HYPERBOREA / This is why the iron rations are so expensive

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 1/24/2018 8:51 am

"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

**Posted by DMPrata** 1/24/2018 7:47 pm

Sorry, she lost me at “shapeless shapes”.

**Posted by Ghul** 1/24/2018 9:54 pm

DMPrata wrote:
Sorry, she lost me at “shapeless shapes”.

They go well with jumbo shrimp. Trust me.

**Posted by Brock Savage** 1/24/2018 10:10 pm

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.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 1/26/2018 8:41 am

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.

**Posted by Brock Savage** 1/26/2018 12:27 pm

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.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 1/26/2018 12:53 pm

Such backgrounds tend to abound!

**Posted by francisca** 2/09/2018 8:14 am

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?

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/09/2018 1:10 pm

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!