4:10 p.m. - 2002-04-07
lewis thomas and his book i found boring.
to be deleted....cos it has to be returned.
From "the lives of a cell" by lewis thomas:
The solitary wasp, Sphex, nearing her time of eggs, travels aloft with a single theory of caterpillars in her mind. She spots one hanging on a green leaf and swoops down immediately like she thinks she's an bald-headed going near extinct eagle and she pins the poor caterpillar and paralyses it and carries it off, and descends to deposit it precisely in front of the door of the round burrow.( built with that a different version of that same theory, she had prepared beforehand.)
she drops the beast, enters the burrow, inspects for any irregularities, before going out again to pull in the cattie for egg-laying.it has the orderly, stepwise look of a well thought-out business. but if, while she is inspecting the burrow, you move the caterpillar for a short distance, she would come out and search for a moment...not knowing what you damm bastard did, she would search for a while, find it, and drag it back to that same exact spot and then run inside the burrow again to inspect for irregularities again.
if you move the caterpillar again, she will repeat the program...and you can keep her preoccupied for as long as you have the patience and the heart for it.
it is compulsive...the wasp cannot imagine any other way of doing it.
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ok, i didn't copy the essay whole sale, some of it has been changed ( huh? eagle? bastard?) but anyway the essence of what he wrote is still here.(artistic integrity!)
ya ok, i just thought it was quite interesting. like that orange and black and white and brown spotted cat that hangs around the mama shop near my flat.
---as interesting as the world can be without humans trying to act interesting in it.
the end.
