The waterless sea : a curious history of mirages. / Christopher Pinney.

"Mirages have long astonished travelers of the sea and beguiled thirsty desert voyagers. Chinese and Japanese poetry and images depicted mirages as the exhalations of clam-monsters. Indian sources related them to the 'thirst of gazelles, ' a metaphor for the futility of desire. From the late eighteenth century to the present, mirages became a symbol of 'Oriental despotis, ' a malign, but also enchanted, emblem. But the mirage motif is rarely simply condemnatory. More commonly it conveys a sense of escape, of fascination, of a desire to be deceived. The Waterless Sea is the first book devoted to the theories and history of mirages. Christopher Pinney navigates a sinuous pathway through a mysterious and evanescent terrain, showing how mirages have impacted politics, culture, science, and religion, and how we can continue to learn from their sublimity"