"I became startled by the extraordinary difference between something whose surface is completely invisible which only makes itself present by virtue of what it reflects, and a window, which doesn't make itself apparent at all, in the ideal case"
About this Quote
Miller is doing that sly thing entertainers rarely get credit for: turning a technical observation into a cultural diagnosis. He’s startled not by glass itself but by two different contracts we make with looking. A mirror is a surface that’s paradoxically “invisible” only because it’s all performance: it exists by hijacking the world and throwing it back at you, crisp and immediate, with you trapped inside the frame. A window, ideally, disappears. It’s the stagehand of perception, meant to be forgotten so the scene can read as “real.”
The intent is less about optics than about attention. Miller is pointing at how mediums behave when they work well: the better they are, the less we notice them. That’s a comforting idea when you’re peering out at a garden; it’s a dangerous one when you’re consuming images, news, or any form of spectacle. Mirrors announce their mediation through vanity and self-awareness; windows flatter you with transparency. One feels like narcissism, the other like objectivity. Both are engineered.
In context, Miller’s career sits at the intersection of science and show business (a doctor who became a director and broadcaster). That background makes the “startled” feel earned: it’s the moment a professional illusionist admits that the most powerful trick isn’t deception, it’s erasure. The subtext lands hard in a screen age: we’re surrounded by “windows” designed to feel frictionless, while functioning as mirrors that reflect us back to ourselves - our tastes, our biases, our data profile - and call it seeing the world.
The intent is less about optics than about attention. Miller is pointing at how mediums behave when they work well: the better they are, the less we notice them. That’s a comforting idea when you’re peering out at a garden; it’s a dangerous one when you’re consuming images, news, or any form of spectacle. Mirrors announce their mediation through vanity and self-awareness; windows flatter you with transparency. One feels like narcissism, the other like objectivity. Both are engineered.
In context, Miller’s career sits at the intersection of science and show business (a doctor who became a director and broadcaster). That background makes the “startled” feel earned: it’s the moment a professional illusionist admits that the most powerful trick isn’t deception, it’s erasure. The subtext lands hard in a screen age: we’re surrounded by “windows” designed to feel frictionless, while functioning as mirrors that reflect us back to ourselves - our tastes, our biases, our data profile - and call it seeing the world.
Quote Details
| Topic | Deep |
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