1. first things first...
If you click on “full size”
you can view the PDF
much larger, it will be more
readable, and these beautiful
photos will look spectacular.
You are also welcome to
download it.
So, now, please...
click “full”
479293
2. a baker’s dozen
twelve, or so, excerpts from
the book, these are the words
and ideas that impressed
me...
1340057
3. what this is...
A baker’s dozen from the
book. These were the words
or ideas that struck me
as particularly well put,
or especially intriguing.
Gratefully, a well-written
book, like this one, can send
your mind wandering to
interesting new places, and,
when it does, you want to
tell everyone, “You just gotta’
read this!”
So, this is my own unique
way of doing just that. Hope
you enjoy...
1032565
4. The photos are by terrific
people who freely share their
beautiful work at www.sxc.hu.
The number below is the
reference number for the
photo on that page.
The second number is the
page number where you
can find the quote (in the
hardback).
sxc number > 220233
5. All statements on the
following pages that are not
attributed are quoted word-
for-word from the book, and
the author...
Elisabeth Tova Bailey
[ image from dust jacket ]
1026752
6. 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.
917984 : 5
7. 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
8. 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
9. 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.
1075815:131
10. the snail gets up
and goes to bed
with very little fuss
kobayashi issa
1761-1828
1211855 : 9
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
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
13. 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.
1087055 : 49
14. 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.
1147461 : 69
15. 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.
1070190:90
16. 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 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
17. 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 19th century
German naturalist
1026752
18. 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
