China Mieville
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I'm Murrin
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stonemaybe
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Vasko!-
stonemaybe
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stonemaybe
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I'm Murrin
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that doesn't surprise me at all. the woman loves language. and he has his poetic moments, even in perdido street station (which i'm still having a hard time slogging through) and yeah i would be interested in reading his straight sci fi too. i'm determined to like him. heh. too many authors i like like him.Murrin wrote:Yeah, I saw that it was out and it my first thought was, "crap! I haven't even read Kraken yet!"
I'm interested to see his take on sci-fi (and I understand it's a lot about language, too).
Edit: Holy hell, that's Ursula K LeGuin heaping praise on China Miéville!
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
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Spiral Jacobs
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aliantha
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I nearly bought "Embassywood" for the Reader last night. Will definitely pick it up before E-fest. (I haven't read "Kraken" yet either. Maybe I should get both...)
EZ Board Survivor
"Dreaming isn't good for you unless you do the things it tells you to." -- Three Dog Night (via the GI)
https://www.hearth-myth.com/
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stonemaybe
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Hopefully this available to everyone, not just UKers....a video of CM talking about the sci-fi exhibition in the British Library in London-
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13462771
And here's him talking about Embassytown, open to everyone!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDm_5iMGSN0
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13462771
And here's him talking about Embassytown, open to everyone!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDm_5iMGSN0
Aglithophile and conniptionist and spectacular moonbow beholder 16Jul11
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stonemaybe
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I'm Murrin
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deer of the dawn
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No one mentioned The City and the City, the only Mieville I've managed to find and read so far. It was brilliant, and does not seem to suffer any of the flaws castigated above.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. -Philo of Alexandria
ahhhh... if only all our creativity in wickedness could be fixed by "Corrupt a Wish." - Linna Heartlistener
ahhhh... if only all our creativity in wickedness could be fixed by "Corrupt a Wish." - Linna Heartlistener
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I'm Murrin
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I'm reading Embassytown right now, and it's very interesting.
The premise is clever: Embassytown is a small human colony on a world populated by aliens who are totally unique. These Hosts have speech, but it seems to be genetically hardwired: communication for them is inseperable from thought. This results in two significant things. Firstly, the Hosts cannot lie, because to speak a lie would require them to think something which is not true. Secondly, they are unable to comprehend any speech which is not their Language, even to the point that they must know it originates from a thinking mind. Because they cannot conceive of languages other than their own existing, they can only understand themselves.
This is complicated by the fact that the Hosts' Language is spoken simultaneously by two mouths. Attempting to communicate any other way fails. So the humans have taken to raising "doppels", cloned twins bred and trained to serve as Ambassadors, their minds linked to enable them to speak as one.
For the Hosts, the human Ambassadors' ability to lie is a thrill: Their minds are unable to process the idea of someone speaking something that is not true, and hearing it gives them some sort of rush.
Hosts have some creativity in Language - they cannot hypothesise, they cannot use metaphor, but they can create similes, which they do by deliberately acting out scenarios which they can then refer to in Language (if it didn't actually happen, they cannot think or speak it).
It really is a fascinating imagination of how language could evolve entirely differently from what we're familiar with.
The premise is clever: Embassytown is a small human colony on a world populated by aliens who are totally unique. These Hosts have speech, but it seems to be genetically hardwired: communication for them is inseperable from thought. This results in two significant things. Firstly, the Hosts cannot lie, because to speak a lie would require them to think something which is not true. Secondly, they are unable to comprehend any speech which is not their Language, even to the point that they must know it originates from a thinking mind. Because they cannot conceive of languages other than their own existing, they can only understand themselves.
This is complicated by the fact that the Hosts' Language is spoken simultaneously by two mouths. Attempting to communicate any other way fails. So the humans have taken to raising "doppels", cloned twins bred and trained to serve as Ambassadors, their minds linked to enable them to speak as one.
For the Hosts, the human Ambassadors' ability to lie is a thrill: Their minds are unable to process the idea of someone speaking something that is not true, and hearing it gives them some sort of rush.
Hosts have some creativity in Language - they cannot hypothesise, they cannot use metaphor, but they can create similes, which they do by deliberately acting out scenarios which they can then refer to in Language (if it didn't actually happen, they cannot think or speak it).
It really is a fascinating imagination of how language could evolve entirely differently from what we're familiar with.
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Spiral Jacobs
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Wow, I just finished Embassytown tonight. What an amazing book, this is the stuff that makes me love science fiction. He simply throws you into a world, without explanation or exposition, and lets you find your way. I felt like again like when I first read Wolfe's first Book of the New Sun novel, which does the same. This one requires a reread soon.