these are unfashioned creatures...

Almost two years ago, when beginning work on my Bachelor of Arts honours thesis, I started a blog called silk for caldé. The title was a reference to Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun, on which I wrote my thesis, and the blog itself was created as a space for me to work through some ideas and write about Wolfe's work. However, there have been times when I've wanted to post on something not Wolfe related, and doing so on the aforementioned blog has led to inordinate amounts of guilt: I felt as though I was diluting an otherwise fairly scholarly blog with random nonsense. Instead of widening the focus of silk for caldé (which is listed on some great Wolfe websites, including Ultan's Library), I have decided to create a separate blog for non-Wolfe related posts.

The title of this blog, unfashioned creatures, is from the following quote from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (one of my favourite books of all time):

We are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves — such a friend ought to be — do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures.
 – Dr. Frankenstein, as recorded by Robert Walton (Letter 4)

Of course, the posts on this blog are themselves unfashioned creatures, of a sort, and will probably be less serious and polished than those on my other blog. I will continue to maintain and update silk for caldé - I've still got posts to write on The Knight and Home Fires, and I plan to read through Letters Home and post about that as soon as I have some more time free - but this will be the new location for everything else.

Frontispiece to the revised 1831 edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Steel engraving; T. Holst, del. & W. Chevalier, sculp.