Story ideas: Nit
Opening quote: (Stripped of harp, halo and wings)/And sent hurtling into darkness.
The story of a little girl who makes friends with solid darkness personified, whom she first helps become solid by knitting the dark. At first, he is only hands, like knitted gloves, and a voice. His eyes do not shine. (Though perhaps there may be some residual light within him.)
There is something subtly sinister in this friend who wants to see the world. Something tragic, too, in his wish to see daylight, which would unravel him, possibly permanently. He may terrify others, or be invisible. “Call me Nit,” he says as she struggles to say his name. The name he gave her is, of course, Nuit.
There is something very tragic in Nit, a muzzled, dark, gloved figure. A cursed or forgotten monster, a fallen angel yearning for what was. Or for the memory of what he once was. He is short-tempered, observant and funny in an aloof way (not goofy-funny but out-of-place funny, strange reactions funny). Reserved to the point of shyness and fear.
“Too long in the dark, I have forgotten the light that was my life. Now the light hurts my eyes and I close them. And I am in the dark once more.” Loyal but manipulative until he becomes friends with the girl who helps and loves too much this Nit of Night.
Once, angry with sad Nit, she keeps him at bay with a night light, or a flashlight, like a sword which hurts him, unravels the tight darkness. Like wool, he is hot, suffocating. Or comforting, like a heavy blanket that stills you limbs.
Nit, though limited to places of dark, can be in many places, especially when loosely raveled. Ruth finds him once when playing hide-and-seek in her closet. Perhaps she refuses to play such games later at parties, because hiding from other children means being in the dark, and being found by the waiting Nit. He has a muzzle and a heavy pelt, with or without the knitting. Small shadows may be him shedding. At times, that is all you can see, his nose, black, just slightly visible, more concrete and solid, than the rest of the dark. Shy and ferocious, but ever alone.
Latin Nitidus, meaning radiant, luminous.
Particularly fond of this one; all sorts of symbolism and allegory possible; sexuality, evil inherent, religion, sins, punishment. At first, a little bit like children’s storied about monsters and fears (e.g. Ted Cole’s stories about El Hombre Topo).
This can link both to the angel dying upstairs apocalyptics universe, and to the Servants of Darkness.
Quotes: Dean Koontz, Book of Counted Sorrows:
But some mysteries bite and bark
and come to get you in the dark.
Darkness devours every shining day.
Darkness demands and always have its way.
Darkness listens, watches, waits.
Darkness claims the day and celebrates.
Sometimes in silence darkness comes.
Sometimes with a gleeful banging of drums.
To know the darkness is to love the light,
to welcome dawn and fear the coming and night.
Night has patterns that can be read
less by the living than by the dead.
Numberless paths of night
wind away from twilight.
Something moves within the night
that is not good and is not right.
The story of a little girl who makes friends with solid darkness personified, whom she first helps become solid by knitting the dark. At first, he is only hands, like knitted gloves, and a voice. His eyes do not shine. (Though perhaps there may be some residual light within him.)
There is something subtly sinister in this friend who wants to see the world. Something tragic, too, in his wish to see daylight, which would unravel him, possibly permanently. He may terrify others, or be invisible. “Call me Nit,” he says as she struggles to say his name. The name he gave her is, of course, Nuit.
There is something very tragic in Nit, a muzzled, dark, gloved figure. A cursed or forgotten monster, a fallen angel yearning for what was. Or for the memory of what he once was. He is short-tempered, observant and funny in an aloof way (not goofy-funny but out-of-place funny, strange reactions funny). Reserved to the point of shyness and fear.
“Too long in the dark, I have forgotten the light that was my life. Now the light hurts my eyes and I close them. And I am in the dark once more.” Loyal but manipulative until he becomes friends with the girl who helps and loves too much this Nit of Night.
Once, angry with sad Nit, she keeps him at bay with a night light, or a flashlight, like a sword which hurts him, unravels the tight darkness. Like wool, he is hot, suffocating. Or comforting, like a heavy blanket that stills you limbs.
Nit, though limited to places of dark, can be in many places, especially when loosely raveled. Ruth finds him once when playing hide-and-seek in her closet. Perhaps she refuses to play such games later at parties, because hiding from other children means being in the dark, and being found by the waiting Nit. He has a muzzle and a heavy pelt, with or without the knitting. Small shadows may be him shedding. At times, that is all you can see, his nose, black, just slightly visible, more concrete and solid, than the rest of the dark. Shy and ferocious, but ever alone.
Latin Nitidus, meaning radiant, luminous.
Particularly fond of this one; all sorts of symbolism and allegory possible; sexuality, evil inherent, religion, sins, punishment. At first, a little bit like children’s storied about monsters and fears (e.g. Ted Cole’s stories about El Hombre Topo).
This can link both to the angel dying upstairs apocalyptics universe, and to the Servants of Darkness.
Quotes: Dean Koontz, Book of Counted Sorrows:
But some mysteries bite and bark
and come to get you in the dark.
Darkness devours every shining day.
Darkness demands and always have its way.
Darkness listens, watches, waits.
Darkness claims the day and celebrates.
Sometimes in silence darkness comes.
Sometimes with a gleeful banging of drums.
To know the darkness is to love the light,
to welcome dawn and fear the coming and night.
Night has patterns that can be read
less by the living than by the dead.
Numberless paths of night
wind away from twilight.
Something moves within the night
that is not good and is not right.