* 'he remembers his grandfather, tall and golden, laying on hands, and how he was sure he could feel the presence of God Himself in the presence of old King Edward' -- this is as near to a perfect passage as I could imagine.
* 'He left a second son to inherit. Second sons have no magic.' -- Such an excellent narrative moment. It cuts through the lushness of memory and garden and wonder like the blade of the narrator.
* Richard creating artificial life, and insisting upon its beauty; he needs an art that will recognize him, and clockwork can be that art, but he also needs a thing that he can recognize and wonder at. He needs to be generative, even by proxy (as must a king always be), but simply to produce is never enough--simply to produce is commercial. He needs magic, and ordinary men make beauty their magic.
* Oh GOODNESS what you've done with the Welsh beach scene. *__* I just. AUGH YES THIS IS WHY I PROMPTED THIS PROMPT.
* 'But Richard is no better than any other man. No better than Henry.' -- It makes such horrible, perfect sense.
* Sly little reference to nonfunctional steampunk gears. XD I cracked up right there.
* Henry's battle against his own vocabulary. 'Floreate' indeed!
* It will never be your land either. -- Cold bloody chills.
* Henry's response to beauty--to the only magic that Richard could ever practice--is to tear it apart. To melt it down, figurines-into-swords. Richard chose beauty over functionality because it lent him the illusion that he might generate wonders, but Henry cannot have (perhaps couldn't bear) such illusions ... but he wishes he did. He wishes he could.
no subject
* Book Called the Governor reference!
* 'he remembers his grandfather, tall and golden, laying on hands, and how he was sure he could feel the presence of God Himself in the presence of old King Edward' -- this is as near to a perfect passage as I could imagine.
* 'He left a second son to inherit. Second sons have no magic.' -- Such an excellent narrative moment. It cuts through the lushness of memory and garden and wonder like the blade of the narrator.
* Richard creating artificial life, and insisting upon its beauty; he needs an art that will recognize him, and clockwork can be that art, but he also needs a thing that he can recognize and wonder at. He needs to be generative, even by proxy (as must a king always be), but simply to produce is never enough--simply to produce is commercial. He needs magic, and ordinary men make beauty their magic.
* Oh GOODNESS what you've done with the Welsh beach scene. *__* I just. AUGH YES THIS IS WHY I PROMPTED THIS PROMPT.
* 'But Richard is no better than any other man. No better than Henry.' -- It makes such horrible, perfect sense.
* Sly little reference to nonfunctional steampunk gears. XD I cracked up right there.
* Henry's battle against his own vocabulary. 'Floreate' indeed!
* It will never be your land either. -- Cold bloody chills.
* Henry's response to beauty--to the only magic that Richard could ever practice--is to tear it apart. To melt it down, figurines-into-swords. Richard chose beauty over functionality because it lent him the illusion that he might generate wonders, but Henry cannot have (perhaps couldn't bear) such illusions ... but he wishes he did. He wishes he could.