The King in Yellow
Decadent weird tales; a forbidden play that unmakes minds and a remade imperial city.
Mechanisms
Stone quays remade into parks
Militarized waterfront becomes leisure — empire launders force into civic beauty.
The new government buildings and barracks were fine bits of architecture, and the long system of stone quays that completely surrounded the island had been turned into parks.
Why it matters
Militarized waterfront becomes leisure — empire launders force into civic beauty.
Use when: Use when reading urban 'improvements' as soft occupation.
Forestry job easier thanks to mounted police
A conservation bureaucracy runs smoother when enforcement is a new national police — green policy riding a security buildout.
The secretary of forestry and game preservation had a much easier time, thanks to the new system of National Mounted Police.
Why it matters
A conservation bureaucracy runs smoother when enforcement is a new national police — green policy riding a security buildout.
Use when: Use when environmental offices quietly depend on expanded police capacity.
Courtyard gates close after midnight
Public space has a curfew architecture — after midnight the city is a set of side doors and bells.
Huge gates, swung back during the day into the walls of the deep archways, close this court after midnight, and one must enter then by ringing at certain small doors on the side.
Why it matters
Public space has a curfew architecture — after midnight the city is a set of side doors and bells.
Use when: Use when describing cities that perform openness only on a schedule.
Questions
Aged dame dressing you in her vanities
Patronage intimacy as costume — being decorated with someone else's past is a warning, not a compliment.
Is she some aged dame, living in memory of youthful vanities, fond, doting on you, decorating you with her intimate personal attire?
Why it matters
Patronage intimacy as costume — being decorated with someone else's past is a warning, not a compliment.
Use when: Use when a gift of status clothing feels like possession.
Passages
Never sold so many flowers at such prices
Commerce and consensus fuse: unanimity with the customer is the salesman's high, and it is eerie.
Never before had he sold so many flowers, never at such satisfying prices, and never, never, with such absolute unanimity of opinion with a customer.
Why it matters
Commerce and consensus fuse: unanimity with the customer is the salesman's high, and it is eerie.
Use when: Use when a boom feels too frictionless to be healthy.