Smoking Mirrors

[Ted Samsel]

RR sez:
> 
> -------------
> 
> Don't know if this fits into the scheme of the discussion but  this idea 
> of conflict brings to mind a passage I just read in Fuentes' _Terra 
> Nostra_ which has a pilgrim in the New World confronting the natives of 
> the Americas and how the presence of this white man upsets their sense of 
> unity, he representing something other outside their systems of belief.  
> Therefore, they can only look upon this god of dawn (he who came in the 
> light) or god of darkness (he who came in the darkness) as either a 
> representation of nature or a god.  
> 
> This pilgrim discovers he has a double, an evil twin representing death 
> and dissolution;  he peace and life.
> 
> My point is that this pilgrim is given the "gift" by the Lady of the 
> Butterflies (who is both the embodiment of beauty and indefatigable 
> terror- kinda V-like, her sensuous head whirling with butterflies, 
> between her thighs the red serpent) of being treated like a king by these 
> natives for a year at the end of which he will be sacrificed to the gods 
> thus alleviating him of anxiety or worry as he is guaranteed a years 
> worth of pleasure. He rebels wanting to take that road to uncertainty up 
> the side of a volcano and into it's mouth, in effect to prolong his life 
> though it be through the pit of something hellish.
> 
> The pilgrim doesn't have a harmonica but he does carry around a pair of 
scissors and a mirror. 

If I recall correctly, the mythic Nahua character "Smoking Mirror"
(referring
to the obsidian mirrors made in Meso-America ) is an analogue of the
pilgrim.

Ted Samsel....tejas at infi.net  *1996* Year of the Accordion~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
         "Home of the brave, land of the free,
          I don't want to be mistreated by no bourgoisie."
                                     Huddie Ledbetter