"It's a very Greek idea, and a very profound one. Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves?"
Bacchanals, murders and other crimes, getting high, drunk and smoking, queer and very morally grey characters, magnificent writing, book in many ways akin to a Greek tragedy. What more could anyone want?
"That maybe even if we’re not always so glad to be here, it’s our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch."
Catastrophes, even more getting and drinking than is in The Secret History, unwell queer teens and later even more unwell adults, art and of course magnificent writing again. Perfect for those who want a book somewhat similar to The Secret History, but more character-oriented and about art instead of academics.
"Five years ago he’d thought he might choose the Seer of the Cike, that thin child from the Hinterlands. But Chaghan was so frail and bizarre, even for his people. Chaghan would have commanded like a demon. He would have achieved utter obedience from his underlings, but only because he would have taken away their free will. Chaghan would have shattered minds."
It's the best series I've ever read, and the absolutely saddest one. I won't bother to list the topics since I have a shorter way of describing it: think of a content warning and matter what you thought of, it's probably in the list of warnings for this series. But, I have to say, starting in entirely blind is an exceptional experience too.
"We have to die to get their pity. We have to die for them to find us noble. Our deaths are thus great acts of rebellion, a wretched lament that highlights their inhumanity. Our deaths become their battle cry. I don't want to be their Imoinda, their Oroonoko. I don't want to be their tragic, lovely lacquer figure. I want to live."
Language and translation, secret societies with revolutionary aims, colonialism, racism and, of course, since it's by Kuang, tragedy.