Millihelen

[Astaparata]

This ia short story, which I have written. Any comments or suggestions are more than welcome.

Millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen. millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen.
Millihe
-Shut up and pay attention to me. Good. That it’s a lot better. You are more obedient that I expected you to be. You have to listen to me. This is not dream, but it’s not real either. I came here to help you. Trust me. See this? You must…No. I don’t want it to be that way. Call me silly, but I need to explain to you. After all you are entitled to know. You deserve to know. Well then, this story begun when Erasmus left me. No. Actually it was shortly before that. When I dropped something, which was unimportant but I was about to turn it into something precious. I am afraid that I have confused you, haven’t I? Please, don’t answer. I can’t stand you muttering that awful word. I simply can’t. That word is annoying, disturbing, and …. come to think of it is the best way to begin the story.. Look and listen carefully to what I am going to say.
A woman has risen from the sea. She wears no garments whatsoever. Aware of her own nakedness, she has her left hand on her breast while her right covers her vagina. As her long, auburn hair is blowing in the wind, it seems like flames, thus giving the false impression, that her figure is surrounded by fire. Her head slightly inclines towards the right. Her neck is extremely long, as well as her right hand. Nevertheless the beauty of her body is exquisite and beyond any argument. But the most striking feature of that lady is her face. Her eyes, nose and mouth are entirely absent. Instead her facial characteristics are composed of her breast, navel and vagina.
As the camera zooms out, it is evident that this grotesque, but yet beautiful sight, is depicted on a label, placed on an empty bottle. Above the bottle’s mouth the word “THE” appears. Then the words BEAUTY and CLAIM, follow, respectively below and above of the aforementioned word. They flicker for an extremely short period of time, and instantly are absorbed by the bottle, letter by letter. As they fell in, the bottle is filled with a carmine coloured liquid. As soon as the last letter, “C”, is absorbed, an invisible hand places the lid back to the bottle, and only then the word, which has been carved in the space between the neck and the label, can be noticeable, and thus readable. This word is millihelen.
By the next second, the commercial has already ended, only to be succeeded by another. But it is hard to forget it, isn’t? It is hard to make sense out of it too. None the less all that it matters is the woman’s disturbing image, strongly associated with the productbranded as millihelen, which dwells in your mind.
Now, if you are a man, by the next time you come across with that certain image, you have definitely realised its effect on you. It is not just the rapid heartbeat, nor the dizziness, that make you feel uneasy. It is rather that nauseating feeling of having just lost something that was never actually yours, but should have been, and it is somehow associated with that woman. She is far from being a beautiful woman. You no longer regard her as an advertising mascot. When you look at her, you feel that before you lays beauty in all its sublimity. Therefore the need for you to be as close as possible to her emerges. She is first thing that you see as you close your eyes, and the first thing you yearn to see as you open them. However, since dreams cannot satisfy your obsession soon your steps lead you to a supermarket shelf. Before you notice it, you return home with a quantity of millihelen products, enough to last for ten years, as a gift to your other half, secretly hoping that by merely consuming the product, maybe she will acquire that notion of sublime beauty, which you desperately seek. And for a while you think that she does, until of course the effect of the product wear’s off. Then all you can do is open another bottle, and hope that this time it will last longer.
Disgusted, appalled and deeply offended you feel if you are a woman and watch the commercial. Initially you complain about the absolute lack of morality in advertising field and you stand against this ruthless exploit of the female body. You simply refuse to buy that beauty placebo. But that’s until the day you caught yourself gazing at the mirror and wondering whether you could actually be compared to such a level of sublime beauty. You stare at her, wishing that she was your reflection. You stare at your reflection, and you are looking in vain for a beauty equal to hers. Gradually you are haunted by the notion that a non-existent woman has a larger appeal on men than you. You feel that way regardless of what your stand on beauty was before the commercial. Interestingly, as a woman, you seem to resist to the temptation longer than men. Even so, all your concerns about the commercialisation of beauty disappear the very moment that you sneak behind your desk at the office, in order for you to try the effect of just an infinitesimal drop of millihelen. After that all you yearn, is to become her reflection.
You are a man. You are a woman. It doesn’t really matter anymore does it? All it matters is being as close as possible to that specific and undetermined sublime notion, and as a consequence to the object, whatever that it may be, as long as it can provide that absolute wonderful feeling. You feel blessed by the realisation that your obsession can be contained in a bottle. A bottle labelled Millihelen. Soon, you discover that the rest of the world is important to you as long as you can associate it with millihelen. But that is impossible. It is then that you decide to abolish anything and everyone that cannot be included in that bottle. Of course, by now you don’t belong any longer to the field of reality, nor to the one of dreams. For you all that is real is that bottle. Besides dreams are worthless by now, aren’t they?
By now you have reached a point that for you Millihelen is no longer regarded as a product. On the contrary you are now capable of perceiving it as the only possible reality.
What strikes me the most is that you actually succumbed to it, without ever wondering what exactly millihelen is, or does. My poor fool, tell me, have you even ever wondered what does it mean? Never? I thought so. Can’t say I am surprised. Allow me, then to indulge your belated curiosity.
Millihelen. The word. Ever heard of Helen of Troy, whose legendary beauty launched a thousand ships? Well, as silly as it may seem, the concept of millihelen, is based on that “fact”. Millihelen refers to a unit of measurement of beauty. For example 1 millihelen is the amount of beauty needed to launch 1 ship.
Millihelen. The world. A false reality, which is in fact your actual prison. A place, which you accept as real, only because it involves millihelen.
Millihelen. The object . An advertising mascot lures you towards it. While you feel that the mascot is the sublime form of beauty that you crave for, you purchase the object. Until finally you end up giving away your life and dreams to it. After all, millihelen is your life and dreams now. Having never cared about its actual function, you only focused on what it promised. Now, that was Beauty right? But, by now you have realised, that beauty cannot be measured, nor contained in a bottle. All you are left with is millihelen. More meaningless than your life, more worthless than your dreams, and yet you are attached to it with feverish persistence.Millihelen, has finally been revealed to you, in its true form, the zahir.

 

[Anglika]

Millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen. millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen millihelen.
Millihe
-Shut up and pay attention to me. Good. That's a lot better. You are more obedient that I expected you to be. You have to listen to me. This is not a dream, but it’s not real either. I came here to help you. Trust me. See this? You must…No. I don’t want it to be that way. Call me silly, but I need to explain to you. After all you are entitled to know. You deserve to know. Well then, this story [begins/began] when Erasmus left me. No. Actually it was shortly before that. When I dropped something, which was unimportant but I was about to turn it into something precious. I am afraid that I have confused you, haven’t I? Please, don’t answer. I can’t stand you muttering that awful word. I simply can’t. That word is annoying, disturbing, and …. come to think of it is the best way to begin the story.. Look and listen carefully to what I am going to say.
A woman has risen from the sea. She wears no garments whatsoever. Aware of her own nakedness, she has her left hand on her breast while her right covers her vagina. As her long, auburn hair is blowing in the wind, it seems like flames, thus giving the false impression that her figure is surrounded by fire. Her head slightly inclines towards the right. Her neck is extremely long, as well as her right hand. Nevertheless the beauty of her body is exquisite and beyond any argument. But the most striking feature of that lady is her face. Her eyes, nose and mouth are entirely absent. Instead her facial characteristics are composed of her breast, navel and vagina.
As the camera zooms out, it is evident that this grotesque, but yet beautiful, sight is depicted on a label, placed on an empty bottle. Above the bottle’s mouth the word “THE” appears. Then the words BEAUTY and CLAIM follow, respectively below and above the aforementioned word. They flicker for an extremely short period of time, and instantly are absorbed by the bottle, letter by letter. As they fall in, the bottle is filled with a carmine coloured liquid. As soon as the last letter, “C” [surely "M"?], is absorbed, an invisible hand places the lid back to the bottle, and only then the word, which has been carved in the space between the neck and the label, can be noticeable, and thus readable. This word is millihelen.
Within a second, the commercial has already ended, only to be succeeded by another. But it is hard to forget it, isn’t? It is hard to make sense out of it too. None the less, all that it matters is the woman’s disturbing image, strongly associated with the product branded as millihelen, which dwells in your mind.
Now, if you are a man, the next time you come across that certain image, you have definitely realised its effect on you. It is not just the rapid heartbeat, nor the dizziness, that make you feel uneasy. It is rather that nauseating feeling of having just lost something that was never actually yours, but should have been, and it is somehow associated with that woman. She is far from being a beautiful woman. You no longer regard her as an advertising symbol. When you look at her, you feel that before you lies beauty in all its sublimity. Therefore the need for you to be as close as possible to her emerges. She is the first thing that you see as you close your eyes, and the first thing you yearn to see as you open them. However, since dreams cannot satisfy your obsession, soon your steps lead you to a supermarket shelf. Before you notice it, you return home with a quantity of millihelen products, enough to last for ten years, as a gift to your other half, secretly hoping that by merely consuming the product, maybe she will acquire that notion of sublime beauty which you desperately seek. And for a while you think that she does, until of course the effect of the product wears off. Then all you can do is open another bottle, and hope that this time it will last longer.
Disgusted, appalled and deeply offended is how you feel if you are a woman and watch the commercial. Initially you complain about the absolute lack of morality in advertising and you stand against this ruthless exploitation of the female body. You simply refuse to buy that beauty placebo. But that’s until the day you caught yourself gazing at the mirror and wondering whether you could actually be compared to such a level of sublime beauty. You stare at her, wishing that she was your reflection. You stare at your reflection, and you are looking in vain for a beauty equal to hers. Gradually you are haunted by the notion that a non-existent woman has a greater appeal for men than you have. You feel that way regardless of what your stand on beauty was before the commercial. Interestingly, as a woman, you seem to resist to the temptation longer than men. Even so, all your concerns about the commercialisation of beauty disappear the very moment that you sneak behind your desk at the office, in order for you to try the effect of just an infintesimal drop of millihelen. After that all you yearn is to become her reflection.
You are a man. You are a woman. It doesn’t really matter any more does it? All that matters is being as close as possible to that specific and undetermined sublime notion and, as a consequence, to the object, whatever that it may be, as long as it can provide that absolute wonderful feeling. You feel blessed by the realisation that your obsession can be contained in a bottle. A bottle labelled Millihelen. Soon, you discover that the rest of the world is important to you as long as you can associate it with millihelen. But that is impossible. It is then that you decide to abolish anything and everyone that cannot be included in that bottle. Of course, by now you don’t belong any longer to the field of reality, nor to the one of dreams. For you all that is real is that bottle. Besides dreams are worthless by now, aren’t they?
By now you have reached a point that for you Millihelen is no longer regarded as a product. On the contrary you are now capable of perceiving it as the only possible reality.
What strikes me the most is that you actually succumbed to it, without ever wondering what exactly millihelen is, or does. My poor fool, tell me, have you even ever wondered what does it mean? Never? I thought so. Can’t say I am surprised. Allow me, then to indulge your belated curiosity.
Millihelen. The word. Ever heard of Helen of Troy, whose legendary beauty launched a thousand ships? Well, as silly as it may seem, the concept of millihelen, is based on that “fact”. Millihelen refers to a unit of measurement of beauty. For example 1 millihelen is the amount of beauty needed to launch 1 ship.
Millihelen. The world. A false reality, which is in fact your actual prison. A place, which you accept as real, only because it involves millihelen.
Millihelen. The object . An advertising symbol lures you towards it. While you feel that the synmbol is the sublime form of beauty that you crave for, you purchase the object. Until finally you end up giving away your life and dreams to it. After all, millihelen is your life and dreams now. Having never cared about its actual function, you only focused on what it promised. Now, that was Beauty right? But by now you have realised that beauty cannot be measured, nor contained in a bottle. All you are left with is millihelen. More meaningless than your life, more worthless than your dreams, and yet you are attached to it with feverish persistence.Millihelen has finally been revealed to you, in its true form, the zahir.

:shock:

 

[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

I am usually more gullible than I am conscious of and I need to remind myself every day. It goes deep in me and mixes my miserable reality with an illusion in a bottle. I go on buying as many bottles as possible and people think I have gone mad. No, it is not only on or in a bottle. It is everywhere, in every bastard commercial or advert which makes me go on making the same mistake. I am a man more easily manipulated but more like women I ran after an illusion or fanatic about mirrors. You know, she is always carrying a mirror in her bag. The sea is life but again it only gives birth to a nymph but her auburn hair and carmine are the opposite. It is fire in water. Her body is more important than her faces as the French artist René Magritte paints them. Some women's faces either disappear or are hidden behind a veil without identity. The beautiful Helen is not only without face but is measuredable as well. Damn be human nature for putting everything on a scale of varying degrees - Measure for Measure.

I gaze and gaze, stare and stare in obsession which in fact cannot be bad because apart from that I don’t have time even to look as long as sheep or cows as Wordsworth put it. I recommed reading what Cathy Page wrote "I Like to Look". But then my mind translates it into a different perception beyond my reason. I wonder whether you can turn a hidden object into a zahir. Erasmus creates them. No. it is not Erasmus who is to blame- It is me. Me alone and nobody else. The word Milihelen evokes in me associations of Lilihelen or little Helen. It doesn’t matter for little is a quantity of measurement. The word zahir is of Arabic origin. It shows what is open or visible on the surface. It is a prophetic revelation. Still, it implies there is something hidden. It is the Joharry window. There are two selves now: the known self and the hidden self. One you and me know but the other is only known to me.

 

[Astaparata]

The image of the woman is in fact a pastiche
of Magrite's Rape(as it was well observed), Botticeli's
The Birth of Venus, and Van Gogh's Vincent in flames.
As far as the combination of fire, woman and sea its concerned,
it is a referenxe in an ancient greek saying, according
to which the three evils are fire, woman and sea.

 

[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

Like advertising which sells hopes the placebo beauty can only take effect for a short time and only if you are that gullible (after the first bottle). Still isn't beauty ephemeral as well? But does that mean the narrator is sick and hopeless or even angry? Shut up and listen…..

Call Milihelen without a pause for 15 times and then when the 16th time comes stop after "he". Does that mean the sublime Helen is turned to mili and he? Repeating sth (whether a name, a piece of art) umpteen times like a commercial on TV ruins the beauty and appeal of the original. Even great films are being repeated not only by the same channel on a daily basis. Repetition and availability kill beauty indeed (all the bottles the narrator buys). So it is not turning something cheap into sth precious but the other way round. Something precious is being turned into dirt insolently. Commercialization launching beauty converts beauty into commodity. Thus human creativity is being treated like dirt by human beings and killed by repetition.

However, human nature makes anything which is not accessible easily, sublime. The sublimity scale takes a downward trend now until it levels off or even plummets to its lowest point. Helen in the commercial is purchasable, measurable and available. Scarcity gives back the beauty usurped by availability. Are women and men only interested in each other when they are not reachable because they are sublime ie higher than their hands?. Ben Jonson, Renaissance Dramatist, Playwright, and Poet (11 June 1572 – 6 August 1637) wrote:

Follow a shadow it still flies you
Seem to fly it it will pursue
So court a mistress she denies you
Let her alone she will court you.

Ben Jonson: The Shadow


One of the great failures of culture is our apparent inability to recognize the manner in which prohibition and shame reinforces an underlying concept. Can something we desire turn to a shadow?