chitin
n.
Discovered in Unless/Carol Shields as 'chitinous'.
n.
A tough, protective, semitransparent substance, primarily a nitrogen-containing polysaccharide, forming the principal component of arthropod exoskeletons and the cell walls of certain fungi.
'But I was suddenly alerted to something about her presence: the fact that her face looked oddly fallen. Her eyes were swollen, filled, though not with tears. What I glimpsed there was something hard, chitinous. What was it? "We are real only in our moments of recognition" - who said that? I was recognising something new."
Shields is talking about an estranged daughter. And the moment she realised that she had lost her.
A discovery on Easter Sunday: the artist responsible for my Sunday School book illustrations is German Bernhard Plockhurst, whose life spanned much of the 19th century - he has a very 19th century vision of Christianity. He is apparently almost unknown in his native Germany, but still popular in the U.S.
