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Space, Light, and Sun: Figures of Flight
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
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The longing for aerial flight has been one of mankind's most consuming preoccupations. A burning desire for lightness, verticality, and flight is opposed to the fatality of universal gravity. Jules Michelet, in his study of the subject, entitled L'Oiseau (The Bird), which he wrote toward the end of his life, deems this aspiration for upward motion to be characteristic of all nature. He writes: “It is the cry of all the earth, of the world and of all life… : ‘Wings! We want wings, we want flight and movement.’” From ancient times, this basic element of physical experience has nourished human imagination and been a source of motivation for the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Mesopotamian civilization had its winged divinities and spirits; indeed the Western tradition of depicting winged persons has been linked to the influence of Mesopotamian art. As Jules Duhem has pointed out, four centuries before Jesus Christ, Aristotle himself was already exploring certain notions that have become part of the history of ideas of aeronautics and astronomy. Among these are the ideas of void, weight, the resistance of air, and the movement of birds and other flying creatures. Duhem has also demonstrated that Aristotle proposed an explanation, as imperfect as it was, for what causes projectiles to fall from the sky. Throughout the ages, humanity has continually expressed its desire to fly: “Man is proud of being free and of leaning on nothing,” Elias Canetti has written in regard to man's upright position. Striking examples of the impulse to fly are to be found not only in scientific discourse but in myths, literature, and works of art.
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- Copyright © 1992 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
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Notes
1. Some of the ideas developed in this paper were first presented in a preliminary form within the context of an exhibition, entitled l'Homme-Oiseau [The Man-Bird], which was presented at the Musée de la civilization de Québec from 21 June 1989 to 4 March 1990. The exhibition later traveled to the Pulperie de Chicoutimi, where it was presented from 16 May to 30 September 1990.
2. Jules Michelet, L'Oiseau, Paris, Librairie de L. Hachette, 1856, p. 23.
3. Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1974, p. 93.
4. Jules Duhem, “Biblioteca aeronautica vetustissima, IVe siècle avant J.-C. Aris tote,” Thalès, VIII, 1952, pp. 1-32 (p.1).
5. Elias Canetti, Masse et puissance, Paris, Gallimard, 1966, p. 412.
6. Ovide, Les Metantorphoses, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1976, t. II, pp. 67-69, and L'art d'aimer, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1951, pp. 32-35.
7. Christoph Ransmayr, Le Dernier des mondes, translated from the German by Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, Paris, Flammarion/P.O.L., 1989, pp. 151-53.
8. Ibid., p. 150; italics are by the author of this article.
9. Ibid., p. 151.
10. Gaston Bachelard, L'air et les songes, Paris, José Corti, 1943, p. 111.
11. See, on this subject, Clive Hart, The Images of Flight, Berkeley, University of Cal ifornia Press, 1988, pp. 89-135.
12. Ibid., p. 89.
13. Françoise Frontisi-Ducroux, Dédale. Mytholgie de l'artisan en Grèce ancienne, Paris, Maspero, 1975, pp. 151-70.
14. See, as regards falling, the chapter entitled “La chute imaginaire,” in G. Bachelard, op. cit., pp. 107-28.
15. Les Milles et Une Nuits, translated by Antoine Galland, Paris, Garnier-Flammar ion, 1965, t. I, pp. 239-45.
16. Peter Desbarats (ed.), What They Used To Tell About Indian Legends From Labrador, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1969, pp. 25-28.
17. For an inquiry on vision, see Thomas De Konnick, “Pour l'amour de la beauté,” in Communio, 7,6,1982, pp. 31-40.
18. The question of the role of flight in the book of Genesis is central to the first chapter of Clive Hart's book, op. cit., “Upward Flight: Freedom,” pp. 1-51.
19. Ibid., p. 1.
20. Denys Lombard and Christian Pelras, “Origines des hommes” and “Totalité divine (La) et ses composantes,” in Yves Bonnefoy (dir.), Dictionaire des mythologies, Paris, Flammarion, 1981, t. II, pp. 192-94 and 498-500.
21. Several versions of this tale are brought together in Evelyn Porée-Maspero, Étude sur les rites agraires des Cambodgiens, t. III, pp. 656-65.
22. Jean-Payl Roux, “Animaux. Leur primauté dans la religion des Turcs et des Mongols. Mythes tribaux et rites de chasse,” in Y. Bonnefoy (dir.), op. cit., t. I, pp. 31-35.
23. Mircea Eliade, Religions australiennes, Paris, Payot, 1972, pp. 136-43.
24. An ancient Roman tradition of divination or prognostication based on observ ing the flight of birds [TRANS.].
25. Christian Jacob, “Dédale géographe. Regard et voyage aérien en Grèce,” Lalies, 3, 1984, pp. 147-64; all the information gathered here concerning Denys the Periegete and his narrative are taken from this study. See also, by the same author: La Descrip tion de la Terre habitée de Denys d'Alexandrie ou la leçon de géographie, Paris, Albin Michel, 1990 (translation, introduction, and topographical notes).
26. Ibid., p. 147.
27. Ibid., p. 156.
28. Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, La découverte australe par un homme volant, Genève, Slatkine Reprints (Ressources) 1979, 2 t.
29. Platon, La République, Paris, Garnier-Flammarion, 1966, p. 291.
30. Another allegory of Plato that takes up the question of the perfection of the soul concerns the coachman and the yoke: Phèdre, Paris, Garnier-Flammarion, 1964, p. 125.
31. Ibid., pp. 273, 59.
32. G. Bachelard, op. cit., p. 147.
33. F. Nietzche, Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra, Paris, Le Club français du livre, 1958, p. 100; this line is quoted by Bachelard, op. cit., p. 156.
34. Ovide, Métamorphoses, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1980, t. I, p. 41.
35. Ibid., p. 42
36. Ibid, p. 40.
37. The Ramyana of Valmiki, translated from the Sanskrit by Hari Prasat Shastri, London, Shantisidan, 1957, t. II, pp. 351-53, and 1959, t. III, pp. 346-48.
38. Ibid., p. 353.
39. Ovide, op. cit., p. 37.
40. The elements of this narrative are taken from Maxime Kaltenmark, “Ciel et terre,” in Y. Bonnefoy (dir.), op. cit., t. I, pp. 194-99.
41. M. Kaltenmark, “Taoism and mythology,” in Y. Bonnefoy (dir.), op. cit., t. II, pp. 477-79.
42. Ibid., p. 477.
43. Ibid.
44. Jules Michelet, op. cit., p. 127.
45. Ibid., p. 126.
46. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, L'œil et l'esprit, Paris, Gallimard, 1964.
47. Ibid., pp. 17-18.
48. Ibid., p. 17.
49. Ibid., p. 21.
50. Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, L'Autre Monde ou les États et Empires de la Lune et du Soleil, Paris, Le Cercle du Livre, 1960.
51. Ibid., p. 183. Italics are by the author of this article.
52. Merleau-Ponty, op. cit., p. 18.
53. Ibid., p. 18.
54. Ibid., pp. 19-20. Italics are by the author of this article.
55. S. de Cyrano de Bergerac, op. cit., p. 183.
56. Ibid., p. 187.
57. The analogy between the body and the “cabin” is occasionally made explicit. When his little “crystal dome” disappears from sight, Dyrcona more or less confess es his feeling of vertigo: “as I directed my eyes toward the glass ball, I felt with a start something heavy fly out from all the parts of my body” (p. 182).
58. Ibid., p. 184.
59. Merleau-Ponty, op. cit., p. 22.
60. G. Bachelard, Fragments d'une poétique du feu. Paris, P.U.F., 1988, p. 80.
61. S. de Cyrano de Bergerac, op. cit., pp. 186-87.
62. Hillel Schwartz, “Le soleil et le sel de la terre,” Diogène, 146, 1982, pp. 3-20.
63. Ibid., p. 40.
64. Ibid., p. 33.
65. S. de Cyrano de Bergerac, op. cit., p. 168.
66. On the subject of the sacred memory of temporal rhythm, see Jean Starobinski, “Le jour sacré et le jour profane,” Diogène, 146, 1982, pp. 3-20.
67. S. de Cyrano de Bergerac, op. cit., p. 175.
68. Ibid., pp. 174-75,187,209.
69. Ibid., pp. 254 and 174.
70. Ibid., p. 180.
71. Ibid., p. 183.
72. Ibid., p. 261.
73. Ibid., p. 187.
74. Ibid., p. 199.
75. Ibid., p. 193.
76. Ibid., p. 254.
77. Ibid., p. 254.
78. Ibid., p. 188.
79. Ibid., p. 253.
80. Ibid., p. 255.
81. Ibid., p. 150.
82. Ibid., p. 161.
83. Ibid., p. 204.
84. Ibid., p. 168.
85. Ibid., p. 158.
86. Ibid., p. 146.
87. J. Michelet, op. cit., p. 26.
88. S. de Cyrano de Bergerac, op. cit., p. 201.
89. Ibid., pp. 168, 181, 182.
90. J. Michelet, op. cit., p. 291. The italics are by the author of this article.
91. G. Bachelard, La poétique de l'espace, Paris, P.U.F., 1978, p. 213.
92. Paul Valéry, “L'âme de la danse,” Œuvres, II, Paris, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Gallimard, 1960, pp. 148-76 (pp. 171-74).
93. Ibid., p. 174. Italics are those of the author of this article.
94. Pétrarch, L'Aseension du mont Ventoux, Séquence, 1990, p. 44.
95. René Char, La Parole en archipel, in Œuvres complètes, Paris, Gallimard, 1983, p. 413.
96. These words were quoted by Michelet in op. cit., p. 123.
97. In this regard, see Michel Mathieu, “D'une improbable esthétique. Essai sur les théories psychanalytiques de l'art,” in Didier Anzieu, et al., Psychanalyse du génie créa teur, Paris, Dunod, 1974, pp. 49-57.
98. J. Starobinski, Portrait de l'artiste en saltimbanque, Paris, Flammarion, 1970, p. 86.
99. P. Valéry, op. cit., p. 173.
100. C. Ransmayr, op. cit., p. 151.
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