Log24

John Fowles on two of his novels:

“I wanted to show the seeds of an intense future evolution in a particular period.”

Ray Bradbury, “A Sound of Thunder” (1952), on the death of a butterfly:

“It fell to the floor, an exquisite thing, a small thing that could upset balances and knock down a line of small dominoes and then big dominoes and then gigantic dominoes, all down the years across Time.”

Zhuangzi:

“Once Zhuang Zhou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased.  He didn’t know he was Zhuang Zhou.  Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou.  But he didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou.  Between Zhuang Zhou and a butterfly there must be some distinction!  This is called the Transformation of Things.”

Related material:

• Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu),
• The Book of Transformations —
  The I Ching —
  (see previous entry) and
• Log24 entries of November 7.