R.F. Kuang

“Don’t be silly. I am not a god,” he said. “I am a mortal who has woken up, and there is power in awareness.”

She realized that Jiang showed her these things because she would not have believed them if he’d merely told her they were possible. He was building up a background of possibilities for her, a web of new concepts. How did you explain to a child the idea of gravity, until they knew what it meant to fall?

They weren’t two parts of a whole, not quite, but they came close.

Was she now a goddess or a monster?

Perhaps neither. Perhaps both.

. “The feeling of shame and dislike is the principle of righteousness. The feeling of modesty and complaisance is the principle of . . . the principle of, uh, propriety. And the feeling of approving and disapproving is the principle of knowledge.”

Power dictates acceptability,

. You still don’t understand. They’re mental constructions so that you can comprehend

concepts that are already written

“He hasn’t done anything to earn my respect.

She felt so small. She felt as if she might crumble into dust. Don’t let me cry. Her eyes throbbed from the pressure of forcing back her tears. Please don’t let me cry.