When Eyesight is Fully Industrialised

John Kerrigan

  • Open Sky by Paul Virilio, translated by Julie Rose
    Verso, 152 pp, £35.00, August 1997, ISBN 1 85984 880 X

Plunging in free-fall, a parachutist just out of an aeroplane sees the Earth spread out before him with the steadiness of a map. As his eyes resolve the detail, however, at about 600 metres, the ground seems to rush towards him, then split apart with dizzying speed: ‘The apparent diameter of objects increases faster and faster and you suddenly have the feeling you are not seeing them getting closer but seeing them move apart suddenly, as though the ground were splitting open.’

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