Octavia Cade

“In Fantasia, the physics is different. It’s not the property of mass that’s causing people to throw themselves into the Nothing, to let themselves be devoured into suicide. It’s imagination and feeling and inspiration that’s the basic currency of this world. The expectation of wonder is what holds Fantasia together—wonder and creative currents, fantasy and inventiveness. These are the things that give meaning and purpose to Fantasia and its citizens. So when the Nothing comes along, devouring all these things indiscriminately, undermining their importance in a fundamental way, its very lack calls to the part of the Fantasian people that is the very opposite of imagination… the angst and nihilism inherent in each individual. The part that says What if we’ve been wrong all along? It doesn’t take much doubt (just a little chunk) but the resulting horror feeds on every positive thought, every creative impulse, until the symmetry of lack between the Nothing and the despairing individual acts as gravity, drawing them closer and closer to the Nothing until the only alternative is to become part of it. It really is like a black hole.”
― Octavia Cade, Food and Horror: Essays on Ravenous Souls, Toothsome Monsters, and Vicious Cravings