Eden Prosper > Recent Status Updates

I am in love with the prose. It fuses the ordinary with the enchanted and has a lazy elegance and mythic detachment that feels like you're drifting through a fever dream. This is not your typical fantasy novel, but a work that prioritizes atmosphere, language and reflection over fast paced plot-driven storytelling.

A bit slow going on this second volume.

I had hoped to finish this book by the end of this week, but I was involved in a horrific car accident that left my head quite literally reeling. Alas, my ability to concentrate has been limited; but I’m still aiming to complete it by year’s end!

I took a brief hiatus from reading, not due to any fault of the book, but simply because I was away on vacation. Now that I’m back home, I’m excited and eager to return to the gloomy, gothic world of Gormenghast!

Although this one unfolds at a more deliberate pace than the first book (devoting greater attention to the development of Irma’s character) the prose remains so richly evocative that its languor honestly becomes a virtue rather than a flaw.

“We have invented the idea of pain in order to indulge ourselves in self-pity.”

Perhaps self-pity isn’t weakness, maybe it’s a quiet rebellion against the chaos we can’t control; a way to say, “I feel, therefore I am.” I mean, let’s face it, in a world that numbs everything, pain is the last honest thing we’ve got. Amiright?

This truly is a mythopoeic, transcendent work that reshapes the boundaries of literature. Still can’t wrap my mind around the fact it was published 75 years ago!

When I picture Gormenghast, I imagine it brought to life through stop motion or claymation, something in the vein of Mad God. It feels like the perfect medium for such a singular, haunting world. Also, Peake’s prose is nothing short of transformative; it’s thick and lush and almost painterly, but not in a romantic way, more in a way that’s damp with rot and splendor. I’m in love.

I love this. So. Much.

Only the sinful angels remain.

Part III 😮‍💨

Tediously fascinating.

Not gonna lie, I was geeking a little over the naval Battle of Hampton Roads between the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor.

This isn't just reading, it's an endurance test. The information density is heroic, possibly pathological, and Foote seems allergic to the concept of a pause. Still, if you're into beautiful sentences buried under mountains of detail and information, this is your book!

Workplace gets darker.
Emails, war crimes, trust implodes.
HR sips her tea.

Ambrosio! You slut!

Never again will I say a door has been "opened" rather than "un-closed".