Shopping threads

"Some objects have an irresistible effect, as if we were tied to them by little wires. It could be that the salesperson had been watching me from a distance, the way some spiders hide at the edge of the web until a moth becomes so tangles that it's safe to approach. When the salesperson saw that i was half caught, she came a little nearer and asked her question.

The threads that tie us to objects are invisibly fine, and normally we scarcely notice their little tugs and pulls. But the webs of vision are there nevertheless. All those familiar gestures of shoppers - bending forward for a closer look and then straightening up, raising the eyebrows, tilting the head to one side, stepping back to think, shifting weight from one foot to the other, crossing the arms, sighing, scratching the head - these are signs that they are already caught in the web."

Elkins, James (1996), The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing, A Harvest Book, Harcourt, Inc. San Diego, New York, London, p.19