The concept of “Bodily Powers,” introduced by Arabella Buckley (1840-1929), widely quoted by Estelle Zhong Mengual in Apprendre à voir, Le point de vue du vivant (Actes Sud, 2021) defines the existence possibilities of all animal: “‘the life of an animal depends on the way its body is made. The animal will experience particular struggles, difficulties, successes and joys, depending on the type of bodily powers it possesses.’ Powers beyond the reach of humans that they can only dream of. The power to inhabit the air and water. The power to take on the appearance of another, like the octopus Thaumoctopus mimics. The power to fly over the whole world like migratory birds. The power to disappear, like the scops owl, indistinguishable from the tree on which it stands. The power to build itself, like the coral described by Arabella Buckley and Thomas Henry Huxley, which can absorb and transform calcium carbonate from the ocean to build its own body. The power to vanish in an instant, like the chickadee, which can change its trajectory in less than 30 milliseconds. The power of Pymalion to give life to inert matter: ‘A plant, as soon as it has roots and leaves, begins to create living matter from material that has never been alive’ writes Arabella Buckley. The power to resurrect like moss, which can lie dormant for almost forty years and then come back to life as soon as it manages to catch the water that is so precious to its life. The power to be immortal, like the Phoenician juniper in the Ardèche gorges, which is over a thousand years old. The list is endless: there are as many inaccessible powers as there are life forms.”
