It is radical, I think as I watch Johanna, both of her arms submerged to the elbows as she strokes the dragon’s head, the compassion she has for this thing. Most natural philosophers don’t carry this sort of tenderness for the things they study. Most doctors don’t. The hospitals in London are proof of that. The beetles and lizards and bats hunted for collections and then stuck with pins to a wall behind glass are proof of that. Men want to collect. To compete. To own.
