i naturally look at snails primarily as a natural, bioregional phenomenon in certain ecosystems. they have scientific significance and make up a certain stratum of the food chain, eating plants and in turn being eaten by other animals. that is how one thinks about snails where i come from. but the first thing that occurs to our french friends when they see a snail is, first, whether it is fully grown, which means that it has begun reproducing, and is therefore harvestable. And, second, whether it is currently snail season or not. i view them in the same way i would view a beetle for instance, or a mayfly, or a cicada. food for something, certainly, but not food for me. our neighbors, on the other hand, think, “hmmm . . . dinner?”

land snails

autignac, france

p.s. a snail’s shell forms a logarithmic spiral. Most snail shells are right-handed or dextral  in coiling, meaning that if the shell is held with the apex (the tip, or the juvenile whorls) pointing towards the observer, the spiral proceeds in a clockwise direction from the apex to the opening.