The collective invention

1.      A creature half-woman half-fish is lying on the beach.

2.      But it is the opposite of a common mermaid-

3.      Instead of having a human head and the tail of a fish, the lower part is human while the upper part is fish.

4.      We usually attribute human intelligence to all the living beings.

5.     More generally we transfer our own desires to nature as if the will of nature were identified with our own free will.

6.      As if all creatures in nature- either imaginary or real- behaved the way we did.

7.      But this strange creature is lying there on the beach so silent and still.

8.      Like the monstrous offspring of a psychic mutation which went wrong.

9.     Not because a mermaid cannot come true in imagination but because this inverse mermaid is there to tell us how contrasting reality can be.

10.  So there we are in summertime lying half- naked like fish along the beach.  

11.  Thinking how lucky we are to enjoy a blink of time- our life- under the sun.

12.  Or how capable we are of building our palaces and a whole civilization on the sand.

13.  But the time is passing by fast like the sand pouring from our hands.

14. Our structures- either mental or artificial- cannot withstand the passing time or overcome the gathering desires of our heart.

15.  Until the heat of the sun the salt of the water and the lust in the air will drain away all our efforts and vital fluids.

16. And the waves will take us to the underworld of the sea creatures and their primordial images.

18/7/2008

Painting: Rene Magritte, Collective Invention