The Objects of Poison
Bodiou, Lydie
The Objects of Poison - 2011.
28
Poison related crimes are fascinating, disturbing, and have raised a number of questions since the remotest times. The culprits and their evil intentions have been the observers’ object of attention, but the objects of crime are also mysterious. The material history of poisoning tends to demonstrate that, even if each period of time is characterized by a group of objects that gives a colour and a particular meaning to it, the instruments of poison are as familiar to the criminal as to their victims. If the banality of the poisoned object reinforces the devious character of the crime, it is also confronted to the originality and the power of the objects that detect or denounce it, between magic and science. A few historical detours in the territory of poisoned things, from ancient Greece to today, show that that the confrontation between matter and flesh testifies of the calculations that precede and accompany the poisoning, but also of the fears and the understanding of the dangers suffered by potential victims and their defenders.
The Objects of Poison - 2011.
28
Poison related crimes are fascinating, disturbing, and have raised a number of questions since the remotest times. The culprits and their evil intentions have been the observers’ object of attention, but the objects of crime are also mysterious. The material history of poisoning tends to demonstrate that, even if each period of time is characterized by a group of objects that gives a colour and a particular meaning to it, the instruments of poison are as familiar to the criminal as to their victims. If the banality of the poisoned object reinforces the devious character of the crime, it is also confronted to the originality and the power of the objects that detect or denounce it, between magic and science. A few historical detours in the territory of poisoned things, from ancient Greece to today, show that that the confrontation between matter and flesh testifies of the calculations that precede and accompany the poisoning, but also of the fears and the understanding of the dangers suffered by potential victims and their defenders.
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