Day Man Lost: Hiroshima, 6 August 1945 [Tokyo: Kodan sha In tern ation al,
1972], 238). The rec ourse to a m im etic , on om atopoetic lan guage un dersc ores the
radic ally photographic effec ts of the atom ic ex plosion sthey have left their im prin ts
on a lan guage that is un able to desc ribe them .
52. In Atomic Bomb Cinema, Jerom e F. Shapiro n otes Hon da Ishiro's use in
182
Godzilla of woun ds to the eye an d figures of blin dn ess as sym bols of war. Of the
on e-eyed sc ien tist Seriz awa, Shapiro writes: "Ac c ordin g to Mr. Hon da, in m y in ter-
view with him in 1990, Seriz awa's m issin g eye isat least to 1950s Japan ese audi-
en c esan em blem , or stigm a, of his wartim e ex perien c e an d sufferin g" (273). The
woun ded eye would have been un derstood as a sign ifier of the war.
53. De Koon in g, "What Abstrac t Art Mean s to Me," 60.
54. Giorgio Agam ben , Means without End: Notes on Politics, tran s. Vin c en z o
Bin etti an d Cesare Casarin o (Min n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press, 2000),
92 (origin al em phases). "The fac e is at on c e the irreparable bein g-ex posed of
hum an s an d the very open in g in whic h they hide an d stay hidden " (91).
55. Ibid., 91.
56. Ibid., 95.
57. Gilles Deleuz e an d Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and
Schizophrenia, tran s. Brian Massum i (Min n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press,
1987), 168 (em phasis added). "Or should we say thin gs differen tly? It is n ot ex ac tly
the fac e that c on stitutes the wall of the sign ifier or the hole of subjec tivity. The fac e,
at least the c on c rete fac e, vaguely begin s to take shape on the white wall. It vaguely
begin s to appear in the blac k hole. In film , the c lose-up of the fac e c an be said to
have two poles: m ake the fac e reflec t light or, on the c on trary, em phasiz e its shad-
ows to the poin t of en gulfin g it' in pitiless darkn ess'" (168, origin al em phases).
58. Agam ben , Means without End, 95.
59. Ibid., 99-100 (origin al em phases).
60. As c om m en ted by a m em ber of the disc ussion at the sym posium "The Fac e
of An other: Japan ese Cin em a/Global Im ages" (Yale Un iversity, 2002).
61. For m ore on the in visibility of Korean s an d other m in orities in Japan after
the war, see Lisa Yon eyam a, "Ethn ic an d Colon ial Mem ories: The Korean Atom
Bom b Mem orial," in Hiroshima Traces: Time, Space, and the Dialectics of Memory
(Berkeley: Un iversity of Californ ia Press, 1999), 151-86. Yon eyam a desc ribes the
m em orial for Korean vic tim s of the atom ic bom b, erec ted in Hiroshim a in 1970,
"as on e of the very few visible rem in ders of the tribulation s an d sufferin g of those
m in orities in terpellated as Korean s" (153).
62. The absen c e of the defin ite partic le, "the," erased in Ellison 's version m ay
refer to an other m ode of in visibility that divides the subjec t itself an d from itself.
In visibility in Ellison 's usage refers to on e's visibility, but also the in fin ite divisibil-
ity, perhaps, of the in dividual. No lon ger in divisible, whic h is to say, sin gular, an
in visible m an is also n o lon ger in dividual. He is divisible, atom ic . Ellison 's in visible
m an fun c tion s as a pseudohom on ym for Wells's in visible m an . Buried within the
letters that c on stitute the ex pression "in visible m an " is the quasi-an agram m atic
sen ten c e "I am ."
63. Ellison was a m erc han t m arin e on sic k leave when the war en ded. Ellison 's
Invisible Man begin s, in a sen se, with the en d of World War II, in its wake.
64. Ralph Ellison , Invisible Man (New York: Vin tage, 1980), x v. Fred Moten
says, "The m ark of in visibility is a visible, rac ial m ark; in visibility has visibility at its
heart. To be in visible is to be seen , in stan tly an d fasc in atin gly rec ogn iz ed as the
un rec ogn iz able, as the abjec t, as the absen c e of in dividual self-c on sc iousn ess, as a
183
tran sparen t vessel of m ean in gs wholly in depen den t of an y in fluen c e of the vessel
itself" (Fred Moten , In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition [Min -
n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press, 2003], 68). Moten in vokes a deeply c orpo-
real in visibility that "has visibility at its heart." What is in visible in Ellison is deeply
m aterial, rac ial, an d superfic ial an d is "in stan tly rec ogn iz ed as the un rec ogn iz able."
Ellison 's figure m oves in an avisual ec on om y, where he is figured an d perc eived as
in visible. In his an alysis of Ellison 's Invisible Man, Moten lin ks m usic , soun d, an d
n oise to in visibility, ren derin g the im possibility of seein g (or of listen in g) in Ellison
to a persisten t displac em en t of sen se, what Moten desc ribes in the blac k avan t-
garde as an "en sem ble of the sen ses." Visibility return s in the ac oustic , whic h "is
seein g," Moten says, an d m akes the abjec t visibility of the in visible, avisual (67,
origin al em phasis).
65. Ellison , Invisible Man, 3.
66. Ibid. In her c hapter, "Materializ in g In visibility as X-ray Tec hn ology: Skin
Matters in Ralph Ellison 's Invisible Man," Maureen F. Curtain argues again st an
ex c lusively m etaphoric readin g of in visibility in Ellison 's n ovel. Curtain argues for
the sustain ed ac tivity of X-rays in the n ovel, operatin g as a trope, figure, an d tec h-
n ology that in sists on the in visible m an 's in visibility as a "bio-tec hn ic al phen om e-
n on ." She says: "In visibility sign als n ot the en d of m ateriality, but rather on ly the
disappearan c e of the skin " (Maureen F. Curtain , Out of Touch: Skin Tropes and
Identities in Woolf, Ellison, Pynchon, and Acker [New York: Routledge, 2003], 43).
67. Ellison , Invisible Man, 3.
68. Moten , In the Break, 84. Again , in Moten 's idiom , the in voc ation of the heart,
a figure that open s on to a c orporeal an d phan tasm atic geography.
69. Ellison , Invisible Man, 3.
70. Ibid., 6 (origin al em phasis).
71. Ibid., 6 (origin al em phasis).
72. Ibid., 7. The in visible m an c on tin ues: "To be un aware of on e's form is to
live a death. I m yself, after ex istin g som e twen ty years, did n ot bec om e alive un til I
disc overed m y in visibility" (7).
73. Ellison , Invisible Man, 438. After witn essin g Clifton 's m urder at the han ds
of a New York City polic em an , the in visible m an asks: "Why did he c hoose to
plun ge in to n othin gn ess, in to the void of fac eless fac es, of soun dless voic es, lyin g
outside history?" (439). The in visible m an c om es to un derstan d Clifton 's plun ge
outside history.
74. Ibid., 474 (em phasis added).
75. Ibid., 474.
76. Moten , In the Break, 201.
77. Ibid.
78. Deleuz e, Logic of Sense, 156.
79. Moten , In the Break, 200.
80. Deleuz e, Logic of Sense, 157.
81. Moten 's In the Break is an ex ten ded treatise on the avisuality of "blac kn ess,"
a phen om en on ex posed in the c ollapse of the audiovisual divide or sc reen , whic h
Moten loc ates in "the Blac k Radic al Tradition ." In his m ovin g an alysis of the
184
disfigured fac e of Em m ett Till, revealed at his open c asket fun eral an d c aptured in
the photographs that doc um en ted it, Moten argues for the im possibility of sepa-
ratin g photography from phon ography. "Em m ett Till's fac e is seen ," Moten says,
"was shown , shon e. His fac e was destroyed (by way of, am on g other thin gs, its
bein g shown : the m em ory of his fac e is thwarted, m ade a distan t before-as-after
effec t of its destruc tion , what we would have otherwise seen ). It was turn ed in side
out, ruptured, ex ploded, but deeper than that it was open ed" (198). The open in g of
Till's fac e, the in justic e an d violen c e it ex poses, un leashes a soun d, a c ry, an ec ho of
the "whistle" that sealed his fate, the irrepressible an d visible soun d that Moten
c alls "blac k m o'n in '." He says: "Lookin g at Em m ett Till is arrested by overton al re-
verberation s; lookin g dem urs when lookin g open s on to an un heard soun d that the
pic ture c an n ot sec ure but disc overs an d on to all of what m ight be said to m ean that
I c an look at his fac e, this photograph" (198). The rupture of Till's fac e, "turn ed in -
side out," turn s the world in side out: im age an d soun d, photography an d phon og-
raphy, this world an d its other, Utopia, are ren dered visible. Everythin g is m ade vis-
ible, espec ially the soun d of blac k m o'n in '. It is the ac ousm atic visuality of this
photograph.
82. Ellison, Invisible Man, 239-40.
83. Deleuz e, Logic of Sense, 10.
84. Dragan Kujun dz ic an d David Theo Goldberg organ iz ed a sym posium titled
"tRACEs: Rac e, Dec on struc tion , an d Critic al Theory" at the Un iversity of Califor-
n ia, Irvin e, Hum an ities Researc h In stitute in April 2003. On the relation ship between
rac e an d all of the erasures that c on stitute its histories, Kujun dz ic an d Goldberg
say, in their an n oun c em en t: "These trac es c on jure m em ory in advan c e: at on c e
urgen t an d un tim ely, they ex pose them selves an d take a c han c e with tim e. If
apartheid, as Derrida poin ted out n early twen ty years ago, will c om e to be the
n am e of som ethin g fin ally abolished, the site of a history faded in m em ory, m uc h
as an tisem itism c am e to be for c ritic al theory, then rac elessn ess c om es to be the
future of a presen t whose rac ial trac es are at on c e silen c ed an d silen tly m ark soc ial
life worlds, the rearview vision of the future. But, Derrida rem in ded us n ever to
forget, 'hasn 't apartheid always been the arc hival rec ord of the un n am eable?'
Con fin ed an d aban don ed to the silen c e of this m em ory, the n am e will reson ate all
by itself, reduc ed to the state of a term in disuse. The thin g it n am es today will n o
lon ger be, but the tom orrow it suggests c alls for c ritic al en gagem en t n ow. 'tRACEs'
ac c ordin gly is a wager about the future of the presen t."
85. Partially blin d c ult leader Asahara Shoko predic ted that the world would be
destroyed by n uc lear weapon s in 1999.
86. Shin oda's n arrator c om pares im ages of destruc tion at Kobe in 1995 an d
throughout Japan in 1945 in Moonlight Serenade (Setouchi munraito serenade, 1997).
5 . E x c r i p t /o /z /A n t i g r a p h y
1. Stan Brakhage's 1971 film The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes c hron ic les
the ac tivities of a Pittsburgh m orgue, followin g in graphic detail the various
aspec ts an d stages of m ultiple autopsies. This film establishes at the loc us of the
185
sc reen the brutal divides between on e's eyes an d an other's, the c am era view an d the
un loc kin g glare of radic al ex teriority.
2. Mauric e Merleau-Pon ty, "Eye an d Min d," in The Primacy of Perception: And
Other Essays on Phenomenological Psychology, the Philosophy of Art, History, and
Politics, ed. Jam es M. Edie, tran s. Carleton Dallery (Evan ston , IL: Northwestern
Un iversity Press, 1964), 162. "It sees itself seein g; it touc hes itself touc hin g; it is vis-
ible an d sen sitive for itself. It is n ot a self through tran sparen c e, like thought, whic h
on ly thin ks its objec t by assim ilatin g it, by c on stitutin g it, by tran sform in g it in to
thought" (162-63).
3. Ibid., 163.
4. Ibid., 164 (em phasis added).
5. Ibid., 164.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., 166. In Francis Bacon, Gilles Deleuz e m akes a sim ilar c laim . Followin g
Paul Klee, who said of pain tin g, "Not to ren der the visible, but to ren der visible,"
Deleuz e says: "The task of pain tin g is defin ed as the attem pt to ren der visible forc es
that are n ot them selves visible. Likewise, m usic attem pts to ren der son orous
forc es that are n ot them selves son orous (Gilles Deleuz e, Francis Bacon: The Logic of
Sensation, tran s. Dan iel W. Sm ith [Min n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press,
2003], 48).
9. Merleau-Pon ty, "Eye an d Min d," 169.
10. Jun 'ic hiro Tan iz aki, In Praise of Shadows, tran s. Thom as J. Harper an d Ed-
ward G. Seiden stic ker (New Haven , CT: Leete's Islan d Books, 1977), 31-32.
11. Ibid., 31.
12. Ibid., 32.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid. "The sight offen ds even our own eyes," he c on c ludes, "an d leaves n on e
too pleasan t a feelin g."
15. Merleau-Pon ty, "Eye an d Min d," 168.
16. Sam uel Weber, "Mass Mediauras, or: Art, Aura, an d Media in the Work of
Walter Ben jam in , in Mass Mediauras: Form, Technics, Media, ed. Alan Choloden ko
(Stan ford, CA: Stan ford Un iversity Press, 1996), 88. Weber fin ds in Heidegger's an d
Ben jam in 's rec ourse to the lan guage of im ages, of the pic ture (Bild), two theses on
the shadow that resem ble, in Weber's an alysis, that of Tan iz aki. Of Heidegger's essay
"The Age of the World Pic ture," Weber says: "On c e the hum an has been determ in ed
as subjec t an d the world as pic ture, Heidegger rem arks, an 'in visible shadow is c ast
over all thin gs,' a shadow whic h preven ts them from ever bein g put fully in to their
proper plac es, that is, bein g fully depic ted. This shadow is n ot sim ply ex tern al to
the world as pic ture; it is an in separable part of it. The world as pic ture reveals
itselfwhic h is to say c on c eals itselfas shadow. But shadowhere does n ot n am e
'sim ply the lac k of light,' or even less 'its n egation .' It design ates that whic h esc apes
an d eludes the c alc ulatin g plan s of total represen tation , of whic h it at the sam e
tim e is the c on dition of possibility: 'In truth the shadow bears overt an d yet im pen e-
trable witn ess to the c on c ealed glow" ("Mass Mediauras," 81, origin al em phasis).
186
Weber's readin g of the residual m etaphysic s of Heidegger's shadow produc es a form
of avisuality: the shadow evades "total represen tation ," but rem ain s an elem en t of
its possibility; the "c on c ealed glow" em erges in to the world as a "bright shadow."
17. Martin Heidegger, "The Age of the World Pic ture," in The Question concern-
ing Technology and Other Essays, tran s. William Lovitt (New York: Harper an d Row,
1977), 154. Writin g in 1938, several years after Tan iz aki, Heidegger ex ten ds his reflec -
tion s on the shadow to the "in c alc ulable" n ature of Bein g, whic h "withdraws" from
represen tation . "In keepin g with this c on c ept of shadow, we ex perien c e the in c al-
c ulable as that whic h, withdrawn from represen tation , is n evertheless m an ifest in
whatever is, poin tin g to Bein g, whic h rem ain s c on c ealed" (154).
18. Tan iz aki, In Praise of Shadows, 35.
19. Ibid., 32.
20. Ibid., 30. Tan iz aki's disc ourse is here am biguous, perhaps am bivalen t, rehears-
in g a c om m on rhetoric al gesture of the period that seeks to align Japan ese sen sibil-
ities with Eastern (m ost often Chin ese) aesthetic s. See, for ex am ple, Okakura Kakuz o's
1906 The Book of Tea.
21. Tan iz aki, In Praise of Shadows, 33.
22. Jac ques Derrida, "NO APOCALYPSE, NOT NOW (full speed ahead, seven
m issiles, seven m issives)," tran s. Catherin e Porter an d Philip Lewis, Diacritics 14.2
(1984): 20-31.
23. John Treat says the atom ic bom bin gs of Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki produc ed
memories an d images of memories of the en d of the world: "Sin c e the destruc tion of
the two c ities through the use of n uc lear weapon s in August 1945, som e of us have
the m em oryan d the rest of us, our im agin ation of that m em oryof how the
world m ay en d" (John Whittier Treat, Writing Ground Zero: Japanese Literature and
the Atomic Bomb [Chic ago: Un iversity of Chic ago Press, 1995], 1). Two im agin g
devic es, m em ory an d im agin ation , two m odes of avisuality, sum m on ed in the fac e
of total in visibility.
24. Mauric e Blan c hot, The Writing of the Disaster, tran s. An n Sm oc k (Lin c oln :
Un iversity of Nebraska Press, 1986), 41.
25. Ibid., 1.
26. Masuji Ibuse, Black Rain, tran s. John Bester (Tokyo: Kodan sha In tern a-
tion al, 1969), 34.
27. Ibid., 35.
28. Treat, Writing Ground Zero, 8.
29. At work in Tan iz aki's disc ourse is the desire for a kin d of altern ative physic s
of the body. He writes: "I always thin k how differen t everythin g would be if we in
the Orien t had developed our own sc ien c e The Orien t quite c on c eivably c ould
have open ed up a world of tec hn ology en tirely its own " (7).
30. George Weller, an Am eric an journ alist who slipped un detec ted in to Nagasaki
several days after the atom ic bom bin g of the c ity in 1945, wrote a series of stories
that desc ribed the effec ts of the bom bin g an d the radiation sic kn ess it c aused
am on g survivors. Weller's reports were ultim ately rejec ted by U.S. m ilitary c en sors,
lost, an d redisc overed six ty years later. In an idiom rem in isc en t of Ron tgen 's, Weller
desc ribed the radiation sic kn ess as "disease X."
187
31. Jean -Fran c ois Lyotard has desc ribed a sim ilar rhetoric al im passe, whic h he
c alls a "differen d." For Lyotard, the differen d arises from a c on flic t in whic h n o sin -
gle rule c an ac c om m odate two or m ore c om petin g disc ourses. It suggests that "a
un iversal rule of judgm en t between heterogen eous gen res is lac kin g in gen eral"
(Jean -Fran c ois Lyotard, The Differend: Phrases in Dispute, tran s. Georges Van Den
Abbeele [Min n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press, 1988], x i). The attem pt to
rec on c ile the atom ic bom bin gs with an y kn own disc ourses has produc ed som ethin g
like a differen d.
32. Jean -Claude Leben sz tejn suggested this lin e of thin kin g c on c ern in g em ulsion s.
33. Vivian Sobc hac k, The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experi-
ence (Prin c eton , NJ: Prin c eton Un iversity Press, 1992), 59 (origin al em phasis).
34. Ibid., 59.
35. To this she respon ds: "I saw everythin g." Total visibility an d in visibility,
everythin g an d n othin g are at stake in the visuality of Hiroshim a.
36. The history of tattooin g in Japan un doubtedly in form s the trope of body
writin g in som e way. The in fluen c e of tattooin g on popular Japan ese c ulture an d
what is gen erally un derstood from the outside as a Japan ese obsession with sur-
fac es (i.e., Rolan d Barthes), c reates a c on tex t for the atom ic trope. See Don ald
Mc Cullum 's an alysis of tattoos an d Japan ese c ulture, "Historic al an d Cultural Dim en -
sion s of the Tattoo in Japan ," in Marks of Civilization: Artistic Transformations of the
Human Body," ed. Arn old Rubin (Los An geles: Museum of Cultural History, Un i-
versity of Californ ia, Los An geles, 1988), 109-34.
37. Siegfried Krac auer, Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality (New
York: Ox ford Un iversity Press, 1960), 71.
38. Albert Liu, letter to author, Marc h 2004.
39. Dudley An drew reads the politic al an d phen om en al play of in visibility in
an other of Miz oguc hi's film s from the post-Oc c upation period (1945-52), Sanshd
the Bailiff (Sanshd Dayu, 1954): "If on e takes Japan as a n ation that durin g the
Oc c upation bec am e in visible to itselfwhen the Un ited States preven ted the past
from bein g seen an d revoked c ustom s an d tradition sthen Sanshd Dayu c ould be
said to c all this people to c on sc iousn ess" (Dudley An drew, "Miz o Dayu," in Sanshd
Dayu, Dudley An drew an d Carole Cavan augh [Lon don : British Film In stitute,
2000], 44).
40. Giorgio Agam ben , followin g Prim o Levi, desc ribes the state of c ertain pris-
on ers of the death c am ps who were labeled "Muselm an n er," or Muslim s. They were
the livin g dead of the c am ps. Man y who reac hed this c on dition listless an d aim -
less, virtually without lan guage: a "fac eless presen c e," says Levidied (Prim o Levi,
Surviving in Auschwitz and The Reawakening: Two Memoirs, tran s. Stuart Woolf
[New York: Sum m it Books, 1986], 90, c ited in Giorgio Agam ben , Remnants of
Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive, tran s. Dan iel Heller-Roaz en [New York:
Zon e, 1999]). But som e return ed. Those who did return ed from the other side of
lan guage. "This im plies," says Agam ben of the ability to survive radic al erasure in
life, "that in hum an bein gs, life bears with it a c aesura that c an tran sform all life
in to survival an d all survival in to life" (Remnants of Auschwitz, 133). Life as sur-
vival, survival of life: the reversibility of the phrase ren ders life an em ulsion , a m ix -
188
ture of life an d its an tithesis, all livin g a form of overc om in g life, of always return -
in g to life as a c on dition of life.
41. Fluid im agery saturates the n arrative. Although the sc en e of in sc ription in
Miz oguc hi's Ugetsu appears in an other form in Akin ari's origin al tex t, both ver-
sion s m ake n um erous referen c es to liquids an d fluidity. In the tex t, the priest him -
self dispels the dem on an d her atten dan t: "A spout of water asc en ded, as if to the
sky," Akin ari writes, "an d the two wom en disappeared. Clouds en gulfed the party
an d as though spillin g blac k In dia in k brought down a torren tial deluge of rain "
(Ueda Akin ari, "The Lust of the White Serpen t," in Ugetsu Monogatari: Tales of
Moonlight and Rain, tran s. Leon Zolbrod [Tokyo: Tuttle, 1974], 177). Here, the tor-
ren t replac es the tex t on the body, desc en din g on Gen juro (Toyoo in the origin al)
an d flushin g his skin with In dia in k. While tran sform in g the blac k rain in to c allig-
raphy, Miz oguc hi has retain ed its aquatic forc e.
Liquid im agery c on tin ues in other sc en es throughout Akin ari's tex t. A sec on d
priest who tries to ex orc ise the dem on s by m ix in g sulfur with m edic in e water m eets
his m atc h when "the c reature [open s] its m outh m ore than three feet wide; its c rim -
son ton gue [dartin g], as if to swallow the priest in a sin gle gulp" (180). Durin g the
en c oun ter, the priest is en gulfed by "poison ous vapours" an d ultim ately lapses in to
un c on sc iousn ess. "His fac e an d body were m ottled red an d blac k," writes Akin ari,
"as though they were stain ed with dye" (180). The dem on s, whic h have m etam or-
phosed in to sn akes, are ultim ately van quished, in Akin ari's tex t, by a m on k's robe
"saturated in m ustard-seed in c en se." In Ugetsu, the sen sorium that ran ges from
touc h to sm ell travels through a fluidic ec on om y.
42. Christian Metz , The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and Cinema, tran s.
Celia Britton , An n wyl William s, Ben Brewster, an d Alfred Guz z etti (Bloom in gton :
In dian a Un iversity Press, 1982), 101. Of the relation between dream s an d film s, Metz
says: "We som etim es speak of the illusion of reality in on e or the other, but true illu-
sion belon gs to the dream an d to it alon e. In the c ase of the c in em a, it is better to
lim it on eself to rem arkin g the ex isten c e of a c ertain impression of reality" (101).
43. "The dream proper is an im age based on the m ovem en t of sen se im pres-
sion s" (Aristotle, "On Dream s," in The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. Jon athan
Barn es, tran s. J. I. Beare [Prin c eton , NJ: Prin c eton Un iversity Press, 1984], 1:735).
44. Uen o Ic hiro, "Review," in Ugetsu: Kenji Mizoguchi, Director, ed. Keiko I.
Mc Don ald (New Brun swic k, NJ: Rutgers Un iversity Press, 1993), 118.
45. Lafc adio Hearn , "The Story of Mim i-Nashi-Hoic hi," in Kwaidan: Stories
and Studies of Strange Things (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1971), 3.
46. Jac ques Derrida, Memoirs of the Blind: The Self-Portrait and Other Ruins,
tran s. Pasc al-An n e Brault an d Mic hael Naas (Chic ago: Un iversity of Chic ago Press,
1993), 126 (origin al em phases).
47. Ibid., 127.
48. Gilles Deleuz e, Cinema 1: The Movement-Image, tran s. Hugh Tom lin son
an d Barbara Habberjam (Min n eapolis: Un iversity of Min n esota Press, 1986), 79.
"Water," says Deleuz e, "is the m ost perfec t en viron m en t in whic h m ovem en t c an be
ex trac ted from the thin g m oved, or m obility from m ovem en t itself" (77).
49. Maureen Turim suggested this c om parison .
189
50. David Serlin desc ribes the visit of the Hiroshim a Maiden s: "Un like sur-
vivors of c on ven tion al war, the Maiden s elic ited an un prec eden ted outpourin g of
m edic al an x ieties an d fears c on c ern in g the treatm en t of the body (an d, espec ially,
the fem ale body) as disabled by the effec ts of radiation an d n uc lear fallout. Muc h
to the State Departm en t's c hagrin , the visual an d sym bolic eviden c e of the Maid-
en s' dam aged bodies in public view helped to forge un avoidable lin ks between their
physic al sc arrin g an d the dam age wrought by the atom ic bom b. In n ewspapers
ac ross the c oun try, the youn g wom en were desc ribed variously as 'bom b-sc arred,'
'A-sc arred,' 'Hiroshim a-sc arred,' 'A-burn ed,' 'Atom ic -bom b-sc arred,' or sim ply as
'A-girls' or 'A-vic tim s'" (David Serlin , "The Clean Room /Dom estic atin g the 'Hiro-
shim a Maiden s,'" Cabinet 11 [sum m er 2003]: 8).
51. Peter Green away's 1996 film The Pillow Book, a loose adaptation of Sei
Shon agon 's book of the sam e title, m akes ex ten sive use of the trope of body writin g
to play iron ic ally with the Japan esen ess of a film that is on ly n om in ally Japan ese.
52. The assem blage, they say, a disorganized an ti-body, "works on ly through
the dism an tlin g [demontage] that it brin gs about on the m ac hin e an d on represen -
tation . An d, ac tually fun c tion in g, it fun c tion s on ly through an d bec ause of its own
dism an tlin g. It is born from this dism an tlin g" (Gilles Deleuz e an d Felix Guattari,
Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature, tran s. Dan a Polan [Min n eapolis: Un iversity of
Min n esota Press, 1986], 48).
53. Jean -Fran 9ois Lyotard in ven ts this term , "ac in em a," to desc ribe the gen eral
prac tic e of "effac em en t an d ex c lusion " in film m akin g that leads in evitably to
abstrac tion (Jean -Fran 9ois Lyotard, "Ac in em a," in Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology:
A Film Theory Reader, ed. Philip Rosen , tran s. Paisley N. Livin gston [New York:
Colum bia Un iversity Press, 1986], 349-59).
54. Blan c hot, Writing of the Disaster, 1.
55. Tan iz aki, In Praise of Shadows, 30.
56. Martin Arn old erases, in Deanimated: The Invisible Ghost (2002), c harac -
ters from a horror film , Joseph H. Lewis's 1941 The Invisible Ghost. After digitiz in g
the film , Arn old selec tively an d sequen tially rem oves c harac ters from the origin al,
leavin g behin d em pty props, un in habited sets, an d seem in gly aim less c am era
m ovem en ts. The bac kgroun ds are replac ed, so the erasure leaves n o trac e. The ef-
fec ts are n ot un like som e aspec ts of in visible m an film s ex c ept that Arn old also erases
in som e plac es the voic es of c harac ters. In these in stan c es, Arn old seals the c harac -
ters' m ouths shut, leavin g them with un ex plain ed bodily trem ors an d un c om fort-
ably lon g n on respon ses. Arn old's voc al erasures in sc ribe the trope of erasure, an
avisuality of the voic e, sign aled by a silen t body that trem bles. In her rec yc led film
Removed (1999), Naom i Um an also erases c harac ters from foun d footage porn og-
raphy. She has stain ed the work in a pin k n ail polish, then erased the figures of
wom en with a rem over, leavin g behin d tac tile white shadows where the wom en
on c e were.
57. Blan c hot, Writing of the Disaster, 7.
58. Abe Kobo, The Woman in the Dunes, tran s. E. Dale Saun ders (New York:
Kn opf, 1964), 7.
59. Ibid. 3.
190
60. "Otagai wo tashikam eau tam e n o arayuru shom eisho" (in order to c on -
vin c e on e an other of our ex isten c e).
61. "Otoko m o on n a m o aite ga waz ato te wo n uiteirun odewa n aika to kurai
saigi n o toriko to n aru. Keppaku wo shim esu tam e n i m uri wo shite atarashi shobun
wo om oi tsuku" (m en an d wom en bec om e prison ers of their dark suspic ion s
toward on e an other. To plead their in n oc en c e, they thin k up n ew doc um en ts).
62. In the m agaz in e, the m an sees a c artoon an d breaks in to a c on vulsive laugh-
ter, borderin g on hysteria. In the sin gle-fram e c artoon , a m an , apparen tly havin g
failed in his diet, has been run over by a steam roller, whic h has flatten ed his body
below his n ec k. The im age in vokes an early film c om edy, Jam es William son 's 1905
An Interesting Story.
63. Deleuz e an d Guattari use the term s "sm ooth" an d "striated" to desc ribe the
play of in sc ription an d erasure in spac e. Their geographic figure for the c on ver-
gen c e of writin g an d erasin g is the desert. Sm ooth an d striated spac es always ex ist
as a m ix ture, as an em ulsion : "The two spac es in fac t ex ist on ly in m ix ture: sm ooth
spac e is c on stan tly bein g tran slated, tran sversed in to striated spac e; striated spac e is
c on stan tly bein g reversed, return ed to a sm ooth spac e. In the first c ase, one organ-
izes even in the desert; in the second, the desert gains and grows; and the two can
happen simultaneously" (Gilles Deleuz e an d Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus:
Capitalism and Schizophrenia, tran s. Brian Massum i [Min n eapolis: Un iversity of
Min n esota Press, 1987], 474-75, em phasis added).
64. Ibid., 497-98 (origin al em phasis).
6 . P h a n t o m C u r e s
1. Maborosi's obsc ure visuality evokes an other dark film , David Lyn c h's 1977
Eraserhead, whic h is sim ilarly c om posed of dark surfac es. In c on trast to Maborosi,
the strategic lum in osity of Eraserhead ren ders the film avisual but n ot in visible. Its
avisuality is gen erated, it seem s, from the ac ousm atic soun d that en velops, per-
m eates, erupts from , an d ultim ately c on stitutes the film 's visual field. Besides the
figure of erasure named in its title and embodied in its protagonist, E raserhead also
bears the in sc ription "x ": Lyn c h's fem ale lead, the m other of Hen ry's c hild, is n am ed
in the c redits as Mary X, her paren ts Mr. an d Mrs. X.
2. Kore-eda, in an in terview with Gabriel M. Paletz , desc ribes his reluc tan c e to
use flashbac ks, lin kin g it to his bac kgroun d in doc um en tary film m akin g. About his
first uses of flashbac ks in his third feature film Distance (2001), Kore-eda says: "I've
always avoided usin g flashbac ks, as m em ories presen ted in real im ages The rea-
son for avoidin g c on c rete im ages from the past is that to m ake a doc um en tary, m y
basic stan c e is n ot to ex press what's in side a subjec t. Doc um en taries should try to
reveal the in side by showin g the outside" (Gabriel M. Paletz , "The Halfway House
of Mem ory: An In terview with Hirokaz u Kore-eda," CineAction 60 [2003]: 58).
3. In his disc ussion with Paletz , Kore-eda desc ribes the role of the green bi-
c yc le as an ex ten sion of the film 's en tire c olor:" Maborosi s c olor was quite c arefully
plan n ed. In the first half of the film , the m ain ton e is green . So Yum iko an d Ikuo
even pain t the bic yc le green " (Paletz , "Halfway House of Mem ory," 57). Green objec ts
set again st the green ton es of the film also flatten the world on to the sc reen .
191
4. In this sen se, Mam iya is n ot un like the vac an t m an in Alain Resn ais's 1962
film Last Year at Marienbad named " X, " who seeks to convince a woman " A" that
they had m et on e year earlier. He arrives to her like an ex tern aliz ed m em ory, n o
trac e of whic h rem ain s within her. "You m ust rem em ber," he presses her, as he
rec oun ts to her the episodes of their earlier en c oun ter. He is at on c e an X-ray an d
erasure. "You are like a shadow," she says to him . Em ptin ess as a figure for in visibility
also appears in Paul Verhoeven 's 2000 film Hollow Man, whic h em ploys the idiom
of hollown ess as a syn on ym for in visibility, suggestin g a relation ship between vol-
um e an d visibility.
5. Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Eiga wa osoroshi (Tokyo: Seiddsha, 2001), 302. Kurosawa
desc ribes his m ethod. He selec ted large an d em pty room s for his shoots, then filled
them with sim ple an d ordin ary furn iture an d asked his ac tors to ac t in an ordin ary
an d everyday m an n er. The stran gen ess of the sc en es em erges from the great dis-
tan c es, as m uc h as ten m eters, between the piec es of furn iture an d the elon gated
an d em ptied spac es gen erated by the ac tors who m oved between them (302).
6. Sakum a's phrase "don 't take m e too seriously" (ma ni ukeruna) ec hoes his
earlier ex plan ation of the c rim es to Takabe, "the devil m ade them do it" (ma ga
sashita). "Ma" c an m ean either "truth" or "evil." Sakum a's n am e rhym es with akuma,
or evil; his first n am e, Makoto, m ean s "truth." The word or c harac ter "m a" in both
Mam iya an d Sakum a has yet an other m ean in g, "in terval" or "spac e," a term used
ex ten sively in the Noh theater.
7. Kurosawa, Eiga wa osoroshi, 301.
8. Mam iya's gesture ec hoes the m ovem en ts of the han d sign in g "x " in the his-
toric al footage that Sakum a shows Takabe. A tec hn ic al gesture (for in duc in g hyp-
n osis) an d a sign ature (sign in g with an im agin ary stylus), the "x " sign also represen ts
the ac t of c uttin g an other open , of en terin g an d ex itin g an other. In OfGrammatol-
ogy, Jac ques Derrida loc ates a gesture of sign in g, what he c alls "m ute sign in g," in
Rousseau. Rousseau refers to the gesture as a "m agic wan d." Derrida says: "The
m ovem en t of the m agic wan d that trac es with so m uc h pleasure does n ot fall out-
side the body. Un like the spoken or written sign , it does n ot c ut itself off from the
desirin g body of the person who trac es or from the im m ediately perc eived im age of
the other She who trac es, holdin g, han dlin g, n ow, the wan d, is very c lose to
touching what is very close to being the other itself, close by a minute difference
that sm all differen c evisibility, spac in g, deathis un doubtedly the origin of the
sign an d the breakin g of im m ediac y (Jac ques Derrida, Of Grammatology, tran s.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak [Baltim ore, MD: John s Hopkin s Un iversity Press, 1976],
234, origin al em phasis). The "m agic wan d" or "m ute sign ," un like the "spoken or
written sign ," does n ot leave the body en tirely. It form s a virtual c on tac t between
two bodies, separated "by a m in ute differen c e" an d serves as the "origin of the sign ."
In Cure, this m ute sign c on n ec ts two bodies, the m ovem en t of on e in to an other,
without a c om plete tran sfer of subjec tivity, on e to the other. The desirin g body
rem ain s in side the other, a sec ret tran sac tion or touc h, a shadow tran sferen c e.
1Q2 9. Sigm un d Freud, "Moses an d Mon otheism : Three Essays," in The Standard
Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. an d tran s. Jam es
Strac hey (Lon don : Hogarth, 1955), 23:63.
10. The trope of tran sm ission from Freud to Cure, hypn osis to m ission ary c on -
version , also establishes the forc e of an other Japan ese horror film , Nakata Hideo's
1998 Ring, whic h is based on the im perative to tran sm it. A transmissionary z eal,
on e c ould say.
11. "Writin g, the trac e, in sc ription , on an ex terior substrate or on the so-c alled
body proper, as for ex am ple, an d this is n ot just an y ex am ple for m e, that sin gular
and immemorial archive called circumcision, and which, though never leaving you,
n on etheless has c om e about, an d is n o less ex terior, exterior right on your body
proper" (Jac ques Derrida, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, tran s. Eric Pren owitz
[Chic ago: Un iversity of Chic ago Press, 1996], 26, origin al em phases).
12. Freud, "Moses an d Mon otheism ," 112-13.
13. Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok, " Mourning or Melancholia: Introjec-
tion versus In c orporation ," in The Shell and the Kernel: Renewals of Psychoanalysis,
ed. an d tran s. Nic holas T. Ran d (Chic ago: Un iversity of Chic ago Press, 1994), 126
(origin al em phasis).
14. Ibid., 126.
15. Ibid., 127.
16. "An a-lysis m ean in g," says Albert Liu, "breakin g down , atom iz in g, dissolvin g"
(letter to author, Marc h 2004).
17. Paul Virilio, The Vision Machine, tran s. Julie Rose (Bloom in gton : In dian a
Un iversity Press, 1994), 59.
18. Ibid., 75.
19. Ibid., 72-73 (origin al em phases). Virilio c on tin ues: "Seein g an d n on -seein g
have always en joyed a relation ship of rec iproc ity, light an d dark c om bin in g in the
passive optic s of the c am era len s" (73, origin al em phasis).
20. Raym on d Bellour desc ribes the passage between the world an d im ages as
an alogy; the relation ship is an alogic , determ in ed by the logic of n atural resem -
blan c e. "If we use the c on c ept of n ature, in keepin g with its religious origin , to des-
ign ate the relation ship of depen den c e between two term s, the world an d the im age,
the 'an alogy' also leads us to presuppose suc h a relation ship between the im ages
them selves, in other words, between form s of im ages as well as between form s an d
world(s)" (Raym on d Bellour, "The Double Helix ," in Electronic Culture: Technology
and Visual Representation, ed. Tim othy Druc krey [New York: Aperture, 1996], 177).
For Bellour, the relation ship between the world an d its im ages, foun ded on c on c epts
of religious an d n atural order, evolves in tim e to a n ew m ode of an alogy, whic h
establishes, like Virilio's vision m ac hin es, relation ships between im ages, passages
between form s of im ages an d m odes of visuality.
21. Virilio c alls this m om en t of the en d of visuality, a m om en t that has just
begun , an "in ten sive etern ity." It is a form of atom ic tem porality that follows from
the atom ic destruc tion of m atter in spac e. "After the n uc lear disin tegration of the
space of matter," he says, "whic h led to the im plem en tation of a global deterren c e
strategy, the disin tegration of the time of light is fin ally upon us" (Vision Machine,
72, origin al em phases). The tim e of light is atom ic , sin gular an d totally destruc tive, 193
avisual an d in ten sively etern al, a "tem poral atom " (72).
193
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I n d e x
AbeKobo, 121,129,179n .8
Abraham : gift of Isaac to God from ,
164n .63
Abraham , Nic olas, 10,154, 160n .l6,
176n .37,193n .l3
absolute den sity: c on c ept of, 83, 85
absolute in visibility, 32
absorption , 147; Fried's c ategories of,
65-66, 174n .22
abyss (mise-en-abime), 56, 69, 175n .27;
of en c oun ters, 68-69; of form less-
n ess, 97, 99; in Maborosi, 137; of
oral c avities, 71, 73; in Woman in
the Dunes, 129
Ac hilles, 117
"ac in em a" based on dem on tage, 119,
190n .53
ac ousm atic soun d, 135,138, 142,
182n .48,191n .l
Ac res, Brit, 172n .70
Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes,
The, 185n .l
Adac hi Shin sei, 83
Adorn o, Theodor, 42,43, 167n .22,
168n .27
Agam ben , Giorgio, 96-97,161n .25,
162n .22, 183n .54,188n .40; defi-
n ition of arc hive, 11-12
"Age of the World Pic ture, The"
(Heidegger), 186n .l6
Agua Radium, 168n .36
AIDS pan dem ic , 170n .48
albin ism of Wells's in visible m an , 88,
90,91-92
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
(Carroll), 177n .38
allegory(ies): of atom ic an n ihilation ,
113-20; of avisuality, tran sform a-
tion of photography by X-rays in to,
93; in postwar Japan ese c in em a, 86,
179n .l2
allopsy, 105
Ame humaine, ses mouvements, ses
lumieres et I'iconographie de
I'invisible, L' (Baraduc ), 172n .80
Am en ophis IV, 162n .23
an alogy: passage between world an d
im ages as, 193n .20
an arc hive, 11
an atom ic al represen tation , 47-48
1 95
196
An drew, Dudley, 188n .39
an tigraphy. See m c riprion /an tigraphy
an ti-Sem itism , 185n .84
An toku (c hild em peror), 1
an x iety: Lac an 's spec ter of, 39
apartheid, 185n .84
apoc alypse, 49
arc hitec ture: arc hitec ton ic s of the body
an d, 22; Freud's c arn al, 36,166n .7;
of n othin g (or the un c on sc ious),
40; reorgan iz ation of urban an d
psyc hic spac e, after developm en t
of iron an d glass, 166n .6; Tan iz aki's
In Praise of Shadows, on Japan ese,
21-25
arc hive: arc hon tic prin c iple of, 161n .l5;
asem an tic , 12; c on sign ation of, 17-
18,161n .l5; Derrida on , 10, 21;
of hum an body (Visible Hum an
Projec t), 47-48; law of the, 10,18;
Library of Babel as last, 5, 9; liter-
ary, 24-26; pararchive, 12; sec ret, 9-
10; sec ret arc hitec ton ic of, 17-18; of
sec rets, 10, 11; topology of, 27-29;
un c on sc ious, 11. See also shadow
arc hive
arc hive fever, 10,160n .22
Archive Fever (Derrida), 17, 160n .20
Aristotle, 115,189n .43
arkheion, 24-25
arfc /z ewritin g, 59
Arm at, Thom as, 172n .70
Arn old, Jac k, 182n .46
Arn old, Martin , 190n .56
Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, The
(Arrivee d'un train en gare de la
Ciotat), 63-66, 68
art: use of X-rays in , 53
Artaud, An ton in , 42, 79,178n .65
artefact: X-ray im age as, 53
artists: respon se to X-rays of, 52-53
Asahara Shoko, 102,185n .85
asem an tic arc hive, 12
Aten (sun god): religion of, 18,153
Atom ic Bom b Dom e (Hiroshim a
Prefec tural In dustrial Prom otion
Hall), 27, 33
atom ic bom bin g: photographic legac y
of, 94-95; radic al visuality
un leashed by, 81-82. See also
Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki: atom ic
bom bin g of
atom ic disfiguration : trope of, 117-18
atom ic light, 81-82, 92
atom ic radiation : blac k rain as after-
effect of, 110, 111; human body
ex posed by, 4; im pac t on Japan ese
visual c ulture, 4-5
atom ic shadows, 94
atom ic tim e: Teshigahara's evoc ation
of, 126
atom ic trac e, 81-105; atom ic light, 81-
82, 92; bom bin g of Hiroshim a an d
Nagasaki an d, 92,93-95,102-3;
Ellison 's in visible m an an d, 98-102;
tdmei ningen (in visible m an ) film s
in Japan , 83-87,95-98,120-21,
179n .4,179n .ll, 180n .l3; Wells's
Invisible Man an d, 82, 83,87-92
atom ic vision , 145
atom ic war: allegories of atom ic
an n ihilation , 113-20; Derrida on
possibility of n uc lear war, 25-26,
163n .50; light-weapons of, 92; m ush-
room c loud of, 92; relation ship
between ex trem e eros an d pursuit
of sc ien c e in atom ic bom b c in em a,
83,179n .6,180n .l3; urban plan -
n in g for, 179n .5
atom ic writin g, 27-28,109-10,112-
13,121
atom ism , 6
atom ology, 6
Audio-Vision (Chion ), 182n .48
Augustin e, 115
Aum Shin rikyd (Suprem e Truth), 102
"aural aesthetic ": Moten on , 100
autom obile ex plosion s an d c ollision s:
film s of, 66-67
autopsy, 105; in teriority of body
revealed in Wells's Invisible Man,
90,91-92
A-visuality, 81-82
avisuality, 30, 32-33, 35-59; atom ic
bom bin g of Hiroshim a an d
Nagasaki an d, 102-3; as audio-
visuality, 95; of "blac kn ess," 184n .81;
at body's c en ter, 41; c in em a as
m ode of, 55-59; of dream s, 41-42;
Heidegger's shadow an d, 187n .l6;
paradox of, 98; psyc hoan alysis as
m ode of, 35-42, 56-59; tran sfor-
m ation of photography by X-rays
in to allegory of, 93; X-rays, 41-53,
55-59
Baby's Meal, The, 71
Bac on , Fran c is, 53,171n .61
Balz ac , Hon or de, 50
Baraduc , Hippolyte, 172n .80
Barthes, Rolan d, 49, 53, 54, 170n .49,
171n .62, 188n .36
Basquiat, Jean -Mic hel, 52
bat bom b ex perim en ts ("Projec t X-
Ray"), 182n .46
Baudry, Jean -Louis, 79,178n .63
Baz in , An dre, 73,137,176n .35
Bec querel, Hen ri, 168n .36
"Before the Law" (Kafka), 159n .ll
Bell of Nagasaki, The (Nagasaki no
kane), 83-84
Bellour, Raym on d, 193n .20
Ben jam in , Walter, 5, 58, 62,159n .2,
172n .79, 173n .9,186n .l6
Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Freud), 75
Big Swallow, The, 71-73,176n .37
biogram m atology, 55
Birth of a Nation, 175n .30
Bitz er, G. W., 69-71, 175n .30,176n .32
blac k hole of subjec tivity, 97
"blac kn ess": avisuality of, 184n .81
blac k rain , 110, lll,189n .41
Black Rain (Kuroi ame) (Ibuse Masuji),
110, 111, 187n .26
Blan c hot, Mauric e, 107, 109,120,
190n .54
blin dn ess: ec static , 156; as in verse form
of in visibility, 96; as sym bol of war,
183n .52. See also in visibility
body: arc hitec ton ic s of, 22; border
between psyc he an d, 36, 165n .2;
ex posed by atom ic radiation , 4;
hum an ity of hum an , 106; Japan ese
(Orien tal), 21-24, 33,107-11, 143;
surfac eless, 42-43; Visible Hum an
Projec t an d an atom ic al represen -
tation of, 47-48; writin g on , 1-5,
112-13,117,119,188n .36. See also
in teriority; skin
Booth, Walter R., 66
Borges, Jorge Luis, 35,46,159n .l; un i-
versal Library im agin ed by, 5-9
Bouillion , Vic tor, 49,170n .50
Brakhage, Stan , 185n .l
Breuer, Josef, 29,56,172n .74
Broc khouse, Bertram N., 170n .51
Bun uel, Luis, 174n .26
Burc h, Noel, 56, 62, 74,172n .73,
177n .40
Butler, Judith, 167n . 16
Camera Lucida (Barthes), 171n .62
Carroll, Lewis, 177n .38
Cartwright, Lisa, 44-46,47-48, 53, 57,
168n .29, 169n .38, 172n .77
Cassirer, Ern st, 42, 167n .21
Charc ot, Jean -Martin , 58
Chien Andalou, Un, 174n .26
Chion , Mic hel, 87,181n .l8,182n .48
c hron ophotography, 55
c in ders, 33; Derrida on , 26-28,163n .54;
sm oke as distin c t from , 26-27. See
also atom ic trac e
Cinders (Derrida), 26-27
c in efac tion , 33
c in em a, 30-32, 33; advan c es in film
tec hn ology durin g 1895,172n .70;
as "depth ren dered perc eptible," 79;
dream s an d, 115,189n .42; em er-
gen c e of, 30; ex ploration of depth in ,
56; flic kerin g effec t in , 69,176n .32;
in tern al, 79; Lum iere's dream of, 55;
as m eton ym y of hum an surfac e,
113; as m ode of avisuality, 55-59;
possibilities for organ iz ation of
in teriority offered by, 57-59; post-
war Japanese, 83-87, 95, 113-20,
179n .4,179n .ll, 180n . 13; psyc hol-
ogy of m ovem en t in , 62-63, 73; re-
versibility prin c iple of, 67,174n .24;
"sightless vision " at en d of, 156;
spatial depth an d volum e as trope
of early, 73; tac tility as form of
c in em a optic s, 61,62; as tec hn ology
for visualiz in g the in side, 30; as
vision m ac hin e, 156-57
197
Cinema Is Horrible (Eiga wa osoroshi)
(Kurosawa Kiyoshi), 147
c in em a surfac e design , 61-80; auto-
mobile explosions and collisions,
film s of, 66-67; Bitz er's subway film ,
69-71,175n .30, 176n .32; Dic kson s'
film s of in sec ts, 63; Lum iere
brothers' film s of train s, 63-66,
68-69; psyc hology of m ovem en t
revealed, 62-63, 73; sc reen as "m eta-
physic al surfac e," 68-69, 73-74, 77,
78, 80,175n .28-29; "visual" c in em a,
Dulac 's c all for, 61, 62; William son 's
Big Swallow, 71-73,176n .37
Cin em atographe, 55
c irc um c ision , 16, 20,153-54,163n .59,
193n .ll
Civilization and Its Discontents
(Freud), 166n .l5
Clark, Claudia, 168n .36
"c lose-up" effec t in film , 62-63; n ew
an d un suspec ted form ation s of
m atter revealed by, 73, 176n .34
c ollision s: film s of, 63-69
c om m un ic ation : fac e an d, 97-98
c on c en tration an d dispersal: dialec tic
of, 179n .5
Con rad, Ton y, 176n .32
c on sc iousn ess (Cs.), Freud on , 76
c on sign ation of arc hive, 17-18,
161n .l5
Gorm an , Roger, 145
c orporeality: Freud on psyc hic , 36, 39
Cran gle, Ric hard, 171n .67
Cure, 133,143-57, 192n .4-8; dilem m a
resolved in form of in stitution al
ren un c iation in , 154; displac ed
in teriority in , 144-45,147, 153,
154; em ptin ess in , 144-45,147,153;
lightin g in , 148-49; obsc urity of
title, 154-55; "x " sign in , 144,147,
153-54, 192n .8
Curie, Marie, 168n .36
Curie, Pierre, 168n .36
Curtain , Maureen F., 184n .66
Dagogn et, Fran c ois, 55,171n .66
daguerreotype, 50
Dali, Salvador, 174n .26
Dan n o-ura, Battle of (1185), 1,115
Day Man Lost: Hiroshima, 6 August
1945, The, 182n .51
Deanimated: The Invisible Ghost
(Arn old), 190n .56
death: gift of, 29,164n .63; m em ories
of, 29; photography in sc ribin g true
story of on e's, 49; restoration of
in visible body to visibility at, 87, 91,
96,180n .l7; reversibility in c in em a
of, 67-68,174n .24; X-ray im age an d
prem on ition of, 46-47
death drive: Derrida on , 20, 29,
162n .30
"deflation of spac e," 67,174n .25
de Koon in g, Willem , 81-82, 92, 96,
100,109,146,178n .l,183n .53
Deleuz e, Gilles, 62, 73,100,101,106,
119,135,161n .22,167n .l8,167n .23,
177n .50, 178n .l, 178n .66,189n .48,
190n .52; on fac e, 97, 183n .57; on
"forc e," 65,174n .l9; on "m em -
bran es," 80; on "m etaphysic al
surfac e," 68-69, 73-74, 77, 78, 80,
175n .28-29; on pain tin g, 186n .8;
on paradox of in fin ite iden tity, 6,
159n .6; on passage of phan tasm , 75,
76-77, 177n .41; on psyc hoan alysis,
75, 78; on slidin g on m etaphysic al
surfac e, 73-74; on sm ooth spac e,
130,19In .63; on surfac eless body,
42-43
dem etaphoriz ation , 177n .37
Demolition of a Wall (Demolition d'un
mur), 174n .24
dem on tage, 119,156-57,190n .52
de-propriation an d de-iden tific ation :
fac e as threshold of, 97-98
Derrida, Jac ques, 13, 62, 121, 160n .l7-
20, 161n .4,161n .l3,161n .24,
163n .35, 163n .52, 163n .59,171n .65,
173n .81, 181n .44, 185n .84,187n .22,
189n .46; on arc hive, 10,21; on
atom ic bom bin g of Hiroshim a an d
Nagasaki, 109; on c in ders, 26-28,
163n .54; on c irc um c ision , 154,
193n .ll; on death drive, 20, 29,
162n .30; on gift, 14, 17; on "m ute
sign in g," 192n .8; on possibility of
198
n uc lear war, 25-26,163n .50; on
pseudon ym s, 162n .22; on psyc ho-
an alysis, 11,13,161n .l, 162n .30;
on relation ship between tears an d
vision , 115-16; on relation ship of
sec rec y an d death to patern ity, 28-
29,164n .63; on sec ret visuality, 30-
31; topology of arc hive for, 27-29;
on the trac e, 54, 59
Desc artes, Ren e, 62
desc riptive subjec tivity, 120
desire: photography as visualiz ation
of, 58
destruc tive visuality: Visible Hum an
Projec t as form of, 48
Dic kson , An ton ia, 63,173n .lO
Dic kson , W. K. L., 63,173n .lO
differen d, 188n .31
Dim en dberg, Edward, 179n .5
disfiguration , atom ic , 117-18
dispersal an d c on c en tration : dialec tic
of, 179n .5
displac em en t in Freud's dream work,
38-39,40, 166n . 14
Distance, 191n .2
Dragosh, Paula, 171n .68
dream s: Aristotle on , 115, 189n .43;
avisuality of, 41-42; displac em en t
in Freud's dream work, 38-39, 40,
166n .l4; Freud on , 35, 36-42, 56-
57,172n .75; Freud's dream of
Irrn a's in jec tion , 36-42, 46, 56, 79,
166n .5, 166n .lO-ll; as projec tion ,
56-57, 172n .75; relation between
film an d, 115,189n .42; sec ret of, 41
"dream sc reen ," 79, 80
dream win dow, Freud's, 36, 166n .6
Duc ham p, Marc el, 52
Dulac , Germ ain e, 61,62, 63, 73, 79,119,
173n .l,173n .7, 178n .64
Duras, Marguerite, 112
Ec kstein , Em m a, 35, 164n .l
ec static blin dn ess, 156
Edison , Thom as Alva, 57, 172n .70,
173n .lO, 173n .l5
ego: im portan c e of surfac e in develop-
m en t of, 75-79
"Ego an d the Id, The" (Freud), 78
elec tric ity: in tegration in to Japan ese
house, 21-25
Ellison , Ralph, 98-102, 107, 135, 146,
183n .62-64,184n .66, 184n .72-73
em otion al visuality, 63
em ptin ess, 155; in Cure, 144-45, 147,
153; as figure for in visibility, 145,
192n .4; in X: The Man with X-Ray
Eyes, 146-47
em pty depth, 133
em ulsion : adven t of photography
fac ilitated by prin c iple of, 111-12;
c reated by atom ic bom bin gs, 111;
life as, 114, 188n .40; between litera-
ture an d film , 119; in Maborosi,
140,142; in postatom ic Japan ese
c in em a, 113-20; in Woman in the
Dunes, 129, 130,191n .63
En lighten m en t: as totalitarian , 42;
writin g, trajec tory from in sc ription
to exscription, 55; X-ray an d c ollapse
of En lighten m en t figure, 42-43
En ola Gay ex hibit: Sm ithson ian
In stitution 's erasure of, 50,102
Eraserhead: avisuality of, 191n .l
erasure: in visibility as form of, 120-21,
190n .56; "x " sign as m ark of, 147
eros, 83, 179n .6, 180n .l3
ex sc n ptuw/an tigraphy, 59,105-31; blac k
rain , 110, 111; Hoic hi in terioriz ed
by, 2-3; in visibility as form of erasure
(an tigraphy), 120-21, 190n .56;
postatom ic world of Teshigahara's
Woman in the Dunes, 121-31; post-
war Japan ese film s attem ptin g to
represen t n on dialec tic al writin g,
113-20; as sym ptom of c ollapse of
m ean in g, 119; Tan iz aki's darkn ess,
107-11; trajec tory of En lighten m en t
writin g from in sc ription to, 55
exscriptive writin g, 55
Exteriorisation de la sensibilite: Etude
experimentale et historique in Paris,
L'(Roc has), 172n .80
ex teriority: powerful forc e of, 2
Extraordinary Cab Accident, 67
ex travisibility of the X-ray, 50
"Eye an d Min d" (Merleau-Pon ty),
105-7,186n .2
1 99
200
fac e: as c om plex trope throughout
The Invisible Man, 96-98,183n .54;
as surfac e of form lessn ess, 97; as
threshold of de-propriation an d
de-iden tific ation , 97-98
Face of Another, The (Tanin no kao),
84,118
fever, arc hive, 10,160n .22
film . See c in em a
Fitz ham on , Lewis, 175n .27
Fiz eau, Hippolyte, 50
flashbac ks, 135,191n .2
flic kerin g effec t in c in em a, 69,176n .32
Fliess,Wilhelm , 164n .l, 165n .3,166n .7
floatin g shot, 68
fluid im agery, 189n .41
Fly, The, 182n .46
folded spac es, 175n .27
Forbes, John , 160n .22
form lessn ess: abyss of, 97,99; fac e as
surfac e of, 97; im age of, gen erated
in Freud's Irm a dream , 39,46;
represen tation of, 40
Fouc ault, J.-B. Le"on , 50
Fouc ault, Mic hel, 11
Francis Bacon (Deleuz e), 186n .8
Fran ju, Georges, 179n .8
Freud, An n a, 56
Freud, Sigm un d, 10, 13-21, 25, 33,46,
55,56,58,73,74,133,145,156,
161n .2,162n .22,165n .3,166n .4,
172n .74,177n .43,177n .58,178n .61,
192n .9; on aban don m en t of Moses
an d his religion by the Jews, 19,
162n .24; c risis over m isdiagn oses in
1895, 35-36, 38,164n .l; on dream s,
35, 36-42, 56-57,172n .75; on ego
developm en t, 75-76, 78-79; im age
of light, 14; Irm a dream , 36-42,46,
56, 79, 166n .5,166n . 10-11; on
laten c y in history of Judaism , 18-
19, 21,162n .24; on Mosaic Judaism ,
18-20, 153-54; on Naz i ex pan sion ,
16; on pain , 177n .58; on perc eption -
c on sc iousn ess, 75-76,178n .80;
private in sc ription on book from
father, 28-29,163n .59; on psyc ho-
an alysis as kin d of stain in g of
un c on sc ious, 18 ln .44; psyc ho-
geography of, 75-79; on Sc hreber
c ase of photophobia, 180n .l5;
self-an alysis of, 38; on solar power
as sourc e of life, 162n .23; on un -
c on sc ious, 35, 36, 39-40, 78-79,
166n .l5
Fried, Mic hael, 147; c ategories of
absorption an d theatric ality, 65-66,
174n .22
Friedberg, An n e, 166n .6
Friz ot, Mic hel, 52,171n .55
fukashi (invisibility), 86,120
future, light of the, 14
Futurists, 52
Gehr, Ern ie, 176n .32
Gen ji (Min am oto) c lan , 1
Ghost in the Shell (Kokaku kiddtai),
148-49
gift: Derrida on , 14,17; from father to
son (Freud's father to Freud), 28-
29; tem porality of Freud's, 17
Gift of D eath, The (D errida), 11, 31,
164n .63
Glasser, Otto, 52,168n .33, 171n .56
Godzilla (Gojira), 179n .l2,183n .52
Goldberg, David Theo, 185n .84
Goldfarb, Brian , 57, 172n .77
Great Train Robbery, The, 68
Green away, Peter, 190n .51
Griffith, D.W., 175n .30
Guattari, Felix , 119,167n .l8, 190n .52;
on fac e, 97,183n .57; on sm ooth
spac e, 130,191n .63
Gun n in g, Tom , 64-65, 71,173n .l4,
173n .80,174n .l6,174n .l8
Ham m er, Barbara, 52
han d: Berthe Ron tgen 's x -rayed, 44-46,
83, 91,170n .53; photoic on ography
of, 170n .53
haptic perc eption , 62
Haver, William , 49, 169n .47,170n .48
Haverstraw Tunnel, 175n .31
Hearn , Lafc adio, 1,115,189n .45
Heidegger, Martin , 22,108,163n .37,
186n .l6,187n .l7; on shadow, 108,
186n .l6, 187n .l7
Heike (Taira) c lan , 1,115-19
Hen derson , Lin da Dalrym ple, 46-47,
57,168n .26,168n .35,172n .76
Hepworth, Cec il, 66,175n .27
Higgin s, Gary, 52
Hiran o, Kyoko, 179n .4
Hiroshima (film ), 125
Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki: aerial view of
Hiroshim a, 26; atom ic bom bin g of,
4, 25,49-50, 53, 108-9, 170n .48;
atom ic trac e an d, 92, 93-95, 102-3;
blac k rain as aftereffec t of, 110,111;
"flash-boom " (pikadon), 100,118,
182n .51; lin gerin g effec ts of radia-
tion , 86; n um ber of deaths, 179n .5;
phen om en on of in visibility an d, 92,
93, 95,102-3; referen t of Hiroshim a
in Woman in the Dunes, 125;
sym bols produc ed by, 92; violen t
photography on surfac es of hum an
body, 109; Weller's reports of
effec ts, 187n .30
Hiroshim a Maiden s of 1950s, 118,
190n .50
Hiroshima mon amour, 112, 124,
125,135
History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope,
and Kinetophonograph (D ickson
an d Dic kson ), 63
Hitc hc oc k, Alfred, 176n .33
Hoic hi, 1-5, 29; "Hoic hi the Earless,"
115-19, 138; in terioriz ation of, by
exscription, 2-3
Hollow Man, 192n .4
Hollywood: in visible m an film s out of,
87, 178n .3
hom opseudon ym y: phen om en on of,
162n .22
Hon da Ishiro, 179n .l2, 182n .52
Horkheim er, Max , 42,43, 167n .22,
168n .27
Hosokawa, Shuhei, 182n .49
How It Feels to Be Run Over, 66
hum an ity of hum an body, 106
hygien e: ex c essive illum in ation an d its
assoc iation with, 22-23
hypervisibility: in Cure, 148-49; of
Ellison 's in visible m an , 98, 100,102
hypn otism : as c rim in al m ethod in
Cure, 143-45, 147-57
Ibuse Masuji, 110,111,187n .26
illum in ation : ex c essive, in Western iz ed
arc hitec ture of twen tieth-c en tury
Japan , 24; hygien e an d ex c essive,
22-23; Tan iz aki's elegy for Japan ese
arc hitec ture destroyed by, 21-25
Imago, 1415, 16
Im am ura Shohei, 110
im m isc ible m ix ture, 111, 112; of
in visibility an d hypervisibility, in
Cure, 148-49; in Ugetsu, 114-15; of
water an d san d in Woman in the
Dunes, 121,123-24,127-28, 129.
See also em ulsion
im pression of reality: Metz on , 115,
189n .42
in c orporation : m agic al "c ure" by, 154
Incredible Shrinking Man, The, 182n .46
in divisibility: atom ic law of, 10
in fin ite iden tity: paradox of, 6,159n .6
In Praise of Shadows (In'ei raisan):
Tan iz aki's, 13, 21-26, 107, 108
in sc ription , 14
in sec ts: Dic kson s' film s of, 63
"In stin c ts an d Their Vic issitudes"
(Freud), 165n .2
Interesting Story, An, 67-68,191n .62
in teriority: Big Swallow view of, 71-73;
of Bitz er's film of subway, 69-71;
of body, as provision al, 31-32; of
body, revealed in Wells's Invisible
Man, 90, 91-92; displac ed, in Cure,
144-45, 147, 153, 154; displac ed, in
Maborosi, 133,140,143,154; im ages
of wom en 's, 44-47, 172n .80; in te-
rioriz ation of Hoic hi by exscription,
2-3; in visible m an as form of
form less, 97; of Irm a in Freud's
dream of Irm a's in jec tion , 37-39,
41, 69; n ew possibilities for organ i-
z ation of, 57-59; Tan iz aki's theory
of, 25; tec hn iques for im agin in g, 30;
X-ray of body's, 44-47, 48
Interior New York Subway, 14th Street to
42nd Street (Biograph film ), 69-71,
175n .30,176n .32
in tern al c in em a, 79
Interpretation of Dreams, The (Freud),
36-38
201
202
In the Break (Moten ), 184n .81
In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no
Korida), 119-20
in -visibility, 31-32
in visibility: atom ic blast an d spec tac le
of, 82; blin dn ess as in verse form of,
96; c risis in itiated by, in Wells's
Invisible Man, 88; dialec tic of, 83,
84; as effec t of em ptin ess in Cure,
145; Ellison 's usage of, 98,183n .62;
em ptin ess as figure for, 145,192n .4;
first order of, 31-32; as form of
erasure, 120-21,190n .56; at Hiro-
shim a an d Nagasaki, phen om en on
of, 92, 93, 95,102-3; of Hoic hi in
Kwaidan, 117; idiom atic shift from
fukashito tomei (tran sparen c y),
120; Japan ese term s for, 86-87;
m adn ess an d, 92; paradox of
tran sparen c y an d, 84; perpetual
vigilan c e as effec t of, 90-91; in
postwar Japan ese film , 83-87; rac e
an d, 98-102,185n .84; restoration
of in visible body to visibility at
death, 87,91,96,180n .l7; sec on d
order of (absolute), 32; shadow of,
85; writin g on body for, 1-5,112-
13, 117, 119, 188n .36
Invisible Ghost, The, 190n .56
Invisible Man, The (Tomei ningen)
(Oda's film ), 85, 96-97,179n .ll
Invisible Man, The (Wells), 82, 83, 87-
92, 143, 178n .3
Invisible Man, The (Whale's film ), 87,
182n .44, 182n .48
Invisible Man Appears, The (Tomei
ningen arawaru), 83,84-85
Invisible Man (Ellison ), 98-102,
183n .62-64,184n .66, 184n .72-73
Invisible Man Meets the Fly, The (Tomei
ningen to hae otoko), 86,95,
180n .l3,180n .l4
Irm a dream , Freud's, 36-42,46, 56, 79,
166n .5, 166n . 10-11; An teriority of
Irm a in , 37-39,41, 69; X-rays
prefigured in , 41, 42
Japan : history of tattooin g in , 188n .36;
in visibility of Korean s in , after
World War II, 98,183n .60; politic al
c en sorship in , 83, 85-86, 179n .4;
tomei ningen (in visible m an ) film s
in , 83-87, 95-98, 120-21,179n .4,
179n .ll, 180n . 13; visual c ulture,
im pac t of atom ic radiation on , 4-5.
See also Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki:
atom ic bom bin g of
Japan ese arc hitec ture destroyed by
illum in ation : Tan iz aki's elegy for,
21-25
Japan ese m ilitarism , 96
Japan ese (Orien tal) body: Tan iz aki's
in terior darkn ess of, 21-24,33,
107-11,143
Jen kin s, C. Fran c is, 172n .70
Jern igan , Joseph, 47
Jetee,La, 178n .2
Judaism : irreduc ible ex teriority of, 15;
laten c y in history of, 18-19, 21,
162n .24; Mosaic , 16, 18-20, 153-54
Kafka, Fran z , 7,159n . 11
kin etograph, 63,173n .lO
kin etophon ograph, 173n .lO
kin etosc ope, 172n .70,173n .lO
Kittler, Friedric h, 177n .54
Klee.Paul, 186n .8
Kobayashi Masaki, 1, 113, 115-19,
138,139
Kobe earthquake (1995), 102, 185n .86
Korean s in Japan : in visibility of, 98,
183n .60
Kore-eda Hirokaz u, 133,134-43,155-
57, 191n .2-3
Krac auer, Siegfried, 113,176n .34,
188n .37
Kubelka, Peter, 176n .32
Kujun dz ic , Dragan , 102,185n .84
Kupka, Fran tisek, 52
Kurosawa Akira, 84
Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 133,143-57,192n .5
Kwaidan, 1,113,115-19,124,139
Lac an , Jac ques, 39, 40-41, 167n .l7,
168n .34,180n .l5
Lan desberg, Jac ques, 181n .42
lan guage: lim its of, 111
Last Year at Marienbad, 192n .4
laten c y in history of Judaism , 18-19,
21, 162n .24
Latham , Woodville, 172n .70
Latham loop, 172n .70
law of the arc hive, 10,18
Leaving Jerusalem by Railway, 69
Leaving the Lumiere Factory, 56, 57, 68,
175n .27
Leben sz tejn , Jean -Claude, 160n .22,
188n .32
Levi, Prim o, 188n .40
Lewin , Bertram , 79, 80,178n .62
Lewis, Joseph H., 190n .56
Library of Babel, 5-9, 33; arc hitec ture
suited for, 7-8; paradox of, 7;
totality of, 6-7
light: atom ic , 81-82, 92; elec tric al
illum in ation , Tan iz aki's elegy for
Japan ese arc hitec ture destroyed by,
21-25; tem poral n ature of, 14;
weapon s of, 92
Lippit, Akira Miz uta, 171n .54
liquid im m ersion in prayer: fan tasy
of, 117
liquid perc eption , 116
literary arc hive, 24-26
literature: assem blage of film an d, 119,
190n .53
Liu, Albert, 76, 88, 95,113,177n .49,
180n .l6,188n .38
Lon de, Albert, 58
loss: m outh as c ritic al loc us for
proc essin g of, 176n .37
Lum iere, Louis an d Auguste, 55-56, 57,
71, 135, 174n .22, 174n .24, 175n .27;
sen sitivity to rec edin g spac e an d
plan es of depth, 71; train film s, 63-
66, 68-69
Lyn c h, David, 191n .l
Lyotard, Jean -Fran c ois, 188n .31,
190n .53
Maborosi (Maboroshi no hikari), 133,
134-43,155-57; bic yc les in , 135,
138-39; c olor in , 191n .3; displac ed
in teriority in , 133,140,143, 154;
em ulsion in , 140, 142; geography
of, 136-37; im ages of train s in , 136,
138-39; mise-en-abimem, 137;
organ iz ation of spac e in , 137-38;
phan tom lightin g of, 134, 140-41;
suic ides in , 134-35,136
m adn ess: in visibility an d, 92
maid'archive, 10, 160n .21
Man gan elli, Giorgio, 162n .22
Man n , Thom as, 172n .78
Marey, Etien n e-Jules, 55
Marker, Chris, 82, 178n .2
Marks, Laura U., 62, 80, 173n .5
Marks, Martin , 175n .30
Mc Cullum , Don ald, 188n .36
m edic in e: spec tatorship driven by
gaz e of, 41
Melies, Georges, 174n .26; Melies
c ut, 67
m em ories of death, 29
Merleau-Pon ty, Mauric e, 30, 31, 62,
105-7,164n .66, 164n .69, 166n .7,
173n .4,177n .39, 186n .2; on depth,
74; on pain tin g, 106-7,110
Mesm er, Fran z An ton , 148
m etaphysic al surfac e, 157; Deleuz e on ,
68-69, 73-74, 77, 78, 80, 175n .28-
29; slidin g on , 73-74
m etapsyc hologic al Reality, 160n .l6
Metz , Christian , 115,189n .42
m ilitarism , Japan ese, 96
mise-en-abime. See abyss (mise-en-
abime)
Miz oguc hi Ken ji, 113-15, 119,139,
179n .l2, 188n .39, 189n .41
Miz ukiRyuko, 180n .l3
Moholy-Nagy, Lasz lo, 52, 53, 58,
171n .59,172n .78
m on otheism , 16, 18-21
Mon tgom ery, Alan , 52
Mosaic Judaism , 16, 18-20, 153-54
Moses: aban don m en t by the Jews, 19,
162n .24; Egyptian origin s of, 14-
15; m urder of, 15-16, 20; radic al
ex teriority of, 15
Moses and Monotheism: Three Essays
(Freud), 13-21,178n .60; Egyptian
origin s of Moses posited in , 14-15;
prefac es to, 14, 16-17,18, 20-21;
as "prosthesis of the in side," 18;
on return of Mosaic religion to
Jews, 18-20
203
2 04
Moten , Fred, 98, 100,183n .64,184n .68,
184n .81
Motorist, The, 66-67
Mould, Ric hard R, 44,168n .28,
168n .30, 168n .36
m outh: in Big Swallow, 71-73, 176n .37;
as c ritic al loc us for proc essin g of
loss, 176n .37
m ovem en t in c in em a: psyc hology of,
62-63,73
Movies Begin, The (Kin o Video
c ollec tion ), 174n .23, 175n .27,
175n .31
Murayam a Mitsuo, 86,180n .l4
"Muselm an n er" or "Muslim s" in Naz i
death c am ps, 114, 188n .40
m ushroom c loud, 92. See also Hiro-
shim a an d Nagasaki: atom ic
bom bin g of
Musser, Charles, 175n .29
"m ute sign ," 192n .8
Nadar, Felix , 50,170n .52
Nagasaki. See Hiroshim a an d Nagasaki:
atom ic bom bin g of
Nakata Hideo, 193n .lO
Nation al Soc ialism , 18
Natsum e Soseki, 22
n ature an d photographic referen t:
ten sion between , 54-55,171n .62
Naz i death c am ps: "Muselm an n er," or
"Muslim s" in , 114,188n .40
Naz i ex pan sion : Freud on , 16
Neum an n , Kurt, 182n .46
New Photography: in early 1896,
171n .67
Niepc e, Nic ephore, 94
Nietz sc he, Friedric h Wilhelm , 115
Nitske, W. Robert, 168n .26
Niver, Kem p R., 174n .l8
Nobel Priz e, 50, 170n .51
n on dialec tic al writin g: Kwaidan, 1,113,
115-19, 124,139; postwar Japan ese
film s attem ptin g to represen t, 113-
20; Ugetsu, 113-15,118, 119, 139,
179n .l2, 189n .41
n uc lear war. See Hiroshim a an d
Nagasaki: atom ic bom bin g of;
atom ic war
Oba Hideo, 83-84
obsc urity, 155; in Cure, 143,154-55; in
Maborosi, 134, 139-40,143;
superfic ial, 133
Oda Motoyoshi, 85, 96
O/Gram m ato/ogy (Derrida), 151-52,
192n .8
OkadaEiji, 125
Okakura Kakuz o, 187n .20
"On Dream s" (Aristotle), 115,189n .43
opac ity, 83, 84-85
Orien tal body: Tan iz aki's in terior
darkn ess of, 21-24, 33,107-11,143
Oshii Mam oru, 148-49
Oshim a Nagisa, 119-20
Other Side of the Hedge, The, 175n .27
pain : Freud on , 177n .58
pain tin g: Deleuz e on , 186n .8; Merleau-
Pon ty on , 106-7, 110
Paletz , Gabriel M., 191n .2-3
pararchive, 12
patern ity (father-son relation ship),
28-29, 164n .63
Patoc ka, Jan , 14
patric ide, 15
Paul, R.W., 66-67,172n .70
pellicule, 80
perc eption : haptic , 62; liquid, 116; war
an d, 182n .45
perc eption -c on sc iousn ess (Pcpt.-Cs.),
75-76,178n .60,178n .80
Perry, Matthew, 180n .l3
phan tasm : arc hitec ton ic struc ture of,
77; Borges's arc hive as, 8; Deleuz e
on passage of, 75, 76-77,177n .41;
m obility partic ular to, 76-77
phan tom c ures, 133-57: Kore-eda
Hirokaz u's Maborosi, 133, 134-43,
155-57; Kurosawa Kiyoshi's Cure,
133,143-57, 192n .4-8; in X: The
Man with the X-Ray Eyes, 145-47
phan tom darkn ess, 2
phan tom tears, 115
phen om en ologies of the in side, 5. See
also c in em a; psyc hoan alysis; X-rays
"photogen ic drawin g," 55
photographic referen t: ten sion between
n ature an d, 54-55,171n .62
photography: atom ic irradiation as
type of violen t, 109; future an n i-
versaries suggested by, 48-50;
in trin sic photophobia en c rypted
in , 50,170n .53; photographic legac y
of atom ic bom bin g, 94-95; prin -
c iple of em ulsion fac ilitatin g, 111-
12; psyc hic /spirit, 172n .80; "realism "
in , 58; tran sform ation by X-rays
in to allegory of avisuality, 93; as
visualiz ation of desire, 58; X-ray,
5,44,17In .67; X-rays an d c in em a
as form s of radic al, 29-32
photophobia, 180n .l5; en c rypted
in photograph, in trin sic , 50,
170n .53
physic s an d X-ray tec hn ology, 50,
170n .51
pikadon, atom ic , 100, 118,182n .51
Pillow Book, The, 190n .51
Porter, Edwin S., 68, 173n .l5
power: in visibility an d desire for, 92
prayer: fan tasy of liquid im m ersion
in ,117
prim itive m ode of represen tation
(PMR) in film : n on c losure of, 74-
75, 177n .40
private in sc ription s: arc hive of, 28-29
projec tion : dream s as, 56-57, 172n .75
"Projec t X-Ray" (bat bom b ex peri-
m en ts), 182n .46
pseudon ym s: Derrida on , 162n .22
psyc hic c orporeality: Freud on , 36, 39
psyc hic photography, 172n .80
psyc hoan alysis: birth of, 56; Deleuz e on ,
75, 78; Derrida on , 11, 13, 161n .l,
162n .30; Freud's dream of Irm a's
in jec tion an d viability an d visibility
of, 39; as kin d of stain in g of un -
c on sc ious, 181n .44; as m ode of
avisuality, 35-42, 56-59; possibil-
ities for organ iz ation of in teriority
offered by, 57-59; as superfic ial
prac tic e, 75, 78; as tec hn ology of
the in side, 10-11, 30; as vision
m ac hin e, 156
psyc hogeography, Freud's, 75-79
psyc hology of m ovem en t in c in em a,
62-63, 73
pun c tuality: apoc alyptic as in fin ite an d
in differen t, 49
pure bec om in g: paradox of, 6,159n .6
rac e: in visibility an d, 98-102, 185n .84;
Tan iz aki on darkn ess an d shadow
an d,107-11
rac elessn ess, 185n .84
radioac tivity: disc overy of, 168n .36.
See also atom ic bom bin g; atom ic
radiation
radium : im pac t of disc overy of,
168n .36; X-ray an d, relation
between , 171n .58
Rain s, Claude, 87, 178n .3
Ray, Man , 52
"realism " in photography, 58
reality: defin ed as a sec ret, 10,
160n .l6; im pression of, Metz on ,
115, 189n .42; m etapsyc hologic al
Reality, 160n . 16
Reiser, Stan ley, 46
Removed, 190n .56
repression : arc haeology of history an d,
10-11; as arc hiviz ation , 11
Resn ais, Alain , 112, 125,127, 135,
192n .4
reversibility prin c iple of c in em a, 67,
174n .24
Ring, 193n .lO
Roc has, Albert de, 172n .80
Ron tgen , Berthe, 44-46, 83, 91, 170n .53
Ron tgen , Wilhelm Con rad, 42,44-47,
49, 50, 52, 53, 55, 168n .30, 170n .51,
172n .69
Rope, 176n .33
Rousseau, Jean -Jac ques, 192n .8
Saito Ryoku, 23
Sakum a Rika, 170n .53
san itation : c on n ec tion between ex c ess
visibility an d, 23
Sansho the Bailiff (Sansho Dayu),
188n .39
sarin gas attac k on Tokyo's subway
system (1995), 102, 185n .86
Satterfield, An n Dun c an , 52
Sc hreber, Dan iel Paul, 87, 180n .l5
Sc hrodin ger's c at, 130
205
206
sc ien c e: spec tatorship driven by gaz e
of, 41
sc reen , c in em a: as c en trifugal, 73;
m etaphysic al surfac e of, 68-69, 73-
74,77,78,80,175n .28-29; as
m eton ym y of skin , 79-80
sc reen prac tic e, 175n .29
sec rec y: Tan iz aki's theory of, 25; of
Wells's in visible m an , 89-90
sec ret arc hive, 9-10
sec ret god, 16
sec ret of dream s, 41
sec rets: arc hive of, 10, 11
sec ret visibility: arc hive of, 30-33
SeiShon agon , 190n .51
Sekigawa Hideo, 125
sen selessn ess, 40-41
sen ses: absolute in visibility seen with
other, 32
Serene Velocity, 176n .32
Serlin , David, 190n .50
shadow(s): atom ic , 94; ex pressive, of
Tan iz aki, 108; Heidegger on , 108,
186n .l6, 187n .l7; of in visibility, 85
shadow arc hive, 10,11,13-33; c in ders,
26-28, 33, 163n .54; Freud's Moses
and Monotheism: Three Essays, 13-
21,178n .60; Tan iz aki's In Praise of
Shadows, 13, 21-26, 107,108; X-
rays an d c in em a, 29-32
shadow optic s, 155
Shapiro, Jerom e R, 179n .6,182n .52
Sharks, Paul, 176n .32
Shin oda Masahiro, 102,185n .86
Shull, Clifford G.,170n .51
sight: absolute in visibility fallin g
outside register of, 32
sightless vision , 156
Sim m on , Sc ott, 175n .30, 176n .32
skiagraphy, 108
skin : blac k rain in sc ribed on , 110;
sc reen s as m eton ym ies of, 79-80;
Tan iz aki on rac e an d skin c olor,
107-11; topology of arc hive,
28-29
"slow m otion " effec t in film , 62-63
Sm ithson ian In stitution 's erasure of
En ola Gay ex hibit, 50,102
sm oke as distin c t from c in ders, 26-27
Sobc hac k,Vivian ,67, 111, 174n .25,
188n .33
soun d, ac ousm atic , 135, 138,142,
182n .48,191n .l
spec tatorship as physic al c on tac t, 61, 62
spec tator shoc k at early Lum iere
sc reen in gs, 65,174n .l6
spirit photography, 173n .80
stain in g: writin g as form of, 181n .44
Steedm an , Carolyn , 160n .22
Stoic s, the, 68
stop-ac tion c in em atography, 67
Stop Thief., 175n .27
Studies on Hysteria (Freud and
Breuer), 56
subjec tivity: blac k hole of, 97;
desc riptive, 120
subway system : sarin gas attac k on
Tokyo's (1995), 102, 185n .86
subway train : Bitz er's film of, 69-71,
175n .30,176n .32
superfic iality of X-rays an d c in em a, 30
surfac e(s): Freud's theory of, 75-79;
m etaphysic al, 68-69, 73-74, 77, 78,
80,157, 175n .28-29. See also
c in em a surfac e design
surfac eless body: Deleuz e on , 4243
Sylvester, David, 171n .61
tac tility: optic ality an d, 61, 62,118
Takaraz uka revue, 180n .l3
Talbot, William Hen ry Fox , 55
Tale ofHeike (Heike monogatari), 115
Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Ugetsu
monogatari) (Akin ari), 113,189n .41
Tan iz aki Jun ic hiro, 13, 21-26, 36, 82,
107, 120,125,163n .36, 166n .7,
186n .lO, 187n .20; on aesthetic value
of "the glow of grim e," 23-24;
darkn ess of, 98,107-11,141; desire
for altern ative physic s, 187n .29;
disc ourse on toilet, 22-23; elegy for
Japan ese arc hitec ture destroyed by
illum in ation , 21-25; on m an sion
c alled literature (literary arc hive),
24-26; Orien tal body, 21-24, 33,
107-11, 143; on rac e an d skin c olor,
107-11; shadow house of, 21-25, 99
tattooin g in Japan : history of, 188n .36
Tavern ier, Bertran d, 172n .72
tears: phan tom , 115; vision an d, 115-16
Teller, Edward, 179n .5
Teshigahara Hiroshi, 84, 118, 121-31,
179n .8
Thac krah, Charles, 160n .22
theatric ality: Fried's c ategories of, 65-
66, 174n .22
Through the Looking-Glass (Carroll),
177n .38
Tiffan y, Dan iel, 6, 52, 54, 85,159n .5,
171n .58, 171n .64, 179n .lO
Till, Em m ett, 185n .81
toilet: Tan iz aki's disc ourse on , 22-23
Tokyo's subway system : sarin gas attac k
on (1995), 102
To Live (Ikiru), 84
tomei ningen (in visible m an ) film s in
Japan , 83-87, 95-98, 120-21,
179n .4, 179n .ll,180n .l3
Torok, Maria, 10,154, 160n .l6,
176n .37,193n .l3
totality of Library of Babel, 6-7
Toulet, Em m an uelle, 55, 172n .71
Tower of Babel, 7
tRace, atom ic , 102, 185n .84
trac e, the: c on sc iousn ess as, 76; Derrida
on , 54, 59. See also atom ic trac e
train s in film : Bitz er's subway train s,
69-71, 175n .30, 176n .32; by
Lum iere brothers, 63-66, 68-69;
Maborosi, 136, 138-39
tran slatability, 5
tran sm ission from Freud to Cure: trope
of, 153, 193n .lO
tran sparen c y, 83, 84-85; idiom atic shift
fromfukashito tomei, 120; in visibility
tran slated in Japan ese as (tomei), 86-
87; paradox of in visibility an d, 84
Treat, John , 110,187n .23
Trin h T. Min h-ha, 40, 84,167n .l9
Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la
lune), 174n .26
Turim , Maureen , 189n .49
UedaAkin ari, 113,189n .41
Uen o Ic hiro, 115, 189n .44
Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari), 113-15,
118,119, 139, 179n .l2,189n .41
Um an , Naom i, 190n .56
un c lean an d im proper: Tan iz aki's
theory of the, 23-24
Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show,
173n .l5
un c on sc ious: absorption of Moses by
Judaic , 19; arc hitec ture of, 40;
c in em a as, 75; Freud on , 35, 36, 39-
40, 78-79, 166n .l5; Freud's dream
of Irm a's in jec tion an d viability
an d visibility of, 39; gen eration of
spec tac le of, in c in em a, 63; passages
toward disc overy of, 58-59; psyc ho-
analysis as kind of staining of,
181n .44
un c on sc ious arc hive, 11
un c on sc ious optic s, 58
"un iversal depth," 43
un iverses: Borges's Library of Babel, 5-
9; Hoic hi's suspen ded visuality, 1-5
urban plan n in g, postatom ic , 179n .5
Verhoeven , Paul, 192n .4
Virilio, Paul, 92, 94,156, 181n .43,
182n .45, 193n .l7, 193n .l9, 193n .21
visibility: of Hoic hi, two distin c t orders
of, 2-3; san itation an d ex c ess, 23;
sec ret, arc hive of, 30-33
Visible Hum an Projec t (VHP), 47-48;
Visible Hum an Man , 47; Visible
Hum an Wom an , 47, 169n .37
vision : atom ic , 145; Cartesian c on c ept
of, 62; sightless, 156; tears an d,
115-16; touc h an d, 62, 118; X-ray,
145-47
vision m ac hin e, Virilio's, 156-57
visuality: atom ic , 81-82; of c in em a,
61-62; c risis of X-ray, 43; destruc tive,
Visible Hum an Projec t as form of,
48; em otion al, 63; en d of, 193n .21;
Tan iz aki's theory of, 25; of visible
an d in visible in pain tin g, 106-7,
186n .8
Waldby, Catherin e, 43, 47-48, 167n .25,
169n .37
war: blin dn ess as sym bol of, 183n .52;
perc eption an d, 182n .45. See also
atom ic war
207
Weber, Sam uel, 107,186n .l6
Weller, George, 187n .30
Wells, H. G., 47-48, 82, 83, 84, 87-92,
98, 99,143,178n .3, 179n .9,183n .62
Whale, Jam es, 87,178n .3
William son , Jam es, 67, 71-73,175n .27,
176n .37,191n .62
wom an : im ages of in teriority of, 44-
47,172n .80; in Tan iz aki's In Praise
of Shadows, 22-23
Woman in the Dunes (Suna no onna),
121-31; em ulsion in , 129, 130,
191n .63; high-c on trast c in em atog-
raphy and conflict of dark and light
in , 123-24; im m isc ible m ix ture of
water an d san d in , 121, 123-24,
127-28,129; mise-en-abime in , 129;
m issin g person 's report in , 129-31
"Work of Art in the Age of Mec han ic al
Reproduc tion , The" (Ben jam in ), 58
World War II: c risis in c on stitution of
hum an body in itiated at en d of, 4-
5; in visibility of Korean s in Japan
after, 98,183n .60. See also Hiro-
shim a an d Nagasaki: atom ic
bom bin g of
writin g: ar/c /z ewritin g, 59; atom ic , 27-
28,109-10,112-13, 121; on body,
1-5, 112-13, 117, 119, 188n .36;
exscriptive, 55; as form of stain in g,
181n .44; n on dialec tic al, 113-20;
Tan iz aki's theory of, 25; tran s-
paren c y as form of represen tation al
erasure, 120-21
X-ray photography, 5, 44,171n .67; X-
rays as form of radic al photog-
raphy, 29-30
X-rays, 5, 29-32; atom ic radiation an d,
83-84; c ollapse of En lighten m en t
figure forc ed by, 42-43; at c ross-
roads of twen tieth-c en tury arts
an d sc ien c es, 168n .29; destruc tive
n ature of, 50,93; disc overy of, 42,
44,46-47, 52, 55; as ex c ess im age of
En lighten m en t sen sibility, 80; in -
visible ren dered visible by, 32; as
m ode of avisuality, 41-53, 55-59; as
"New Photography" in 1896,
171n .67; physic s an d X-ray tec h-
n ology, 50, 170n .51; poin t of view
established by, 42-43; possibilities
for organ iz ation of in teriority
offered by, 57-59; prefigured in
Freud's "Irm a dream ," 41, 42; rela-
tion between radium an d, 171n .58;
respon se to, 52-53, 57,168n .33;
surfac e of, 80; as tec hn ology for
visualiz in g the in side, 30; theren ess
of, determ in in g, 52-53; trajec tory
of photography ex pan ded by, 55;
tran sform ation of photography
in to allegory of avisuality, 93; use
in art, 53; Visible Hum an Projec t
(VHP) an d, 47-48; as vision
m ac hin e, 156
X-ray vision , 145-47
"x " sign /sign ifier, 53-54; in Cure, 144,
147,151-54,192n .8; as m ark of
erasure, 147
X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes,
145-47
Yahweh: m urder of Moses an d, 15-16
Yerushalm i, Yosef Hayim , 163n .59
Yom ota In uhiko, 98
Yon eyam a, Lisa, 183n .60
Yoshim oto, Mitsuhiro, 84,179n .7
Zehn der, Ludwig, 51
208
Akira Mizuta Lippit is professor of c in em a, c om parative literature, an d
Japan ese c ulture at the Un iversity of Southern Californ ia. He is the author
of Elec tric An im al: Toward a Rhetoric of Wildlife (Min n esota, 2000).