Arcane Gazebo

Metamorphoses [Open Thread]

Last week's quote (I would pass my body on to a newborn, and rest.) was from a very striking passage in the book I'm reading, Perdido Street Station. The passage is told from the perspective of a garuda (a race of sentient birds) whose wings have been cut off, and who is traveling to a human city on a quest to regain the power of flight.

One day I realized that I no longer dreamed of what I would do when I was whole again. My will burned to reach that point, and suddenly there was nothing. I had become nothing more than my desire to fly. I had adjusted, somehow. I had evolved in that unfamiliar region, plodding my stolid way to where the scientists and Remakers of the world congregated. The means had become the end. If I regained my wings, I would become someone new, without the desire that defined me.

I saw in that spring damp as I walked endlessly north that I was not looking for fulfilment, but for dissolution. I would pass my body on to a newborn, and rest.

The part of the book in which this appears is called "Metamorphoses", and in addition to those that occur in the story, the novel itself undergoes a metamorphosis here; the first part of the book primarily lays the groundwork for Miéville's (very complex and original) setting and for the events to come, but at this point the plot takes off, and the book transforms from merely interesting to really gripping.

New quote is difficulty: Moderate; 2 points.

New sidebar feature: I'm putting a link to an mp3 of the song I'm quoting in the "frequency space" section.

Posted by Arcane Gazebo at December 6, 2004 4:30 PM | Tags: