Saturday, December 03, 2011

Something old and predatory and utterly terrible

"I stared at the whole mass of the bricks. I took another glance, relaxed my sight. At first I couldn't stop seeing the bricks as bricks, the divisions as layers of cement, but after a time they became pure vision. And as the whole broke down into lines and shapes and shades, I held my breath as I began to see.

"Alternatives appeared to me. Messages written in the pockmarks. Insinuation in the forms. Secrets unraveling. It was bliss.

"And then without warning my heart went tight, as I saw something. I made sense of the pattern.

"It was a mess of cracks and lines and crumbling cement, and as I looked at it, I saw a pattern in the wall.

"I saw a clutch of lines that looked just like something. . . terrible — something old and predatory and utterly terrible — staring right back at me.

"And then I saw it move."

— from "Details," in Looking for Jake, by China Miéville.

3 comments:

Harvee/Book Dilettante said...

A horror novel? Sounds ominous but very good writing.

Ana S. said...

Miéville certainly knows how to create the right atmosphere!

Isabella K said...

These are short stories, Harvee. Not horror exactly, but there's a weird/horrific element to them.

As you say, Nymeth, it's all about atmosphere. I finished reading this collection and I'll post about it as a whole in the coming days.