In January, we will be reading The City and The City by China Mieville.
Please post your thoughts and questions in this thread.
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In January, we will be reading The City and The City by China Mieville.
Please post your thoughts and questions in this thread.
I am awaiting my copy. It should be here tomorrow. In the meantime I have been reading The Iron Council also by China Mieville. It's very good, and, like Perdido Street Station, quite unpredictable. Some of the contexts are familiar, such as a wild west railway building section, but it is populated with bizarre creatures and people. Some of the descriptions of New Crobuzon are brilliant, and it reminds you of a bustling capital, in an asiatic setting, with Gaudi-like colour and a myriad of characters. It'll be interesting to se how The City and The City compares.
I ended up ordering mine yesterday instead of waiting for the bookstore to get a copy like they said they would. Should have it next week hopefully.
I myself am waiting on my orderd copy, hopefully it will get here soon. All the other books I ordered around the same time have arrived. So glad to know I won't be totally behind since others are waiting as well.
The book came today, and it has started off with a regular crime scene beginning. I like this approach in fantasy and sci fi - to get you into familiar territory, and then take you way away from that.
Got it from library yesterday. I don't think this is my type of book but I'll give it a shot. I can't wait to get away from the regular crime scene stuff.
I'm onto ch 2, and the differences are beginning to creep in. Crosshatching is beginning to be mentioned as a place where the two cities interface. It's an interesting idea reminiscent of apartheid.
I'm interested to see how it develops. The description of the city is muted and downbeat.
I'm on chapter five. I still trying to get used to the writing style.
What do you find difficult about the writing style?Quote:
Originally Posted by papayahed
I think he makes you work with the narrative. It really piles along. Its not like being led by the nose, but running to keep up. I do like this style though.
Okay, I'm through chapter one and I'm already rather curious about where exactly this takes place - Besźel has a rather Hungarian sound to it, but, using an online Hungarian-English dictionary, there is nothing similar to "feld" among the translations of "cat". Also, on wiktionary, the only one similar to "feld" in different languages among the translation of "cat" is the Latin "feles". Are we dealing with a made-up country/language here? Or might it be slang? Or some small, rather obscure language? Or maybe I made a mistake and there is some language where "feld" means "cat", it's just not on wiktionary?
Beszel and Ul Quoma are the two cities geographically entwined but politically seperate. I think they are set in the Romanian area, but are fictional.Quote:
Originally Posted by Taliesin
I think he's taken the idea of seeing but ignoring - established in the verb to unsee - and applied it to two politcal systems that are connected. We do ths on a minor scale such as igoring a robbery, or on a larger scale perhaps ignoring societal injustices like political persecution.
I'm still a bit confused by the word "unsee." I think he used "unnoticed" at least once, too. Maybe as I read more I'll get used to it. I think I'm on chapter 3.
He does use unnoticed as well. I think it refers to seeing, but actively ignoring, such as rich peole who unsee the poor, or people who see and ignore a street crime.Quote:
Originally Posted by Weisinheimer
I've been cracking on with the book, and i'm enjoying it so far. It's very different from the other two I've read/ am reading. The idea of two cities intertwined is interesting, and as I read it I can see that he's gone to a lot of trouble to explain the mindset of two nations' peoples who co-exist without access to streets and houses a few feet away.
It has resonances of apartheid in the physical seperation, but more important seems to be the mindset that can actively unsee something in close proximity.