Persevering

I'm now working on the second volume of the Gormenghast trilogy, and things are indeed looking up: once the Steerpike plot got underway, the narrative strengthened considerably.  Now, oddly enough, the trilogy reminds me of H. P. Lovecraft--not in terms of its style (er, thank goodness), but in terms of its obsession with decadence.  Everything is rotting, collapsing, imploding; the characters' rituals and habits are all desperate attempts to hide from the unpredictability of change.