Afdölum (Hidden valleys)

The hill is climbed, the forest ended -
Is there no more, is it all done ?
No, for there stands a house on the hill beyond,
And walk towards it, I will.
And a valley, and another, and a valley once more -
Should I hear a voice saying, "This is the end, I'll settle here",
I will stifle it, stifle it with the infinite void of the valleys beyond.

La colline passée, la forêt traversée -
Est-ce tout, est-ce achevé ?
Non, car voici un toit sur la colline au loin,
Et vers ce toit, je marcherai.
Et une vallée, et une autre, et une vallée encore -
Si j'entends une voix disant, "Voici la fin, ici je m'établis",
Je l'étoufferai, je l'étoufferai avec le vide infini des vallées au loin.

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Now this is true, orthodox marginalism, of the strict minutiaephile kind. The minute wonder above is from "The Appearance of Christ before the People" by Alexander Andreievitch Ivanov, and as you can see here, it is indeed a very, very minute wonder in the whole picture.

So much that one wonders (you should pardon the pun) why master Alexander thought and bothered with including it. But apparently, this good man took twenty years to complete this piece, so he probably had lots of time to think about adding minutiae here and there. Why he did, thought, I'd be curious to know.

Below is a less minute, but still very endearing minutia - the scattered buildings in the first valley. Perhaps it was the initial goal of our restless traveller ?



(Yes, I know - the retouching is not professional. That's because I'm not a professional.)

Stig fyrir stig (step for step)

To climb, to gaze, step for step...
The Tower. The Rooftop Bush.
To climb, to watch, step for step...
The Slippery Tiles.
To climb, to look out and away, step for step...
The Light-Punctured Forest of beams. The Cloud Kingdom.
Even without a throne, to climb is to be king.

* * *

Monter, observer, pas à pas...
La Tour. Le Buisson du Toit.
Monter, regarder, pas à pas...
Les Tuiles Glissantes.
Monter, embrasser les dehors lointains, pas à pas...
La Forêt Ajourée des poutres. Le Royaume des Nuages.
Même sans trône, monter c'est être roi.

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Ancient battles and christs are not the only ones that can be ignored. Plain factories have that right, too. Now we're headed for the 19th century, with Alfred Rethel's "Die Harkortsche Fabrik auf Burg Wetter". Again, it's from Commons.
One could argue that this is not true Marginalism, as there is no real "main subject" in this picture, and thus, no true margin. I cannot argue with that logic, but I would respond that this is Escapist Partialism, a sister ideology of Marginalism, a schism, if you will, in the great religion of Phantasmatic Deconstructionism and Minute Wonderworking.
You know a religion is good when at the third meeting, its founder announces that he has created a schismatic current distinct from his own, original mainstream. Adhere today.