Wednesday 18 July 2018

Insect

The narrator of Poul Anderson's The Avatar, VI, p. 55, has been a crawling caterpillar, a sleeping pupa and a flying moth. He sensed his environment but did not remember his former forms.

The caterpillar sensed crisp sweet juicy leaves, warm sunlight, cool dew and endless odors. The moth saw vague shapes but knew more by fragrance. He ate nectar and sap. Flying by night, he and his flock saw what he later learned were the lights of men.

Gathered up into Oneness, he says that "We" knew his whole life from the egg. "The One" is my term for the cosmic totality that is also the object of religious experience but Insect means something more specific.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

What I said in the combox of your immediate blog piece also applies here.

And since I believe God is real, then He already knows everything that a tree, insect, or humans can or will experience.

Sean