The Knife

Temporal Ruptures in Revelation and Transformation
The Greek sculptor Lysippos of Sicyon (fourth century BCE) represented Kairos carrying a razor in his left hand. According to the epigram dedicated to this statue by Posidippus of Pella (mid-third-century BCE), the Greek divinity of the opportune moment is said to move with a swiftness that is sharper than any razor’s edge. Why does Kairos carry a razor in his hand? And how does the knife relate to opportunity and temporality?  This book embarks on a narrative detour to answer these questions. Stories of revelation and transformation are anatomised to discover the moments of the knife pulsating underneath the surface. The sword grasped at the right moment by the Biblical heroine Judith, Abraham’s sacrificial knife, the eucharistic knife from the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, Psyche’s razor, the surgeon’s scalpel, or the apocalyptic double-edged sword each figure as multifaceted imaginations of these kairotic moments.  Under the skin of this book lives the question raised by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) in his Laokoon oder über die Grenzen der Mahlerey und Poesie (1766). Who is best suited to capture the right moment, the painter, or the poet? At the heart of it all is the disruption of time itself. The moment of the knife is the time of the wound in time. Sudden, sharp, and unexpected this moment pierces deep into the human experience, stirring the soul with a swiftness beyond imagination.

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.