The Butterflies exhibits a deep interest in collectives as it depicts both humans and insects that belong to a larger whole. The butterflies arrive as a swarm, boasting numbers “beyond even the concept of counting…”. If they cannot be numbered, they cannot be perceived as individuals. They are a mass, a collection of “technicolour clouds billowing up and drifting away”. As Tan uses metaphor to liken the butterflies’ movements to that of the clouds, he deprives the insects of agency. They are no longer individuals consciously choosing their path; they have become mindless members of the multitude. The humans in the text are similarlyindistinct from one another. Tan explains that they emerge from “cars, apartments, subways, restaurants, hotels, stores, banks, hospitals, schools…”, employing asyndeton to establish the scale of the crowd and the ultimate irrelevance of their differences. Wherever they came from, they are now united by common experience as they witness the butterflies’ arrival. The narrator explains: “We thought of nothing but the butterflies… [settling on] everyone we knew and everyone we didn’t, on the whole city all at once.” The butterflies act as a unifier. The use of the inclusive “we” personalises the account and situates the reader in the immediacy of the story. As Tan positions his fantasy in the “now”, the present, the reader is incorporated into the human collective, the “we” who stand marvelling at this dramatic exposure to nature. However, in accordance with the principles of eco-mimesis, the text is not primarily interested in the narrator but rather the natural world with which they are engaging. The gathered people serve as a pale reflection of the gathered butterflies above. Tan invokes collectives to establish the large scale impact enacted by exposure to natural landscapes.

This impact proves to be transformative as the witnesses of the butterflies’ descent gain a new perspective that facilitates change. The butterfly swarm functions as one of Tim Morton’s hyperobjects, a phenomenon so physically and intellectually significant that it demands reclassification. The artwork accompanying the text confirms this idea as it imbues the butterflies with an almost mystical power, painting them with bright, soft-edged colours reminiscent of photos of distant galaxies. Tan brings the otherworldly within human reach to force his characters to reconsider their own importance. The humbling profundity of the experience is established as the watching crowd is rendered mute, overcome by “soundless wonder”. Tan’s narrator explains: “it all just stopped, and the butterflies came to us.” Everything “stopped” because of the butterflies; they inspire the crowd to cease their questioning and succumb to awe. This change is heralded by the symbol of the butterfly, whose very existence as a metamorphosed being testifies to the power of transformation. A connection is forged between the butterflies in the swarm and the humans that make up the crowd as the power of transformation is transferred. This is the “weightless blessing”: the glimpse of a new mode of being offered by a new mode of seeing. The picture depicts countless upturned faces and hands as the crowds look heavenward, but this upward perspective is juxtaposed against the viewpoint of the butterflies that are “gliding, skipping and fluttering” down. Tan uses this anthropomorphism to highlight the exchange that has occurred: the butterflies have been given human forms of movement whilst the humans have been given access to the insectostance. The crowd is momentarily able to see as a butterfly sees. Tan explores the transformation hyperobjects inspire as he creates a natural landscape inhabited by a swarm of butterflies.

The new perspective offered by this transformation is, however, only transient. The Butterflies is the tale of an irregularity, a brief moment of departure from normal experience. Tan’s humans are afflicted by an “inexplicable, joyful urgency” as they intuit this transience. Even before the butterflies have fully arrived, the crowd hurries as it understands that they will not remain for long. The humans cry: “Look! Look! There on your shoulder, your arm, your knee, your head! Hold still! Don’t move!” By using the imperative, Tan establishes their urgency and invites the reader to participate both in the joy of the revelation and the anxious anticipation of its end. This end is constantly foreshadowed. Tan insists that the experience will only endure for “the briefest of moments”, and then again “the briefest of all moments”. Through repetition he constructs a scene whose beauty is enhanced by its fragility. It is the transience of the butterflies that teaches Tan’s characters and readers to cherish encounters with nature. The text is prefaced with the image of a single butterfly contrasted against the innumerable that are to follow. However, it is the single butterfly that truly enacts the insectostance as the reader understands that though this insect is seemingly more tangible with its clearly defined body and wings, it too will soon drift away. Tan suggests that natural landscapes are transient and must be valued in the present so he concludes The Butterflies with the triad “Hold still! Hold still! Hold still!”. This plea is directed at the reader, imploring them to embrace the transformation encounters with nature can evoke.

Shaun Tan’s The Butterflies mingles inclusive and imperative language with images to explore the capacity of natural landscapes to prompt transformation. In establishing a collective and investigating the concept of transience, Tan’s work forms an inquiry into the insectostance.

Butterflies