"there's another world that parallels our own, and to a certain degree you're able to step into that other world and come back safely. as long as you're careful. but go past a certain point and you'll lose the path out. it's a labyrinth. do you know where the idea of a labyrinth first came from?"
i shake my head.
"it was the ancient mesopotamians. they pulled out animal intestines - sometimes human intestines, i expect - and used the shape to predict the future. they admired the complex shape of intestines. so the prototype for labyrinths is, in a word, guts. which means that the principle for the labyrinth is inside you. and that correlates to the labyrinth outside."
"another metaphor," i comment.
"that's right. a reciprocal metaphor. things outside you are projections of what's inside you, and what's inside you is a projection of what's outside. so when you step into the labyrinth outside you, at the same time you're stepping into the labyrinth inside. most definitely a risky business."
kafka
i shake my head.
"it was the ancient mesopotamians. they pulled out animal intestines - sometimes human intestines, i expect - and used the shape to predict the future. they admired the complex shape of intestines. so the prototype for labyrinths is, in a word, guts. which means that the principle for the labyrinth is inside you. and that correlates to the labyrinth outside."
"another metaphor," i comment.
"that's right. a reciprocal metaphor. things outside you are projections of what's inside you, and what's inside you is a projection of what's outside. so when you step into the labyrinth outside you, at the same time you're stepping into the labyrinth inside. most definitely a risky business."
kafka
