The relationship between time and snail
Luckily Eva Demski drew our attention to the book.
"The sound of a snail eating" tells the story of a woman and her unusual pet. When the writer Eva Demski came across the story of US author Elisabeth Tova Bailey, she recommended it to all friends - including us. From the writer Eva Demski have recently appeared: "Garden stories" (235 p., 10 euros, island paperback) and "Rheingau" (128 p., 15 euros, Hoffmann and Campe).
Eva Demski: "The title caught my eye."
Between all the one-word titles in the book previews piled up on my desk and yelling at me: Greed! Damnation! Delusion! Here, however, it seemed to me as if I whispered something. I became curious. The name of the author, Elisabeth Tova Bailey, did not tell me anything.
The story begins with a mysterious illness, which sneaks into the life of the author and literally paralyzes this life. At the time she is 34 years old. Her body becomes a bizarre, strange place, he no longer obeys her; what you have left is the perception of your surroundings. It is not even their usual, they have housed the disabled in a small studio, where they can be better cared for. Bailey describes both poetically and factually how she tries to settle into her memories. The reader comes very close to her, and yet she remains mysterious who has to put up with her reduced state for decades. The only public image of her is a painting. She lies on it with her legs drawn up on a couch and has a dog by her side.
In good health, it seems obvious that life makes sense, and it is frightening how quickly an illness can nullify that certainty.
The story begins with a gift. A friend brings the patient a pot with an excavated Ackerveilchen, on which she has set a small snail. As I continued to read this silent story, something very strange happened to me. Lewis Carroll's Alice must have been so when she fell into the well - the standards got completely mixed up. Big things - Greece crisis, inflation or copyright because of me - became very small and the tiny world of the slug and its motionless observer very large. It stayed that way for many hours, and the feeling did not disappear even months after the reading. It was not just me. Even people who had snails on their plates before and had to think of the book title first and foremost herb butter, garlic and fresh baguette, were after reading not only for this enjoyment, but also lost for many others. Sucking away spiders, for example, or spraying ants suddenly becomes a problem, as even hard-nosed gardening friends have confirmed. Not to mention the cutting of the naked relatives of Bailey's little snail. I was like in a trance, as I followed the path of her new pet with the author, got to know her culinary preferences (mushrooms!), sleeping, drinking and hiding habits. Since Elisabeth Bailey is a clever, well-organized and enormously curious-minded author, she does everything in her power to broaden her knowledge of the small gastropod and, to the extent possible, allow her to create the ideal living space. The violet pot is replaced by a luxurious terrarium. You can watch it all on the Internet and even hear the sound mentioned in the title (www.elisabethtova bailey.net). I did that much later, but I did not need the pictures and sounds. You have not added anything to the magic of the book.
"Yes, it's a love story."
Painting by the author: Elisabeth Tova-Bailey
At the very beginning of her report, Elisabeth Bailey states almost coolly: "In good health, it seems obvious that life makes sense, and it is frightening how quickly an illness can destroy that certainty." This is a sentence whose force is only gradually opening, and that it is just a snail that fills this awful vacuum, once again, does not make you believe in coincidences. The queen of slowness that we learn throughout the book of how much vivacity, one might even say, wisdom has, is just the right kind of savior for someone his body has failed. The author lets her readers take part in both, in her observations of the small animal, which reveal more and more affection, and in her research, which apply to the genus snail and their idiosyncrasies. A Lovestory? Yes, it is one.Just as the relationship written by Oriana Fallaci between prisoner Panagoulis and his cockroach Dali - he had called her that because of her long feelers - was one. Small, rather despised animals such as mice, spiders or sparrows and prisoners are literary pairings that have been around more than once. Mostly tales of taming. However, Bailey's slug is not tamed, she gets no name. It is observed and explored, sometimes missed if it is not found. But it is not a human appendage, but in all phases of the story a chance, a small peephole into the creation and therefore a salvation.
This little snail is just the right type of rescuer for someone his body has failed. She is being watched and explored, sometimes missed. It is a chance, a small peephole in the creation
I was not bored for a second with this book, and it did something to me. After reading my life had become more difficult, the danger exists for everyone. After all, it does not take long to think about the fact that small creatures with surprisingly diverse characteristics live everywhere, even though we obviously only take notice of them when nothing else is left to us. Scattering snail grain does not work at all after this book, and if so the bitterly-eaten summer flower plants even so embitter. It does not help at all to say that the cherished hedgehog would eat the little wonder thing unaffected. The sound of a snail eating is, as quiet as it may be, unmistakable, once one has let himself in on what has happened between this sick woman and the little reptile on an acorn plant. Nevertheless, Bailey makes it easy for her readers, she does not call for pity, she is never sentimental, she does not hold up any human qualities to her tiny consort. If you want, you can read their report as accurate and beautifully written science prose. That would definitely help you not to let it all go too close. I did not succeed in the distancing. Instead of the big politics now encounters with much smaller fellow creatures occupy my thoughts. What that means for my normal gardening, everyone can easily imagine.
"Phrases that you would not want to do without."
It does not happen that often that you take with you from readings. Just because there are many books that pretend to be able to deliver some, and dazzle their readers with inflated banalities, one is amazed when one discovers unexpected sentences that one no longer wants to renounce. One of these was discovered by Bailey during her research trips, these virtual journeys from the sickbay. It comes from the snail researcher Tony Cook, describes the way of life of the snails and as a small categorical imperative also good for us humans to use: "The right thing to do is to do nothing, the right place is a hiding place, and the right time for that is as often as possible. " A very useful philosophy of life. It can not hurt to listen to the sound of a snail eating while eating. It just makes you happy.
The book Elisabeth Tova Bailey: "The sound of a snail eating," 176 pp., 16.90 euros, nail & Kimche
