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Sexual Perversion & The Clandestine Love of Bernard Bouriscot

Imagine three hypothetical scenarios:

The first scenario involves two characters: Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is a man and Juliet is a woman. Romeo and Juliet are at opposite ends of a cocktail lounge. There are many mirrors in the cocktail lounge, which permit unobserved observation, and even mutual unobserved observation. Both Romeo and Juliet are sipping martinis and studying other people in the mirrors. At some point Romeo notices Juliet. He is moved, somehow, by the softness of her hair and the diffidence with which she sips her martini, and this arouses him. At this point Romeo senses Juliet, but Juliet does not sense Romeo. After a while, Juliet notices Romeo in a mirror on the opposite wall. Juliet becomes aroused. Neither Romeo nor Juliet knows that he or she is seen by the other. Romeo then notices the subtle signs of sexual arousal in Juliet, her heavy-lidded stare, dilating pupils, faint flush, et cetera. Romeo cleverly calculates the line of Juliet's stare in relation to the mirror angle and realizes that it is directed at him. Romeo senses that Juliet senses him. Soon after, Juliet makes a similar discovery sensing that Romeo senses her. Romeo now senses that Juliet senses him sensing her and this continues recursively. Finally, Romeo stands up to approach Juliet. Conversation, physical contact, sex, or other perfectly natural extensions of this complicated visual exchange may follow.

The second scenario involves an artist named Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi makes a painting of the exterior of the church of San Giovanni on a small panel. The painting employs single point linear perspective. The vanishing point is at eye level in the center of the painting. The artist paints with such care and accuracy and the colors of the black and white marble are so faithfully reproduced that no minimalist could ever exceed him. In the picture he includes everything that the eye can take in, from the Misericordia and the Canto de' Pecori on one side, to the column commemorating the miracles of St. Zenobius and the Canto alla Paglia on the other. Brunelleschi knows that in order for his illusion to be convincing the viewer must stand directly in front of the painting looking straight into the vanishing point. He worries about the distortion that results from a change in the viewer's position. To relieve this concern Brunelleschi manufactures a situation in which the only point of view to observe the painting is the ideal one. On the picture side of the panel Brunelleschi makes a hole as small as a bean. The hole extends through the wall on which the painting hangs. Its diameter enlarges as it extends. He then places a mirror across from the panel at the ideal viewing position. The mirror reflects the entirety of the painting back to the viewer who is now standing behind the wall on which the panel lies peering through the bean-sized hole. From this contrived point of view the painting's linear perspective is never broken, no matter how the viewer slants his head or tilts his eyes. The experience is immersive and sublime. The viewer is limited to and lost within a perfectly calculated illusion.

The third scenario involves a story of clandestine love and mistaken sexual identity. Bernard Bouriscot is a French diplomat working at the French embassy in Beijing as an accountant. The well-educated embassy diplomats invite Bernard to various cocktail parties. However, Bernard, who comes from a working class family, feels uncomfortable and generally unwelcome at them. The girls at the parties even have a nickname for Bernard - the Donkey, although he is not especially ugly. Out of obligation or boredom he continues to attend such events where he meets Shi Pei Pu, a male Beijing opera singer whom Bernard believes is a woman. The two shortly thereafter begin a romance. They become very intimate but have sex rarely and always in the dark. During intercourse, Shi is always clothed. Bernard attributes Shi's shyness about her body to her Chinese upbringing. Two years later, Shi claims to be pregnant. Shi moves to the countryside for several months and returns with a male baby. Bernard is ecstatic.  He returns to France where Shi and their son later join him. Bernard and Shi's relationship continues for eighteen years, until one Thursday morning in June, 1983, Bernard is tackled on a busy commercial street in Paris and arrested for spying by French officials. Shi is also arrested. Bernard has passed over 500 documents onto Shi who has passed them onto the Chinese secret service. At their trial Shi's true sex is dramatically revealed to Bernard by the prosecution. Bernard tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide in prison. Both receive six-year sentences, although Shi is later pardoned. After his pardoning, Shi stays in Paris performing as an opera singer. Bernard, now out of jail, currently lives with a longtime male partner. About the affair, he is quoted as saying, "When I believed it, it was a beautiful story."

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