| Mirrors and looking through the looking glass in literature and cinematography:
In Greek mythology, Perseus killed Medusa Gorgon using a brilliant board as a mirror (the sight of Gorgon turned people into stones, but, obviously, lost his force in the reflected form).
The literary reception of “through the looking glass” is widely used by the book authors. Lewis Carroll’s dialogue “Alice’s adventures in Wonderland” and "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There” achieved huge popularity. A similar reception was used by Gaston Leroux: in the book “The Phantom of the Opera”. Christine walks into the kingdom of the" Phantom” through a mirror. Olga, the heroine of Vitali Gubarev’s fairy tale novel “Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors” falls into the Kingdom of crooked mirrors through a mirror.
There are popular beliefs and myths that vampires and ghosts are not reflected in a mirror.
Interesting facts:
In 1900, the so called Palace of Illusions and Palace of Mirages were used with tremendous success during the World Paris Exhibition. In the Palace of Illusions, each wall of a big hexagonal hall represented a huge polished mirror. In this hall, a spectator saw his 468 look-a-likes. And in the Palace of Mirages, a picture was kept in every corner of such a huge mirror hall. Parts of the mirror with images were “turned-over” with the help of concealed mechanisms. The spectator appeared to be in an unusual tropical forest or amongst the infinite halls of an Arabian style or Indian temple. In our times, these century old “tricks” were adapted to the arsenal of well-known conjurer David Copperfield. His famous trick with the disappearing carriage is entirely based on the Palace of Mirages. |
