2/20/2024

“Fear’s very useful. Like darkness; like shadows. It’s queer that daylight’s not enough. We need the shadows, in order to walk.”

-Therem Harth rem ir Estraven (The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin)

Crossing the Gobrin ice, that smooth, shadowless, perilous ice.

10/16/2023

“But I am not human, never have been human, shall never be human. Not for all the bodies a prince might place on an altar to a dying witch.”

-The mermaid (The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw)

The mermaid, this lonesome, ancient being, a cannibal. She experiences all acts and forms of bodily torture and destruction, yet she persists through the ages of man, ancient and indestructible. Has she always craved flesh as a dweller of the depths? Or did her affinity grow with her hatred for her husband prince, the pinnacle of man?

9/12/2023

“Lingering is so very lonely when one lingers all alone.”

-The poet of Gormenghast (Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake)

The poet is a mysterious figure who recites cryptic passages into the stony air of Gormenghast. Of all the castle’s inhabitants, he appears to be the most isolated, the most forgotten, as his aged voice rings through empty hallways and squares. Linger is a lovely word. Linger, my favorite song by the Cranberries. Linger, to stay behind when the crowds depart, waiting for a sense of non-place to come alive. Linger long in love so the feelings linger long in absence, the poet says. Not all hope is lost.