Maskelyne chortles heartily as you pierce his rhetorical beguilement:
-Aha! You know something of the Art too, I warrant? A fellow adept of the Phorcensis Society, an aspirant exploring esoteric paths transmundane? But the optical theatre is more than an illusion! Look here - (Thelemy gestures at the moving horse, animated within the mirrors of the zoetrope)
>>5693138>>5693141-This horse, the mirror horse lives. It shall live forever. That horse - (Thelemy gestures vaguely in the direction of the overturned carriage
>>5692973 ) poor creature - is very much dead. Only that which has an audience to look upon it will live; this will be the animating principle of future society! A lot might be justified to keep an audience rapt, many a manufactured spectacle (a hint of a shadow flits across the mercurial and captivating features of Thelemy Maskelyn) All to keep the onlookers entertained. I believe your Odalisque - don't look so excited! - I believe She understood this very well, very well indeed! But as to Her, well, that is perhaps more of a question for an archaeologist, an expert of antiquities. It is not my specialty. Perhaps you know of one such already?
