Short Fiction · Chapter
The Reward of an Apostate explained
The narrator recounts their sin of forsaking the god of Beauty to follow the god of Energy, and the resulting punishment: an inability to worship or feel beauty any longer.
What happens
The narrator recounts their sin of forsaking the god of Beauty to follow the god of Energy, and the resulting punishment: an inability to worship or feel beauty any longer. They describe their former life as an ugly, earth-colored creature who found ecstatic joy in secretly worshiping beauty from the shadows, and their brief, passionate infatuation with the 'rude god Energy' who promised power and remaking of the world. After being struck down and abandoned by this new god, they return to find their inner 'wonder-house' empty and barren, unable to feel delight or love, and accept this as the just reward for their apostasy.
Themes in this chapter
Art and Creativity
The narrator's former life was one of secret, ecstatic worship of beauty and art, stored in the 'wonder-house' of their brain, but this creative capacity is lost after their apostasy.
Nature and the Industrial World
The chapter contrasts the natural beauty of sunsets, mountains, and rivers with the clang and roar of machinery and the forging of chains, representing the conflict between the natural world and industrial energy.
Characters to notice
- Narrator
The apostate who forsook Beauty for Energy and now suffers the punishment of being unable to worship or feel beauty.
Key passages
“I cannot worship any more—that is my punishment; I cannot worship any more.”
The narrator's inability to feel reverence or joy in beauty is the direct consequence of their betrayal.
This line encapsulates the central theme of the chapter: the loss of spiritual and aesthetic capacity as punishment for apostasy.
“I forsook my god to follow a stranger—only a while, a very brief, brief while—and when I would have returned there was no more returning.”
The narrator briefly abandoned their devotion to Beauty for the god of Energy, but found the door to return permanently closed.
Highlights the irreversible nature of the narrator's sin and the permanence of their punishment.