Henry W’s Reviews > The Great Concert of the Night > Status Update

"And theoria is related to thea, 'a view, an act of seeing,' from which the modern 'theatre' is derived. The first theorists, he maintains, were those who undertook journeys--arduous and perilous journeys, often--to witness an event or spectacle in honour of the gods."

"Without the use of a lens, the scene is not legible from where we stand. We comprehend the action, but cannot properly see it. A painting created to be imperfectly visible."

"Lucretius on love: ' This is the only case in which the more we have, the more the heart burns with terrible desire . . . nothing comes into the body for us to enjoy other than images, flimsy images, and vain hopes.'"