A man’s sperm bears a curious resemblance to the man
himself – to his character, I should say.
A woman’s egg bears an astonishing resemblance to that
woman’s character.
Both sperm and egg are tiny. The sperm is very long
and totally single-minded. The egg expresses ennui and harmony in one stroke.
Its shape is nearly that of a sphere.
Not all sperm are like a man’s. The sperm of a crab, and
even more so that of a crayfish, resemble the corolla of a flower. The supple,
radiant arms seem to be reaching out not to a female but to heaven.
Given the regularity of crab reproduction, you might
well suppose that these decapod crustaceans know what they’re doing.
In fact, we know nothing about the heaven of the crab,
although there are people who catch crabs and dangle them by the tentacles, the
better to observe them. We know even less about the heaven of the sperm of the
crab.
— Henri Michaux, “Le Ciel du Spermatozoide” (trans.
David Lehman)
Reprinted from Conduit