Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Booknotes: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly


Far from such din, when blessed silence returns, I can listen to the butterflies that flutter inside my head. To hear them, one must be calm and pay close attention, for their wingbeats are barely audible. Loud breathing is enough to drown them out. This is astonishing: my hearing does not improve, yet I hear them better and better. I must have butterfly hearing.



From Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly