“We think we can make honey without sharing in the fate of bees”
The Power of the Dog“We think we can make honey without sharing in the fate of bees” is an epigraph attributed to Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Placed beneath the heading “The Beekeepers,” it introduces an image of benefit separated from cost: honey is desired, while the fate of the bees that make it is disavowed.
Wording and Attribution
The sentence is credited to Muriel Barbery, and The Elegance of the Hedgehog is named as its source. The contrast turns on the first-person plural: “we” imagine obtaining honey without sharing the danger or consequence implied by the bees’ fate. The wording presents that separation as a belief, not an accomplished escape.
Placement and Significance
The expression appears under “The Beekeepers,” immediately before the setting and date, Abiquiú, New Mexico, 2004. In that position, it frames the section with a compact metaphor of unequal participation: those who enjoy a product may distance themselves from the vulnerability and cost of its making. The supplied passage establishes this as an opening epigraph, without specifying a particular character or event to which the image refers.
