This twists like the turns of an intestine. Koestler is quoting a character from one of his novels and is doing this in the context of a response to a lecture he just heard.
If I may quote from a novel which I wrote many years ago — a rude passage in which an old Frenchman says: “Tradition without change, that’s constipation; change without tradition, that’s diarrhoea.”
He goes on to ask about how best to strike a balance. But doesn’t elaborate the digestive metaphor.
p. 61
The ethics of change; a symposium. Participants: Arthur Koestler, René Dubos, Martin Meyerson, Northrop Frye. Appended: Address by John J. Deutsch. (Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1969)
And so for day 2445
23.08.2013