"Horrible tragics" just makes them seem like the spend their eons
listening to Morrissey on repeat.
"I'd go out tonight, but I haven't got a [caste appropriate] stitch to
weeeaaaaar..."
They impinge on my attentions like the bright, but empty-eyed fanatic;
unseen terrible energies crackling just beneath the surface. You don't
keep to this sort of almost totally ritualised life without *action*;
or should that be *reaction*? :)
I think of Gormenghast; of the Lord Groan, a clear melancholic,
passively getting his breakfast according to the book - but also of
Sourdust the Master of Ritual who clearly is animated to unfailingly
observe, and enforce, the dictates of tradition.
They must be motivated by some force to do what they do. Just because they are not screaming and failing doesn't mean they are not impelled by powerful, and disturbing, energies. The Brithini aren't merely enervated (though some may well be) they pointlessly spend their considerable energy, arts, and etc on means without an end.
But perhaps "maniac" is the wrong term? I'm certainly not up on my psychological terminology.
--
John Machin
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."
- Athanasius Kircher, 'The Great Art of Knowledge'.
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