SAWAKO NAKAYASU's books include So we have been given time Or, (Verse, 2004) Nothing fictional but the accuracy or arrangement (she, (forthcoming from Quale Press, 2005) and Clutch (Tinfish chapbook, 2002). Find more info here: http://www.factorial.org/sn/sn_home.html
Is Nakayasu-san the gonna be the newest member of my favorite author club? Are Okazaki-san's illustrations just, darling and funny and perfect? Perhaps 2 yeses. The ant stories were especially endearing.
Honestly in the city that never sleeps the word genius is completely overused so I won't venture into that mucky water, but what I will say is something much simpler- Sawako Nakayasu is brilliant and if you're not reading perhaps it's time to start.
Hey this is a short book that I just read while at work. Just click on the PDF link. It'll only take a moment!
It's a book that made me smile. I most liked "Decay". All these stories are about ants and butterflies.
It reminded me of a story I listened to this morning on NPR. Scientists were wondering how ants found their way back home in the Sahara. Normal non-Sahara ants found their way home by leaving a scented trail and following that back. But the winds of Sahara make any kind of scent blow away.
The scientists had a theory! They went in a straight line to prove it. They found some ants far from home and glued long pig whiskers to the some of the ant legs so that they were walking on stilts. They snipped off some of the ants legs so they were walking on their knees. And they left some of them alone.
The ones who were left alone made it back home. But the ones with long legs ended up over-shooting and the ones with half-a-leg were only half-way-home. So it turns out ants have a counter inside of them and they just count backwards the number of steps to get back home.