Urth Net

Index · 3 messages · 3 voices · 02 Dec 2004

Semi-OT: Random Mievillainousness

Download this conversation
HTML pagemboxtextMarkdownJSONPDF
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes02 Dec 2004, 09:38as archived
Semi-OT: Random Mievillainousness
China M. has an article in the Guardian (http://tinyurl.com/6s587) from which I pull the following quotes as possibly interesting and/or relevant to the recent-ongoing discussion of his work: *****BEGIN QUOTED TEXT***** I'm in this business for the monsters. My single favourite monsters are the beastmen in The Island of Doctor Moreau. I love the octopoid creatures and the giant swine spirit in William Hope Hodgson. I have a lot of time for pig monsters. I've always liked being terrified of monsters from underwater coming up, like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. There's a picture of Beatrix Potter's Jeremy Fisher with the trout about to bite his foot and he hasn't seen it yet. Completely terrifying. ... Loads of children read books about dinosaurs, underwater monsters, dragons, witches, aliens, and robots. Essentially, the people who read SF, fantasy and horror haven't grown out of enjoying the strange and weird. ... The weirdest thing I ever saw was in Hyde Park. There was a crowd, I joined them, and for the next 10 minutes we stood aghast and fascinated watching a pelican eating a pigeon. *****END QUOTED TEXT***** --Dan'l
www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer Freedom has no barcode. --J.G. Ballard
Lisa Schaffer-Doggett02 Dec 2004, 10:06as archived
↳ in reply to Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
You know, I haven't read any Mieville, but for all the talk of him being hack-ish, there's a certain purity of feeling in these quotes that make me curious now to check out at least one book by him. Don
23 quoted lines
On Thursday, December 2, 2004, at 09:38 AM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote: China M. has an article in the Guardian (http://tinyurl.com/6s587) from which I pull the following quotes as possibly interesting and/or relevant to the recent-ongoing discussion of his work: *****BEGIN QUOTED TEXT***** I'm in this business for the monsters. My single favourite monsters are the beastmen in The Island of Doctor Moreau. I love the octopoid creatures and the giant swine spirit in William Hope Hodgson. I have a lot of time for pig monsters. I've always liked being terrified of monsters from underwater coming up, like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. There's a picture of Beatrix Potter's Jeremy Fisher with the trout about to bite his foot and he hasn't seen it yet. Completely terrifying. ... Loads of children read books about dinosaurs, underwater monsters, dragons, witches, aliens, and robots. Essentially, the people who read SF, fantasy and horror haven't grown out of enjoying the strange and weird. ... The weirdest thing I ever saw was in Hyde Park. There was a crowd, I joined them, and for the next 10 minutes we stood aghast and fascinated watching a pelican eating a pigeon. *****END QUOTED TEXT***** --Dan'l -- www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer Freedom has no barcode. --J.G. Ballard _______________________________________________
stilskin02 Dec 2004, 10:31as archived
↳ in reply to Lisa Schaffer-Doggett
Mieville is worth reading. He is no hack, in my opinion, although he has clearly been influenced by hacks -- as has Gene Wolfe. I recommend The Scar as the "purest" Mieville -- that's the book I feel has come closest to showcasing his strengths. Perdido Street Station will also give a fair appreciation of his talents. I would avoid Iron Council, his latest. He's not the tidiest of writers under the best of circumstances, but IC is just plain sloppy. Paul
62 quoted lines · 1–2 deep
--- Lisa Schaffer-Doggett <harlekin at earthlink.net> wrote: You know, I haven't read any Mieville, but for all the talk of him being hack-ish, there's a certain purity of feeling in these quotes that make me curious now to check out at least one book by him. Don On Thursday, December 2, 2004, at 09:38 AM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
China M. has an article in the Guardian (http://tinyurl.com/6s587) from which I pull the following quotes as possibly interesting and/or relevant to the recent-ongoing discussion of his work: *****BEGIN QUOTED TEXT***** I'm in this business for the monsters. My single favourite monsters are the beastmen in The Island of Doctor Moreau. I love the octopoid creatures and the giant swine spirit in William Hope Hodgson. I have a lot of time for pig monsters.
I've always liked being terrified of monsters from underwater coming up, like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. There's a picture of Beatrix Potter's Jeremy Fisher with the trout about to bite his foot and he hasn't seen it yet. Completely terrifying.
... Loads of children read books about dinosaurs, underwater monsters, dragons, witches, aliens, and robots.
Essentially, the people who read SF, fantasy and horror haven't grown out of enjoying the strange and weird.
... The weirdest thing I ever saw was in Hyde Park.
There was a crowd, I joined them, and for the next 10 minutes we stood aghast and fascinated watching a pelican eating a pigeon.
*****END QUOTED TEXT***** --Dan'l -- www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer Freedom has no barcode. --J.G. Ballard _______________________________________________

An unofficial mirror of a public mailing list · about & removal requests · download the archive · before the list · original archive at urth.net