Desensitized

Either I'm becoming desensitized to the stories, or I'm going through a section with more "distracting" or fantastic themes. The Outsider, I found actually rather quaint: telling a story from the point of view of the evil seeking only to find its way to the light - without any clear concept of self or purpose until confronted, rather rudely, with its reflection.
 And yet, I can't help but remember the concept of "the calm before the storm", for as much as I think I've acclimated to the writing and general tenor of the themes, somewhere, in the back of my mind is still the memory of how I felt after The Nameless City, and of what happens when curiosity clouds our very important sense of impending doom, a justly founded fear of things we should avoid, and in more logical moments know better than to be curious about.