China Miéville

7 comments on “China Miéville”

1. Tbone says:
   April 24th, 2007 at 10:19 am

   It always seems to me that while Fantasy/SF authors spend a lot of time complaining about the “ghettoization” of their writing, they spend a lot more time ghettoizing themselves, arguing about what sub-genre labels are most appropriate for their work and trying to divide readers and writers into camps.

   *shrugs*

   Guess this just reminded me of that since I’d been reading Vonnegut interviews recently and he always complained about this tendency.

2. George says:
   April 24th, 2007 at 10:27 am

   Devil’s Advocate here, Tbone: Is that a product of the writers or the people who profile/interview them?

3. Matt says:
   April 24th, 2007 at 10:34 am

   If you think it’s bad in literature, just try working at a music store: “Yeah, this band has a really unique sound that can’t really be described because it’s more unique than anything out there. It’s kind of influenced by grind-core-folk-hop but it also stays true to the roots of post-operatic-Wagnerian-blues/rap.”

4. Tbone says:
   April 24th, 2007 at 10:55 am

   (I think I went into the spam folder because I had a link to the interview, so I removed it)

   George:

   Both I’m sure, though in my personal experience the writers (and fans) seem far more obsessed with it than anyone else. I would say this extends into most art forms, as Matt points out with music. The music press might slot musicians into genres, but they won’t spend hours obsessively debating if X is a Post-Rock Gore Grind Metal band or a Post-Rock Death Grind band.

   Anyway, a Vonnegut quote on it:
   I have run with them some, and they are generous and amusing souls, but I must now make a true statement that will put them through the roof: They are joiners. They are a lodge. If they didn’t enjoy having a gang of their own so much, there would be no such category as science-fiction. They love to stay up all night, arguing the question, “What is science-fiction?” One might as usefully inquire, ”What are the Elks? And what is the Order of the Eastern Star?”…

   Boomers of science fiction might reply, ”Ha! Orwell and Ellison and Flaubert and Kafka are science fiction writers, too!” They often say things like that. Some are crazy enough to try to capture even Tolstoy. It is as though I were to claim that everybody of note belonged fundamentally to Delta Upsilon, my own lodge, incidentally, whether he knew it or not.

5. Brian Hadd says:
   April 24th, 2007 at 11:09 am

   “The Fredgimen ark homing! The Fred redgiment are cloning!”

6. Mark Luk says:
   April 24th, 2007 at 4:11 pm

   I read [i]Perdido Street Station[/i] a while ago, partly because it won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and also because he seemed to be one of the few successful young sci-fi authors. Unfortunately, the book turned out to be more style than substance: the talking bugs and atmospheric grunge became annoying rather than entertaining after a while. Perhaps his children’s fiction will be more successful.

7. Andrew Smith says:
   February 3rd, 2008 at 6:00 am

   Ya, this post is coming in way late, but this is the first time I have seen or heard anyone sneering at Perdido Street Station,
   which was a whole lot of fun for this dumb punter. There I was thinking I was an ageing, curmudgeonly Gen-Xer and then I read this.
   Thank you for that patronising dismissal. Now I know there are people out there who are even more past it than me.

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