Lines of flight

 On possible quantum effects in the navigational system of migrating birds (Cai, Guerreschi and Briegel 2010)

The writing in the Comte de Lautreamont’s Maldoror reminds me of entering an elaborate maze. His sentences are often exceedingly lengthy and frequently lurch in unexpected directions midway through a thought. A long passage that starts out with a straightforward description of a crane, may soon branch out to discuss all birds, then more specifically their flight patterns.

Then the writing reins back in to a specific crane, an old crane, the leader who maneuvers “with wings no larger than a sparrows” (Lautreamont 28). The writer nests this description into an opening warning against the reader continuing the journey. This bird, “being no booby” (Lautreamont 28), chooses to take a safer more philosophic course. The writer warns you to go back, these are dangerous paths the reader is treading.