What's Up?

The last post reminded me of a time when we lived in Minneapolis, I think it was. There, on one of my shopping venues, I used to pass routinely by a store that sold maps. One day, displayed in its window, I saw a world map. That it was a world a map was obvious at the first glance, but yet it looked very strange. To have the same experience, I suggest looking at this post on Deceptology (link); for full effect, click on the image.

Having shown the Eiffel Tower at an odd angle, I will now follow up and produce a map of France I discovered on Wikipedia (here); its author is the aptly named “Tyrannus Mundi.”

Odd angles of vision produce the foolishness of God, of which Paul has more to say (1 Corinthians 1:25 et seq.). The art of bending and twisting reality so that it reveals itself more fully is, to be sure, a lot more difficult than turning an image upside down. Teaching drawing by asking the student to copy a picture turned upside down is a well-known technique. I’ve tried it; it works. It works by inhibiting our rigid ways of seeing and thought.