Click to Subscribe
‘The Language of Sorrow ‘
Impressions of Chapter 24 of Gene Wolfe’s Shadow of the Torturer
© 2019 James LaFond
MAY/20/19
Reading from pages 147-152 of Shadow & Claw
The Flower of Dissolution
“…The flower with its swirling pattern held my gaze whenever I glanced down to tear off a leaf, and with the dry lust of death sought to draw me to it.”
The avern is a curious, geometrical flower from an alien galaxy, which preys upon even its handler and its use represents the most rarified form of esoteric dueling. Dorcas is revealed as inspired by the good woman in Acts, who was revived after Paul’s revelation on the Road to Damascus and serves as a truly splendid character, noting that when the world is horrible only then do people attain to nobility and goodness and when the world is good that people tend to become evil.
“By the use of the language of sorrow I had for the time being obliterated my sorrow—so powerful is the charm of words, which for us reduces to manageable entities all the passions that would otherwise madden and destroy us.”
Severian finds himself in a morbid dueling rite, discovering that he is more and less than he believed and that otherworldly things do thirst for our demise.
Diction of note
-gonfalon
Poet: The Enlightened Fate of Akbar Qama
‘The Garden of Everlasting Sleep’
before the rising sun
‘My Mother Come Again’
eBook
broken dance
eBook
america the brutal
eBook
the fighting edge
eBook
on the overton railroad
eBook
the greatest lie ever sold
eBook
beasts of aryas
eBook
uncle satan
eBook
masculine axis
eBook
fiction anthology one
eBook
when you're food
eBook
sorcerer!
eBook
by the wine dark sea
eBook
z-pill forever
eBook
the greatest boxer
eBook
logic of force
eBook
within leviathan’s craw
eBook
the sunset saga complete
eBook
thriving in bad places
eBook
menthol rampage
eBook
all-power-fighting
eBook
logic of steel
eBook
taboo you
eBook
time & cosmos
eBook
triumph
eBook
sons of aryas
eBook
the combat space
eBook
under the god of things
eBook
fanatic
eBook
orphan nation
eBook
on combat
eBook
the lesser angels of our nature
eBook
let the world fend for itself
eBook
barbarism versus civilization
eBook
honor among men
eBook
the year the world took the z-pill
eBook
songs of aryas
eBook
song of the secret gardener
eBook
winter of a fighting life
eBook
cracker-boy
eBook
your trojan whorse
eBook
book of nightmares
eBook
the gods of boxing
eBook
advent america
eBook
fate
eBook
blue eyed daughter of zeus
eBook
wife—
eBook
solo boxing
eBook
night city
eBook
dark, distant futures
eBook
ranger?
eBook
into leviathan’s maw
eBook
the first boxers
eBook
son of a lesser god
eBook
hate
eBook
predation
  Add a new comment below:
Name
Email
Message