N 07 hilio. This is the doctrine that the world sprang into being out of pure noth ingness. One moment there was void and emptiness, and an instant later, quick as a divine heartbeat, a whole universe pulsed into view. Now you see it, now you don't: That's Life."16 Naturalist Richard Fortey discusses why a magician's "now you see it -- now you don't" is so profoundly moving to his spectators. "In our visually- dominated world sight is almost synonymous with understanding. We acknowledge light dawning by saying: 'I see!' The metaphor of vision suf fuses our attempts to convey comprehension: we bring issues into focus, we clarify our views, we sight our objectives, we look into things. We accept the evidence of our own eyes. The conjurer turns the veracity of sight head over heels: now you see it -- now you don't. We find his tricks disturbing because we are so wedded to the truth of sight."17 Perhaps a magic trick is sometimes disturbing, but more often than not the "'now you see it now you don't' [is] entangling, enticing, enthralling, [and yet] elusive," for it indirectly presents a "divine revelation" to human eyes: "indirectly -- direct vision would be blinding -- through the veil of language."18 Meanings: • Apparition, "intangible nonentity" -- Yael Navaro-Yashin, Faces of the State (2002) • Changeability "[Ovid's Metamorphoses] is another of those fleeing-nymph stories, combined with the now-you-see-it-now-you-don't nature of Arcadian rivers. The river god Alpheus chases Arethusa, who becomes a river to escape a river." -- Larry Habegger, Travelers' Tales: Greece (2000) • Conjuring trick; sleight of hand -- Deborah Debonshire, Counting My Chickens (2001) -- Todd Boyd, Young Black Rich and Famous (200 ) -- Elizabeth Martinez, De Colores Means All of Us (1998) "[A] now-you-see-it-now-you-don't trick guaranteed to amuse and bewilder . . ." -- Jerome Malitz, Rocky Mountain National Park Dayhiker's Guide (199 ) "This 'now you see it, now you don't' conjuring trick, called 'regeneration' in the physics trade, is not magic at all, but a dramatic demonstration of quantum mechanics at work." -- Gordon Fraser, Antimatter: The Ultimate Mirror (2000) "It's the sleight of hand routine done with other parts of the body, now you think you see it, now you don't." -- Derek Smethurst, Soccer Technique for Winning (2000) "Autobiography is the magician's best trick: now you see him, now you don't." -- Debra B. Sostak, Philip Roth -- Countertexts, Counterlives (2004) "The now-you-see-it-now-you-don't-sleight-of-hand rules . . ." -- John Edgar Wideman, Brothers and Keepers (2005) 16 Barbara Rohde, "For All the Gifts of Life," All the Gifts of Life (2002) 17 Trilobite (2001) 18 Nicholas Garnham, Emancipation, the Media, and Modernity (2000)