Agency character
Mr. Godspeed
Writing & Narrative
Philosophy & Ethics
Brand & MarketingWho is Mr. Godspeed in the Agency editorial?
Mr. Godspeed is a turtle, one of the two characters of The Nature's Masterpiece, the short story the author wrote for Issue.12. The story introduces him as a "Chill Nomad Philosopher": he carries the ant Leafcutter on his head through the Amazon rainforest, at his own speed, and teaches him to look past the surface of a flower.
In short
Mr. Godspeed is a character of the Agency editorial: the turtle of The Nature's Masterpiece, the short story of Issue.12, the edition about semiotics. He walks slowly through the Amazon rainforest with the ant Leafcutter on top of his head and answers his friend's impatience with sayings such as "He who can wait achieves more than he who rushes in". When Leafcutter falls for a flower, Godspeed shows him that its beauty is temporary and that what is universal and eternal is the exchange between the flower and the bee at its centre. In the same edition the author publishes photos from the week he photographed Mr. Godspeed, taken at Cataratas do Iguaçu and Parque das Aves.
Key facts
- What is Mr. Godspeed?
- A turtle. Leafcutter asks who picks that name for a turtle, and the story calls him the driver of the locomotive on which the ant travels.
- Where does Mr. Godspeed appear?
- In Issue.12, in the short story The Nature's Masterpiece, in the chapter that analyses the story and in a photo caption of the Pandora's Box section.
- What does Mr. Godspeed teach in the story?
- That the external traits of the flower are temporary, while the exchange between the bee and the flower, repeated everywhere, is universal and eternal.
Who is Mr. Godspeed in the short story of Issue.12?
The Nature's Masterpiece opens with a line that presents its two characters: The Leafcutter, tiny art critique, and Mr. Godspeed, chill nomad philosopher. They are two members of the local fauna of the Amazon rainforest and unlikely friends. Godspeed is the turtle who does the walking; Leafcutter, the ant, sits on top of his head and complains about the speed. Godspeed answers with patience and with rhymed sentences, and says he will protect his focus and neglect the chit-chat.
When Leafcutter finds a flower and wants to stay on it forever, Godspeed asks what he sees in it. Step by step he leads the ant to admit that the flower will wither, and then points at the bee in the centre of it: a bee bringing the pollen of a distant flower, in a collaboration between species that happens all the time. Leafcutter stands paralysed in awe, and Godspeed concludes that this exchange is universal and eternal, while the traits of the flower and their own journey are temporary.
What does the edition say about Mr. Godspeed outside the story?
The chapter that follows, 12.2, asks why a story like that one was important. The author answers that it is not because Godspeed pointed out that everything shallow is fragile, but because whoever deals with symbols, as a communicator or artist, needs to grasp universality and atemporality.
In the Pandora's Box section of the same edition, a gallery caption says the images are additional photos from the week the author photographed Mr. Godspeed, taken at Cataratas do Iguaçu and Parque das Aves. The edition also embeds an Agency podcast episode with the tale. The other animals of the story compare the pair to Batman and Robin, Han Solo and Chewbacca, and Mario and Luigi.
Source editions
Where this entry comes from in the Agency editorial.