From the novel:
"Someday, perhaps, the whole mountain would split, and a half of Karakal's icy splendor come toppling into the valley. He wondered if the slightness of the risk combined with its fearfulness might even be found agreeably stimulating."
This immediately made me think of the Cold War, when the (remote) possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union managed to make life (and especially art, or stories of spies and international intrigue) just a little more exciting.
"Someday, perhaps, the whole mountain would split, and a half of Karakal's icy splendor come toppling into the valley. He wondered if the slightness of the risk combined with its fearfulness might even be found agreeably stimulating."
This immediately made me think of the Cold War, when the (remote) possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union managed to make life (and especially art, or stories of spies and international intrigue) just a little more exciting.