{"id":9934,"date":"2017-11-17T22:43:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T11:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/?p=9934"},"modified":"2017-12-08T18:17:33","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T07:17:33","slug":"46-great-opening-lines-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/?p=9934","title":{"rendered":"46 Great Opening Lines: 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had never seen so many white coats in my little room.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Opening line of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly<\/em> by Jean-Dominique Bauby, translated by Jeremy Leggatt<\/p>\n

When Jean-Dominique Bauby wakes from a coma after a stroke, he’s surrounded by medical staff. He can’t move much of his body, just his head and one eye. By blinking it, he communicates with a speech therapist and dictates this book.<\/p>\n

The diving bell represents his body confined and greatly restricted with Locked-in Syndrome. The butterfly is his mind taking flight, as it used to before the stroke when he was the chief editor of Elle<\/em>, a French fashion magazine.<\/p>\n

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly<\/em> is amazing. Short and elegant, both the original and the translation. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

I thought about butterfly freedom this morning when I came across these two embracing beauties clinging to the fig branch in my garden. You see? Sometimes even a butterfly can be confined and restricted.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Orchard swallowtail butterflies, Papilio aegeus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had never seen so many white coats in my little room. Opening line of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby, translated by Jeremy Leggatt When Jean-Dominique Bauby wakes from a coma after a stroke, he’s surrounded by medical staff. He can’t move much of his body, just his head and one … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “46 Great Opening Lines: 12”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1088,579,157,20],"tags":[460,1139,358,156,1141,716,2,246,1143,7,8,1140,3,270],"class_list":["post-9934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-46-great-opening-lines","category-canberra","category-french-literature-and-translation","category-my-photos","tag-20th-century-literature","tag-butterflies-mating","tag-france","tag-french-literature","tag-jean-dominique-bauby","tag-literary-translation","tag-literature","tag-opening-lines","tag-orchard-swallowtail-butterfly-canberra","tag-photography","tag-photos-2","tag-the-diving-bell-and-the-butterfly","tag-translation","tag-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9934"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9975,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9934\/revisions\/9975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}