I’ve been re-reading The Gardens of Ynn, to understand how it achieves beauty and simple pleasantness. I put most of my thoughts in a previous post, but here are a couple more:
- Even the killer spores (p17) produce delicate flowers.
- A “brilliant rainbow of colours” in the silk garden (p18) — explicitly “brilliant”, rather than “garish”, or “clashing” or just flat “rainbow” leaving you to make your own assumptions.
- The interior of the ruined tower is decayed, yes, but that decay is understated, mundane, more nostalgic than unpleasant:
The interior is dusty, cobwebby and falling apart. Wallpaper peels from the walls, the carpet is mouldy, and water pools by the shutters.”
(p22)
The Wrong Kind of Wax 