#epigraph

[howifeltabouthim]

Why do we do these things? Because we are alive . . . We do these things because we are dying. Can you blame us?

Lauren Rothery, from Television

[wintery-waxillium]

something funny i noticed, in between being hyped as hell at Sazed's letter

[a-ramblinrose]

The epigraph from The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals To Wonder Through Science & Poetry by Maria Popova

[epigraphexhibition]

from "Three Versions of Judas" (Jorge Luis Borges, 1944)

[bluewillowmoon]

“For where would we be

If love were not stronger than poetry

And poetry were not stronger than love.”

—Miroslav Holub, epigraph to Resonance: Poems by Richard Jackson (Ashland Poetry Press, 2010)

[babyydolllyyy]

inscription on a baby's tombstone in Tuscany

[sivavakkiyar]

[tincanaudio]

Something I tried doing with the final series of The Tower was to experiment with the idea of adding an epigraph at the start of the story.

I've always loved the use of epigraphs, taking a quote from another piece of art, or a speech, or a song, and using to set the tone for another story. It's art interacting with other art.

So, at the start of Summit, you hear a voice that seems to be coming from the Tower itself, quoting from Chapter 9 of Wuthering Heights

(It's kind of a mild spoiler so I'll stick the quote under here)

'‘If I were in heaven, Nelly, I should be extremely miserable.’ ‘Because you are not fit to go there,’ I answered. ‘All sinners would be miserable in heaven.’ ‘But it is not for that. I dreamt once that I was there.’ ‘I tell you I won’t hearken to your dreams, Miss Catherine! I’ll go to bed,’ I interrupted again. She laughed, and held me down; for I made a motion to leave my chair. ‘This is nothing,’ cried she: ‘I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy. That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other.'

I was reading Wuthering Heights at the start of the year and this quote lodged itself in my mind upon reading it. So much so I scribbled it onto a post-it note and had it on my desk as I was writing the final series.

It's also the only bit of The Tower that was recorded with our phone mic!