!!insidediv!!



Being the Official Discussion Forum for HYPERBOREA®, a role-playing game of swords, sorcery, and weird science-fantasy


Visit us at the HYPERBOREA web site!


You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?

1/24/2018 8:51 am  #1


This is why the iron rations are so expensive

"I went out and walked about, exploring the town: the empty lanes silent between the shapeless shapes of decay, the ruined forts jutting into the greengage sea, the huge slab-steps of the giant's staircase where the great wall had fallen, subsiding in solid sections. Everywhere the ubiquitous ruins, decayed fortifications, evidence of a warlike bloodthirsty past. I searched for buildings of a more recent date. There were none. The dwindling population lived like rats in the ruins of a lost martial supremacy. If one place became uninhabitable its occupants moved to another. The community was gradually dying out each year its numbers declined. There were enough disintegrating structures to last them out. At first it was hard to distinguish the inhabited buildings; I learned to look for the signs of occupation, the reinforced door, the boarded-up windows."

-- Anna Kavan, Ice

 

1/24/2018 7:47 pm  #2


Re: This is why the iron rations are so expensive

Sorry, she lost me at “shapeless shapes”.

 

1/24/2018 9:54 pm  #3


Re: This is why the iron rations are so expensive

DMPrata wrote:

Sorry, she lost me at “shapeless shapes”.

They go well with jumbo shrimp. Trust me.
 


HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
 

1/24/2018 10:10 pm  #4


Re: This is why the iron rations are so expensive

Handy Haversack wrote:

"I went out and walked about, exploring the town: the empty lanes silent between the shapeless shapes of decay, the ruined forts jutting into the greengage sea, the huge slab-steps of the giant's staircase where the great wall had fallen, subsiding in solid sections. Everywhere the ubiquitous ruins, decayed fortifications, evidence of a warlike bloodthirsty past. I searched for buildings of a more recent date. There were none. The dwindling population lived like rats in the ruins of a lost martial supremacy. If one place became uninhabitable its occupants moved to another. The community was gradually dying out each year its numbers declined. There were enough disintegrating structures to last them out. At first it was hard to distinguish the inhabited buildings; I learned to look for the signs of occupation, the reinforced door, the boarded-up windows."

-- Anna Kavan, Ice

 
Her writing seems like literary outsider art so that's kinda cool. I'll have to read more to decide. 
 

 

1/26/2018 8:41 am  #5


Re: This is why the iron rations are so expensive

I'm not sure I follow your terms here. "Outsider art" means, as far as I know, art taken in by the gallery-museum complex from folk sources or, perhaps more exploitatively, from people who are "outside" because of mental illness or poverty, right (viz. Homer snorkeling all the animals)? And often postmortem, which I guess is actually a little *less& creepy.

What would that mean in literature? Folk tales? Go Ask Alice? What's *insider* literature?

That said, reading more is definitely worth it! Powerful stuff.

     Thread Starter
 

1/26/2018 12:27 pm  #6


Re: This is why the iron rations are so expensive

Heh, well Handy I read more of the book and thought it was written by an insane person, drug addict, destitute or other "outsider". After I looked up her bio I stand corrected (she was an upper class heroin addict who struggled with depression) but I knew in my gut that someone who writes that that would have had an unconventional or interesting background.

 

1/26/2018 12:53 pm  #7


Re: This is why the iron rations are so expensive

Such backgrounds tend to abound!

     Thread Starter
 

2/09/2018 8:14 am  #8


Re: This is why the iron rations are so expensive

Handy Haversack wrote:

"I went out and walked about, exploring the town: the empty lanes silent between the shapeless shapes of decay, the ruined forts jutting into the greengage sea, the huge slab-steps of the giant's staircase where the great wall had fallen, subsiding in solid sections. Everywhere the ubiquitous ruins, decayed fortifications, evidence of a warlike bloodthirsty past. I searched for buildings of a more recent date. There were none. The dwindling population lived like rats in the ruins of a lost martial supremacy. If one place became uninhabitable its occupants moved to another. The community was gradually dying out each year its numbers declined. There were enough disintegrating structures to last them out. At first it was hard to distinguish the inhabited buildings; I learned to look for the signs of occupation, the reinforced door, the boarded-up windows."

-- Anna Kavan, Ice

What's this got to do with the price of iron rations in Furyondy?

 

2/09/2018 1:10 pm  #9


Re: This is why the iron rations are so expensive

francisca wrote:

Handy Haversack wrote:

"I went out and walked about, exploring the town: the empty lanes silent between the shapeless shapes of decay, the ruined forts jutting into the greengage sea, the huge slab-steps of the giant's staircase where the great wall had fallen, subsiding in solid sections. Everywhere the ubiquitous ruins, decayed fortifications, evidence of a warlike bloodthirsty past. I searched for buildings of a more recent date. There were none. The dwindling population lived like rats in the ruins of a lost martial supremacy. If one place became uninhabitable its occupants moved to another. The community was gradually dying out each year its numbers declined. There were enough disintegrating structures to last them out. At first it was hard to distinguish the inhabited buildings; I learned to look for the signs of occupation, the reinforced door, the boarded-up windows."

-- Anna Kavan, Ice

What's this got to do with the price of iron rations in Furyondy?

Invisible hand!

     Thread Starter
 

Board footera






© 2009-2024 North Wind Adventures, LLC. “HYPERBOREA” is a registered trademark of North Wind Adventures, LLC. “Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea,” “AS&SH,” and all other North Wind Adventures product names and their respective logos are trademarks of North Wind Adventures, LLC in the USA and other countries. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.