#TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly‬

My favourite Tweet-sized quotes from Jean-Dominique Bauby’s book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

1

“You survive, but you survive with what is aptly known as ‘locked-in syndrome’. Paralysed from head to toe, the patient, his mind intact, is imprisoned inside his own body, but unable to speak or move.” #TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) 7 March 2018

2

“As three orderlies laid me back down, I thought of movie gangsters struggling to fit the slain informer’s body into the boot of their car.” #TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) 7 March 2018

3

“My cocoon becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas’s court.” #TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) 7 March 2018

4

“For pleasure I have to turn to the vivid memory of tastes and smells, an inexhaustible reservoir of sensations. Once I was a master at recycling leftovers. Now I cultivate the art of simmering memories.” #TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) 7 March 2018

5

“But I see in the clothes a symbol of continuing life. And proof that I still want to be myself. If I must drool, I may as well drool on cashmere.” #TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) 8 March 2018

6

“The identity badge pinned to Sandrine’s white tunic says ‘Speech Therapist’, but it should read ‘Guardian Angel’. She is the one who set up the communication code without which I would be cut-off from the world.” #TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly Ping @wespeechies

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) 7 March 2018

7

“But to keep my mind sharp, to avoid slumping into resigned indifference, I maintain a level of resentment and anger, neither too much nor too little, just as a pressure-cooker has a safety-valve to keep it from exploding.” #TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) 7 March 2018

8

“Meticulous people never go wrong: they scrupulously note down each letter and never seek to pierce the mystery before it is complete. Nor would they dare dream of finishing a single word for you.” #TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) 8 March 2018

9

“… they would never take it upon themselves to provide the ‘room’ that follows ‘mush’, the ‘ic’ that follows ‘atom’, or the ‘nable’ without which neither ‘intermi’ nor ‘abomi’ can exist. Such scrupulousness makes for laborious progress…” #TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) 8 March 2018

10

”There comes a time when the heaping up of calamities brings on uncontrollable nervous laughter – when, after a final blow from fate, we decide to treat it all as a joke.” #TheDivingBellAndTheButterfly pic.twitter.com/bFNUPxRjLm

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) 8 March 2018

Explanation

These Tweets were initially compiled using a social media aggregation tool called Storify https://storify.com/meta4RN/thedivingbellandthebutterfly

Unfortunately, Storify is shutting-down on 16 May 2018 and all content will be deleted.

I’m using my blog as a place to mimic/save the Storify pages I created and value.

End

As always, please use the comments section below for any feedback/questions.

Paul McNamara, 10th March 2018

Short URL: meta4RN.com/butterfly