Yesterday I did my second lecture of my short tour of Wirral Libraries. This was at Hoylake. Many of you may recognise the name as this was the place that the Open Golf Championship of 2006 took place. With a slightly smaller audience I presented my talk on the background to CTF.The question and answer session at the end was, as usual, very stimulating with me learning as much as the audience. I always find it so heartening how people swiftly take on board the concept of CTF and become as enthusiastic as me about it. What was particularly interesting this time was that one member of the audience was, I recall, a lecturer in English literature. In the presentation I discuss in very general terms the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson and how his writing acts as a clue to his temporal lobe epilepsy - particularly his preoccupation with deja vu. Now although I know the poem from a wonderful sung version by the Canadian singer Loreena McKennett, I had made now particular links between Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shalott and CTF. Imagine my surprise when I was informed that the central theme of the poem is that the 'Lady' perceives the world through a mirror and when the mirror cracks she knows she has to die. I was then myself recalled of the philosophical concept of Plato's Cave. Could it be that Tennyson was tring to explain in poetic form the illusion-like nature of perception? As a TLE person he would have been all too aware of such an idea as his every-day experience presented such a possibility to him. Another member of the audience then mentioned David Bohm and his theories with regard to the holographic (and therefore reflective) nature of 'reality'. All fascinating stuff.
As a synchronicity you may be interested to to know that the painting above is called The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse. This can be seen at The Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight. This is no more than a ten minute walk from where I am typing these words.
And this is how Tennyson poetically describes The Bohmian IMAX:
And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
