Gaston Bachelard
The Poetics of Space

Now a metaphor gives concrete substance to an impression that is difficult to express. Metaphor is related to a psychic being from which it differs. An image on the contrary, product of absolute imagination, owes its entire being to the imagination.

Concepts are drawers in which knowledge may be classified; they are also ready-made garments which do away with the individuality of knowledge that has been experienced.

Wardrobes with their shelves, desks with their drawers, and chests with their false bottoms are veritable organs of the secret psychological life.

A wardrobe’s inner space is also intimate space, space that is not open to just anybody.

Order is not merely geometrical; it can also remember the family history.

“A wardrobe,” writes Milosz, “is filled with the mute tumult of memories.”

The casket contains the things that are unforgettable, unforgettable for us, but also unforgettable for those to whom we are going to give our treasures. Here the past, the present and a future are condensed. Thus the casket is memory of what is immemorial.

Jean-Pierre Richard makes the following penetrating comment: “We shall never reach the bottom of the casket.” The infinite quality of the intimate dimension could not be better expressed.

To verify images kills them, and it is always more enriching to imagine than to experience.

To enter into the domain of the superlative, we must leave the positive for the imaginary. We must listen to poets.