then, Book 11 Chapter 20 is simply a long and detailed description of bee behavior. a digression into unnecessarily thorough scientific observation, interrupting plot events? yes! this is what literature is all about!! long live Tolstoy!!!
(spoilers for bk. 11 ch. 20, & disturbing bee imagery)
![The bees circle round a queenless hive in the hot beams of the midday sun as gaily as around the living hives; from a distance it smells of honey like the others, and bees fly in and out in the same way. But one has only to observe that hive to realize that there is no longer any life in it. [...] To the beekeeper’s tap on the wall of the sick hive, instead of the former instant unanimous humming of tens of thousands of bees with their abdomens threateningly compressed, and producing by the rapid vibration of their wings an aerial living sound, the only reply is a disconnected buzzing from different parts of the deserted hive. From the alighting board, instead of the former spirituous fragrant smell of honey and venom, and the warm whiffs of crowded life, comes an odor of emptiness and decay mingling with the smell of honey. There are no longer sentinels sounding the alarm with their abdomens raised, and ready to die in defense of the hive. There is no longer the measured quiet sound of throbbing activity, like the sound of boiling water, but diverse discordant sounds of disorder. In and out of the hive long black robber bees smeared with honey fly timidly and shiftily. They do not sting, but crawl away from danger. Formerly only bees laden with honey flew into the hive, and they flew out empty; now they fly out laden. The beekeeper opens the lower part of the hive and peers in. Instead of black, glossy bees—tamed by toil, clinging to one another’s legs and drawing out the wax, with a ceaseless hum of labor—that used to hang in long clusters down to the floor of the hive, drowsy shriveled bees crawl about separately in various directions on the floor and walls of the hive. Instead of a neatly glued floor, swept by the bees with the fanning of their wings, there is a floor littered with bits of wax, excrement, dying bees scarcely moving their legs, and dead ones that have not been cleared away.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ew3yreoupjrmkxa33miyv2rg/bafkreiawd5pqjinptltqmqqr6n5qp7akodknh7ihtcib6rqrgek3iua7de)
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leave behind the linear dungeons of classic broughlikes!!
meet open-world adventure in the fractal cyberpunk future!!!
face off against evil megacorps!!!!
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[typing this out made me notice the detail of the increasing number of exclamation marks, good job]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ew3yreoupjrmkxa33miyv2rg/bafkreiaquozh4uqpexva62rnnkfdkrwy2chptjf4p225uswddlqwggisu4)
