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<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0A group of latter-day Istanbul Birds gathered in that city on a Friday in late January, and drew lots to determine which of their number would act as the \u201cRepresentative\u201d \u2013 that is, undergo a series of psychospiritual exercises designed to empty out the self and replace it with the being or emanation of an object presently missing, far away, or long gone. On this occasion the object in question was the wall that once encircled the old Istanbul neighborhood of Galata.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0We draw what follows from reports by a number of the Birds who were personally\u00a0involved, on the condition that we omit the more intimate of the revelations and encounters of the Action, particularly beginning with the phases of the Prosphorion known as \u201cAbscission\u201d and \u201cVeillance.\u201d However, the general atmosphere of the events \u2013 though perhaps not as charged as it was for the participants \u2013 can still be reconstructed for our readers.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The Representative, having entered what is called the stage of Radiance \u2013 in which the being of the Wall of Galata shone forth from what had been the lineaments of her body \u2013 began her path in disoriented and halting fashion, a stranger in a changed city, but slowly recovered her natural regal bearing. The Wall, wending its way, was seen to halt pedestrians and vehicles in their tracks by a single raised hand. At each turning, the\u00a0bustle of city life\u00a0paused, if only to blink once and continue, at the sight of her.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The Wall\u2019s increasingly sure path led it among the building supply shops and family hardware outlets of\u00a0<\/span>Galata as the afternoon waned. The streets\u00a0bristled with signs and portents, as with sparks of static discharge.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n