dual personalities

I’ve always been drawn to ruins — whether that has anything to do with where I grew up, I leave to your imagination — but I think Mervyn Peake got it exactly right when he wrote in his magnificent Gormenghast trilogy:
“Titus sat down by the side of the road and frowned. He had been born and bred to the assumption that buildings were ancient by nature, and were and always had been in the process of crumbling away. The white dust lolling between the gaping bricks; the worm in the wood; the weed dislodging the stone; corrosion and mildew; the crumbling patina; the fading shades; the beauty of decay.”