[PSL] in this sense the open jaws of wild beasts will appear no less pleasing than their prototypes

[katabasis]

The bread that is over-baked so that it cracks and bursts asunder hath not the form desired by the baker; yet none the less it hath a beauty of its own, and is most tempting to the palate. Figs bursting in their ripeness, olives near even unto decay, have yet in their broken ripeness a distinctive beauty.

Comments

[aletheian]

He hopes that James is right, that because it would be much more difficult to hamper them once they're on their way and on guard instead of just holding a gun to someone's head while they're all here, nothing will come of it. That these strange men are tolerant at all hits on both the habits that have been beaten into Thomas (everyone dully cooperative at all times) and the instincts trained into his nerves (kindness is deceptive, no one is to be trusted), and so he doesn't know how to gauge the odds. He is immeasurably thankful for the respite and the small trade of supplies, but if anyone lurks in their wake or makes another remark about one of the girls, it won't weigh on his conscience to end any of their lives.

Are their adolescent patron saints are still out there, watching, he wonders.

For so long, Thomas had found himself incapable of imagining what the woods outside the plantation might be like - his world for years had been walls with no windows, peeling hospital plaster and cold stone, and it stole something intangible from him. When he found himself able to, bit by bit, memories of the countryside and visualizations of fairytales found him, timid daydreams of alien forests and shorelines. In his mind it was always beautiful, peaceful, but empty. That thing stolen away, leaving him isolated even in imagination.

The reality of it is terrific - causing terror, great intensity, extremely good, all of it - so alive. From worms and birds to the deer that past them, whole communities and cultures of native peoples wisely keeping their distance, imperial cast-offs wandering to define their own lives. It's beautiful enough to make him feel choked with an emotion he can't name if he thinks about it pointedly, and also-- so frightening, and he doesn't know why. Feelings he hasn't ever experienced before, can't qualify.

But he is feeling.

"Ready."