Butterfly,wheel,breaks

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I know the " who breaks a butterfly on a wheel story" published in The Times about the persecution of Jagger ETC, but I must confess I have never understood the whole "butterfly, wheel" expression. Can anyone help?

― Steve WC (Steve WC), Sunday, 12 September 2004 08:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Alexander Pope I think, don't subject artists/MAKERS OF BEAUTY to machinery of state or some shit maybe never tried to interpret it before

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Sunday, 12 September 2004 10:03 (twenty-one years ago)

To save me the bother of thinking for myself, I Googled this explanation:

"Writing in the 18th Century, Pope was witness to the hideous tortures méted out to all kinds of miscreants, breaking the villain's bones on a wheel with an iron bar being one of the more inventive. To break a delicate creature like a butterfly in such a brutal way as upon a wheel has come to be synonymous with applying superabundant effort in the accomplishment of a small matter. A modern, if far less gruesome, equivalent would be to use a sledge hammer to crack a nut."

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 12 September 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.cenedra.com/mission/wayne/huss5thu.jpg

"LOOOOOOOVE BREAKS THE WINGS OF A BUTTERFLY ON WHEEEEEEEELLLLLL...."

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 12 September 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Wayne Hussey, Emeritus Professor of Enlightenment Poetry.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 12 September 2004 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

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