Dæmonomania, Itself
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
“Well I’ve failed. I failed. Yes I think that’s evident now.” He said this with what seemed great anguish. “The conception was just too huge, the parts too many. No matter how long it was let to go on, it got no closer to being done.”
“It’s a corrupted text,” Pierce said. “I believe.” There was, he now saw, another bentwood chair beside the man, exactly like the one he sat in.
“I so much wanted it to knit,” the other said. He interlaced his own fingers. “Past and present, then and now. The story of the thing lost, and how it was found. More than anything I wanted it to resolve. And all it does is ramify.
— John Crowley, Dæmonomania
Above, the title page from French jurist Jean Bodin’s 1693 handbook Dæmonomania, used by judges presiding over witch trials. (via BiblioOdyssey)