Head like a gong

[mrissa]

My brain feels like the inside of a bell today, sent vibrating very easily. I was looking at the statue link from tnh_particles and came upon one of the outdoor, weathered versions of this statue. And this is the problem with fantasy worldbuilding using real world history: I am deeply creeped by this. It has nothing to do with the "Coat of Peace" in the description, as far as I'm concerned. I know exactly what that statue is and why it's near that building in Stockholm (as well as several other European locations, I find), and believe you me, it is Not Okay. And this is very different from the time we went to the Rosicrucian Garden and started seeing Tim Powers moments everywhere. This is where the portion of my brain that writes these books starts scrambling backwards, whimpering, trying to get away as fast as possible. Most of my brain knows that that statue is not that scary, as folds of bronze go. The rest of my brain knows what Jatta Vaara did to the sculptor, and why.

Fruitbat. I know.

And then the other thing was another major keystone for The True Tale of Carter Hall, and they've fallen together enough that it's noveling away in my head, novel novel novel. Not writing it until I'm done with Sampo revisions, but notes, yes, notes we can have. Extensive notes. Notely notes.

Don't think I don't notice what you're doing, brain! I'm onto your brainly tricks!

Still dizzy. Etc.

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I've never seen that statue, and it is very creepy (the first two things it suggests to me are the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and the Dementors). What's its story?

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

(I mean, the real-world one.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

So far as I can tell from the sculptor's webpage (http://www.annachromy.com/index.pl), she was attempting to make positive reference to a bit of St. Francis of Assissi. She says, "Francis, universal brother and man of dialogue with God, fellow men and all creatures, was so demanding in his search for the ideal place for prayer and meditation in silence that he suggested, if an appropriate and worthy place could not be found, one's own body or cloak as 'cell' in which to find the deepest dimension of the self."

Which is, wow. So totally not what I get out of that sculpture.

Err. Maybe it's different in person.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Me neither. "I am the Ghost of Stockholm Yet to Come, and I will steal your soul!"

[athenais.livejournal.com]

That statue is seriously scary.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

You need to explain more (if you want me to get it, that is), I can't put it together from the references yet.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Do I want to tell you the entire backstory my brain concocted automatically to go with this statue? No. I'm saying there was one.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

(The backstory in question would probably require about half a novel worth of references that all clicked and fit. I don't mean to get snitty over it. It was just one of those writerbrain things where something external fit alarmingly well.)

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay, this is *not* something that one should be able to get from the real-world info, it's about the story that is infiltrating and hasn't been written yet. Okay, then I will wait and read the full-size explanation when it is done. I originally thought I was missing something I was supposed to get.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

Woah. Creeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.

But I went to the other statue link and got happy and inspired and stuff.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh yah. There's a lot of cool stuff there.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

After four years of Granlunds, how can Gusties be anything but blase about babies at bronze people's extremities?

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

EEEE! Something with human form and no face is deeply deeply creepy. I'm pretty sure that's part of the wiring.

MKK

[brooksmoses]

There's a statue in downtown Palo Alto which is essentially the form of a child's ragdoll running down the street, with a relatively realistic body shape but a completely nondescript round head with no face other than maybe a half-dozen "stitches". And then it has a young child's face, looking very frightened, on the torso.

It's deeply creepy.