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Just finished The Last Days of New Paris and like the idea of the book but regret it wasn't really allowed to grow. A real missed opportunity IMO
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Nov 1, 2018 05:50
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I will resuscitate the thread. I recently saw that China Mieville has a new book coming out, called A Spectre is Haunting Europe. The blurb promises: quote:"In 1848 a strange political tract was published by two emigres from Germany. Marx and Engels's apocalyptic vision of an insatiable system that penetrates every corner of the world, reduces every relationship to that of profit, and bursts asunder the old forms of production and of politics, is still a picture of a recognisable world, our world, and the vampiric energy of the system is once again highly contentious. As much as I enjoyed October, I hope Mieville returns to fiction again soon.
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Feb 24, 2019 00:55
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Spoiler alert! the spectre is communism
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Feb 24, 2019 11:20
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Oh, I also wanted to thank Hedrigall for the cool thread! I backread and ended up with so many tabs open about Mieville and fantasy fiction that led me to new authors. Thanks, man!
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Feb 24, 2019 16:37
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Nikita Khrushchev posted:I will resuscitate the thread. I recently saw that China Mieville has a new book coming out, called A Spectre is Haunting Europe. The blurb promises: Doesn’t that require Mieville to climb out of his own rear end? Cause now he is, like so many other authors, taking the path of believing that just because he is an excellent author, all his other views are excellent as well. But based on his publication list (and I have all his fiction)he has really slowed down in his writing and his latter works have been more on the form of nice idea, less good execution. He has been unable to make the same convoluting and detailed plot that we have seen in early works, which makes me believe he is running out of ideas and how to execute them. I guess it says something about political fiction that you can go from doing fantasy to writing that.
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Feb 24, 2019 18:25
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Cool, the thread's moving again! I still remember the first time I read a Mieville novel. I was eating a really greasy chili chicken burger while reading Perdido Street Station. I did not finish the burger.
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Feb 28, 2019 08:39
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Edit: forget it
andrew smash fucked around with this message at 09:31 on Feb 28, 2019 |
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Feb 28, 2019 09:15
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Cardiac posted:Doesn’t that require Mieville to climb out of his own rear end? China Mieville has a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics, specifically focused on Marxism and International Law. I get that he has written a lot of fiction, but it's absurd to pretend like he isn't an expert when it comes to Marxism.
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Mar 1, 2019 20:06
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Tree Bucket posted:Cool, the thread's moving again! Chapter 1: loving the Bug Lady
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Mar 1, 2019 20:35
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Sampatrick posted:China Mieville has a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics, specifically focused on Marxism and International Law. I get that he has written a lot of fiction, but it's absurd to pretend like he isn't an expert when it comes to Marxism. If he thinks it’s a good idea how much of an expert can he be. I can think of two different ways to become an expert on syphilis , but neither type recommends it to their friends.
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Mar 1, 2019 20:58
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Drone Jett posted:If he thinks it’s a good idea how much of an expert can he be. while this is a very good line and I am definitely going to plagiarize it, I disagree with your overall point here
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Mar 1, 2019 23:26
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Sampatrick posted:China Mieville has a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics, specifically focused on Marxism and International Law. I get that he has written a lot of fiction, but it's absurd to pretend like he isn't an expert when it comes to Marxism. Have a scan of Cardiac's posts ITT, he's really not a fan of the leftism lol
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Mar 2, 2019 00:16
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Lol at not being a leftist in 2019.
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Mar 2, 2019 01:21
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Drone Jett posted:If he thinks it’s a good idea how much of an expert can he be. I wait with bated breath for your well-reasoned and certainly thoroughly sourced critique of Marxism that would rival the thought that goes into a dissertation. "Enh what the gently caress you got a PhD in neurobiology? Look smarty pants, maybe don't talk about some brain stuff in your novels. I have Opinions that I got from huffing my own farts and I know what I'm talking about. Also using like art or some poo poo to talk about real issues is dumb and I just want more loving the bug woman."
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Mar 2, 2019 06:48
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Xiahou Dun posted:I wait with bated breath for your well-reasoned and certainly thoroughly sourced critique of Marxism that would rival the thought that goes into a dissertation. Dude, don’t get syphilis, you’ll regret it.
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Mar 2, 2019 14:50
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What's peculiar is that the most praised parts of Mieville's writing (the world and how the characters relate to it) are the ones most informed by Marxism. There's a sense of reality that comes from someone having thought about how this fictional society and its classes relate to its modes of production. When you're enjoying Bas-Lag, you're enjoying Marxism. What's I find most interesting about this is that while Mieville has talked about "what if fantasy were inspired by Gormenghast instead of Lord of the Rings", his writing fits much more to Tolkien's idea of "the second world" than Peake's more Shakespearean style of a set and players in service of themes. (Tolkien gets more of a pass here than his imitators because his goal wasn't to create an authoritative text on a world but to create a modern Beowulf, i.e. it's less about the battles and more about the songs we sing about them)
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Mar 3, 2019 00:16
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October was definitely interesting but got a bit too into the weeds for everyone who doesn't want to be an expert on the topic. I'd probably prefer he focus more on (Marxist inspired) fiction because he's excellent at that stuff
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Mar 3, 2019 00:31
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Drone Jett posted:Dude, don’t get syphilis, you’ll regret it. I'd honestly be surprised if you actually know what Marxism is. Like it's a flawed ideology, sure, (so is capitalism) but you sound like an ignorant 1950's stereotype. Also your syphilis example is dumb ; this is more like a doctor (i.e. an educated professional on a topic*) telling you to get a vaccine. And you saying that's dumb because of [??????]. *O wait it is. Cause he's a Dr. Mieville. While PhD's often get bit overly hyped as some magic people, they're legit people who have spent the vast majority of their life studying a topic. No you aren't going to blow them out of the water with your hot-takes. They had that thrown at them for several years by smarter, more informed people than you before they got anywhere near this. You idiot.
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Mar 3, 2019 09:09
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Drone Jett posted:Dude, don’t get syphilis, you’ll regret it. We already live in capitalist societies.
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Mar 3, 2019 09:22
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I'm down for more marxist content from Mieville and also specifically don't want him to return to Bas-Lag in long-form. The dialectic of history has moved on, etc etc. I want him to keep showing us new and different things.
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Mar 3, 2019 09:51
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As much as I love Bas-Lag and want more of it, I just want him to do more longer fiction. His short stories and novellas have been mediocre to decent.
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Mar 3, 2019 11:05
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Neither Marxism nor capitalism are really ideologies, HTH
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Mar 3, 2019 13:17
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Xiahou Dun posted:I'd honestly be surprised if you actually know what Marxism is. Dude, just get a penicillin shot.
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Mar 3, 2019 14:30
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Oasx posted:As much as I love Bas-Lag and want more of it, I just want him to do more longer fiction. His short stories and novellas have been mediocre to decent.
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Mar 3, 2019 14:39
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Embassytown was the best book he's written so I want more like that.
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Mar 3, 2019 15:11
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Drone Jett posted:Dude, just get a penicillin shot. If you don't want to engage, don't pretend to not be a shitposter. quote:Neither Marxism nor capitalism are really ideologies, HTH True, and neither is diametrically opposed to the other. Both had their basis in thinking about what would be the best possible mode of production for the most people possible in society.
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Mar 3, 2019 19:07
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China Mieville pozzed my rear end in a top hat with communism and I LOVED IT
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Mar 3, 2019 20:08
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Marxism is good so I'm not seeing the problem here, folks.
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Mar 3, 2019 22:19
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Oasx posted:As much as I love Bas-Lag and want more of it, I just want him to do more longer fiction. His short stories and novellas have been mediocre to decent. I dunno I really liked Looking for Jake, Reports of Certain Events in London is one of my all-time favorite short stories.
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Mar 3, 2019 22:28
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Quandary posted:Embassytown was the best book he's written so I want more like that. Absolutely. I adore Embassytown, except for that one line about an alien with a mouth that is "a snaggle-toothed ventricle," a phrase that just ruins my day every time I read it. Uggh. Microcline posted:What's I find most interesting about this is that while Mieville has talked about "what if fantasy were inspired by Gormenghast instead of Lord of the Rings", his writing fits much more to Tolkien's idea of "the second world" than Peake's more Shakespearean style of a set and players in service of themes. (Tolkien gets more of a pass here than his imitators because his goal wasn't to create an authoritative text on a world but to create a modern Beowulf, i.e. it's less about the battles and more about the songs we sing about them) The two authors I enjoy most are Tolkien and Mieville; it's hard not to feel conflicted... From memory, Mieville views Tolkien's secondary-world-creation as an obsessive retreat from the horrors of the real world. Which seems like an unfair characterization of a dude who was orphaned at age 11 and watched all his friends get red-misted in the trenches of ww1. But yeah, both authors are obsessive world-builders, and Peake is a very different beast altogether... It's interesting to look at how the two authors handle their battle scenes. Mieville does a great job mixing his "war is hell" in with his "monster battles are super cool," while Tolkien's actual experience of industrialised warfare is best depicted, I suspect, in those long chapters of Frodo wandering delirious and exhausted and terrified through the treeless smoking wastelands of Mordor.
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Mar 4, 2019 02:39
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Clark Nova posted:Chapter 1: loving the Bug Lady Lol Giving Perdido Street Station a first read through. Already tired of the made up words and the use of "salubrious"
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May 7, 2019 02:35
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Bilirubin posted:Lol I read it in the winter, let me see if I can recall how it goes: quote:As the weird, hosed up looking character grimly tootled his rusty rear end boat up the sludgey river, the nasty smoke and hideous, hulking presence of gross buildings pressing in on either side drove his mind toward one inescapable question: What if city, but dirty?
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May 7, 2019 04:51
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lol that's about right several chapters in and now that there are enough characters things are moving along better with less exposition. But there are still another 600 pages in which that tide could turn! Definitely prefer his shorter form fiction
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May 7, 2019 05:05
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I will be interesting to hear if your opinion changes, for me Mieville's writing style isn't suited for short fiction at all.
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May 7, 2019 07:18
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Xiahou Dun posted:I'd honestly be surprised if you actually know what Marxism is. Eh, a EU/Uk PhD is like 3 years. And a PhD is basically just the admission point to do actual science. Well, if you can call it science when Marxism doesn’t contain falsifiable hypotheses. In actual literature, I don’t think mieville needs to go back to Bas-Lag. The iron council is easily the weakest part of the series. A lot of the fantastic images he paints are best enjoyed as ideas than describe concretely. We see that in a lot of his other stories where he has no shortage of ideas but rather more issues with implementation of them in a story.
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May 7, 2019 11:20
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Bilirubin posted:lol that's about right i was bored with it until around the time a conflict finally occurred, after which point i was enraptured......great book imo.
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May 7, 2019 11:45
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Oasx posted:I will be interesting to hear if your opinion changes, for me Mieville's writing style isn't suited for short fiction at all. scary ghost dog posted:i was bored with it until around the time a conflict finally occurred, after which point i was enraptured......great book imo. Good to know. I will definitely keep going because it seems a well regarded book and now that the pieces are being put on the board the exposition is starting to serve more of a purpose. I have enjoyed everything of his I have read so far other than Last Days so if nothing else I expect an entertaining story (with I hear a difficult ending--don't know the specifics other than "its a hard read")
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May 7, 2019 15:09
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Bilirubin posted:Lol It seems like he picks some word and overuses it in each book of the Bas-Lag trilogy. I can't remember what they are anymore but I remember thinking at the time, like okay this is the word for this book then.
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May 10, 2019 09:26
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What a puissant observation
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May 10, 2019 09:34
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Bilirubin posted:Good to know. I will definitely keep going because it seems a well regarded book and now that the pieces are being put on the board the exposition is starting to serve more of a purpose. I have enjoyed everything of his I have read so far other than Last Days so if nothing else I expect an entertaining story (with I hear a difficult ending--don't know the specifics other than "its a hard read") difficult might not be the right word to describe the ending —- i would use “bitter.” but i think thats one of the biggest strengths of the book.......its conclusion feels inevitable. bas-lag is a much worse place than embassytown
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May 10, 2019 10:19
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