I found this poster, addressed to  young readers, where “good ideas” are compared to “ invisible butterflies.”  There was a hint of J.L.Borges in the organization of the lists of places where one can find them, or they cannot be seen but mainly, I was carried over to Nabokov because of a red pencil’s shavings turning into butterflies, and a vague analogy with V’s aunt’s invitation to “look at the harlequins.”(LATH)

 

Rough (partial) translation from the Spanish:

“Good ideas are invisible butterflies with their wings filled with writings. They flutter among us, invisibly. Sometimes we confuse them up with the other more common butterflies, at other times they perch on our heads and murmur a reply to what we’d been looking for [  ] We must try to do something about our butterflies: a drawing, a song, a short-story.

Places in which one can find good ideas: Sitting in a blue chair without touching the ground with our feet [  ] Close to the ceiling while we are showering [  ] In the fur of a Dachshund [  ]

Places in which it is impossible to find good ideas: In leather couches with no wheels; inside the bottles of aloe vera; under our nails [  ] inside the tins of diet marmalade [  ]…

 

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