Review of a 1968 novel by Wilfrid Sheed, who died today—
Sheed on his boyhood in My Life as a Fan: A Memoir —
"So it was back to… tinkering with my batting stance and praying that some one of my aged neighbors would miraculously rear back and give birth, like Sarah in the Bible, to a boy who would even more miraculously emerge at about my own age and not turn out to be a butterfly collector or other form of creep." (Simon & Schuster, 1993; in 2001 edition, page 84)
See also Shadow (September 23rd) —
"I was the shadow of the waxwing slain" — John Shade in Pale Fire , a novel by butterfly collector Vladimir Nabokov
—as well as Intermediate Cubism and Ironic Butterfly.
"This is called the transformation of things."