Paul WIllems - The Cathedral of Mist
Jul. 15th, 2025 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
giantsilkmothI hate to be disappointed by this collection, but I really am. The first story is absolutely devastating, an ideal example of how to write dreamy semi-surreal fiction with huge emotional heft. The rest of this book (five more stories and two essays) have their moments but largely lean way too far into sentimentality, self-aggrandizement, and vague misogynistic tedium. A lot of comparisons to Calvino, Borges, and Proust come through and I don't wish to be unnecessarily mean, but a lot of time these writings feel like the work of those three with insight replaced by sentimentality.
- Requiem For Bread: This piece brings this book up a whole star-rating by itself. It is beautiful and emotional, but with a soft hand that never overplays itself. 5+/5
- An Archbishop's Flight: Nostalgia that isn't really up to anything but has some pleasant images. 2/5
- Cherepish: A story that feels pretty heavy-handed in its turn to tragedy at the end, but I appreciate the slowly developing pace and the general conceit. 3/5
- In the Horse's Eye: A particularly Borgesian story in both its interest in language and its weirdness around indigeneity. I like the way he ties the conceptual into the emotional here. 4/5
- The Palace of Emptiness: Both boring and misogynist, like the least interesting parts of the decadent movement. 1/5
- The Cathedral of Mist: Quite pretty and with some vaguely interesting thematic content, but ultimately still a bit too gauzey and nostalgic for my taste. 3/5
- Reading: Every day I am more convinced we need to stop letting writers write about reading and writing. Tedious, smug, and, outside a few moments, almost entirely lacking in insight. 1/5
- Writing: Better than reading as it feels like Willems has actual thoughts here, though I don't find them terribly interesting for the most part. 2/5
- Requiem For Bread: This piece brings this book up a whole star-rating by itself. It is beautiful and emotional, but with a soft hand that never overplays itself. 5+/5
- An Archbishop's Flight: Nostalgia that isn't really up to anything but has some pleasant images. 2/5
- Cherepish: A story that feels pretty heavy-handed in its turn to tragedy at the end, but I appreciate the slowly developing pace and the general conceit. 3/5
- In the Horse's Eye: A particularly Borgesian story in both its interest in language and its weirdness around indigeneity. I like the way he ties the conceptual into the emotional here. 4/5
- The Palace of Emptiness: Both boring and misogynist, like the least interesting parts of the decadent movement. 1/5
- The Cathedral of Mist: Quite pretty and with some vaguely interesting thematic content, but ultimately still a bit too gauzey and nostalgic for my taste. 3/5
- Reading: Every day I am more convinced we need to stop letting writers write about reading and writing. Tedious, smug, and, outside a few moments, almost entirely lacking in insight. 1/5
- Writing: Better than reading as it feels like Willems has actual thoughts here, though I don't find them terribly interesting for the most part. 2/5
