mountain-high unread memos

[incandescens]

I wonder if I can get an unholy bronze toaster into my writing somewhere.

Yes, my brain is dead.

Yes, I need to sleep if I'm to catch the 7.40am train tomorrow morning. (And sleep on it. Even if I have packed knitting, books, and DS in my bag.)

---

As he entered the Nine Hall Court, Grand Old Master saw inch-thick dust and the mountain-high unread memos. He pointed to the unholy bronze toaster in the corner and asked, "What is it?"

-- Tales of the Teahouse Retold, Katherine Liang Chew

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I hope that 2:33 timestamp is my time, not yours, because 4 hours sleep seems scarcely enough.

[incandescens]

Er, well, I'd already been asleep for the early part of the evening in a post-work nap, and I was having trouble getting back to sleep again later.

[summer-queen.livejournal.com]

I can't help but be curious what makes a toaster unholy. Does it burn all the toast? Brand them with infernal sigils?

[incandescens]

In the original context, it was a big bronze pillar which the villainess of the piece would have heated up so that it burned people who were tied to it. Thus "unholy bronze toaster".

I'm not sure exactly how I'd make a toaster unholy, but it is tempting.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Is possessed by malignant demon, shorts out constantly and starts conflagrations with great loss of life.

[incandescens]

I suppose that if you can have a haunted tea kettle (or was it a teapot?), a possessed toaster isn't too unreasonable.

[archangelbeth]

It lurks, with nummy toasty toast peeking up from it, and when you reach for the nummy toast, it sucks it in and tries to take your hand off!

[incandescens]

Definitely unholy!

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

... I need to find a copy of that book.

[incandescens]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Teahouse-Retold-Investiture-Gods/dp/0595254195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270555956&sr=8-1

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :-)

[incandescens]

A pleasure! I should warn you that the translation is frequently rather awkward.