Abstract

Animals are our first metaphor (John Berger).

Glass is, perhaps, our first epiphany.

Glass is the magical transformation of sand into glass.

Etymologically, “epiphany” comes from the Greek meaning “to show.” We associate glass with showing, including eyeglasses, microscopes, telescopes, magic lanterns, store windows, curiosity, crystal balls, display cases, even the barometer which shows us the weather. Epiphanies manifest when an individual “has a vision.”

“Glass is dead matter transformed by human labor and by breath” (Isabelle Armstrong).

This lecture will blow breath into the glass of five transparent and fragile worlds: the childhood imagination of Walter Benjamin; the manifestation of Cinderella’s glass shoe out of fur; the barometers and magnifying glasses of Marcel Proust; Werner Herzog’s 1976 film Hearts of Glass; and Jacques Lacan’s “The Looking-glass Phase.” In all five, glass is epiphanous.