the sound of a wild snail eating, excerpts and images
DESCRIPTION
Favorite ideas and words from The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, presented in a colorful slide show...TRANSCRIPT
the first number, below right, is the i.d. number of the background photo, from www.sxc.hu photo
the second number is the page numberof the quote (in the hardback), in case you’d
like to track them down
(you may need to zoom in on the PDF to read the numbers)
photo number 1291358 : page number
When the body is rendered useless, the mind still runs like
a bloodhound along well-worn trails of neurons, tracking the
echoing questions: the confused family of whys, whats, and
whens, and their impossibly distant kin how.
1254776:5
1026752
Whereas the future had once beckoned with many
intriguing paths, now there was just one impossible
route. so it was into the past, with its rich sedimentary
layers, that my mind would go instead.
1239412:11
one evening I put some of the withered blossoms in the dish
beneath the pot of violets. The snail was awake. It made its
way down the side of the pot and investigated the offering
with great interest and then began to eat one of the blossoms.
a petal started to disappear at a barely discernible rate.
I listened carefully. I could hear it eating.
781810:12
each evening the snail awoke and, with an astonishing
amount of poise, moved gracefully to the rim of the pot and
peered over, surveying, once again, the strange country that
lay ahead. Pondering its circumstances with a regal air, as if
from the turret of a castle, it waved its tentacles first this way
and then that, as though responding to a distant melody.
1085851
...I was a reminder of all they feared: chance, uncertainty,
loss, and the sharp edge of mortality. Those of us with
illnesses are the holders of the silent fears of those with
good health.
1209370:39
In the fourth century bC, in the History of Animals, aristotle
noted that snail teeth are “sharp and small, and delicate.”
My snail possessed around 2,640 teeth, so I’d add the word
plentiful to aristotle’s description.
1129749:49
While homo sapiens have internal mucus, and more of it than
we realize, it’s the extravagant nature of the gastropod to be
completely coated externally.
1169255:69
1070190:90
If we Homo sapiens thought we were in charge of the planet,
here was clear evidence to the contrary. The humble snail
and its clan have a far older, and stickier, foothold on the
earth than we more recent creatures.
...the sentence that best expresses a snail’s way of life:
“The right thing to do is to do nothing, the place to do
it is in a place of concealment, and the time to do it is
as often as possible.”
: Tony Cook, The Biology of Terrestrial Molluscs
1192999:116
What majesty is in a creeping snail, what reflection, what
earnestness, what timidity, and yet at the same time what
firm confidence! Surely a snail is an exalted symbol of mind
slumbering deeply within itself.
: Lorenz Oken, late nineteenth century German naturalist
1026752
There are times when I wished my viral invader had
claimed me completely. How much better to live an
exhuberant life and then leave as one exits a party,
simply opening a door and stepping out.
779839:131
Humanity is exalted not because we are so far above other
living creatures, but because knowing them well elevates
the very concept of life.
: Edward O. Wilson, 1984, Biophilia
1034598:159