"
When we accept slight amazement, in the world of the imagination, it becomes normal for an elephant, which is an enormous animal, to come out of a snail shell.
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Vues philosophiques de la gradation naturelle des formes de l'etre, ou les essais de la nature qui apprend a faire l'homme
Philosophical views on the natural gradation of forms of existence, or the attempts made by nature while learning to create humanity
J B Robinet 1768
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... "a coffin that contained nearly three hundered snail shells placed about the skeleton from feet to waistline." Such a contact with a belief places us at the origin of all beliefs [earth-bound snail as symbol of ardent,invincible hope]. A lost symbolism begins to collect dreams again.
All the proofs that we are obliged to present one after the other, of capacity for renewal, of resurrection or awakening of being, must be taken as coalescnece of reveries.
If we add to these allegories and symbols of resurrections the synthesizing nature of dreams of the powers of matter, we understand the fact that profound dreamers are unable to rule out the dream of a water-phoenix. The shell itself, in which a resurrection is being prepared in the synthesizing dream, is subject to resurrection. For if the dust in the shell can experience resurrection, there is no reason why the pulverized shell should not recapture its spiraling force.
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And so, we shall never collect enough daydreams, if we want to understand phenomenologically how a snail makes its house
"
the poetics of space, g. Bachelard.
ch 5- SHELLS

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