(urth) More Mieville

[Chris]

I don't deny that Mieville is creative, but I don't think the wealth of 
ideas and images you're talking about is a sign of it... Mieville, by his 
own admission, borrows a lot of ideas from all over the place. The 
particular synthesis is unique to him and I would agree is rather creative.

>I am behind on my Mieville.  I have read PSS, started The Scar but not
>finished it yet (Edward Whittemore has been distracting me) and I bought IC
>but its not even on my radar screen yet in terms of reading it.  I done
>think he is a hack, but her is certainly a messy and unpolished writer.
>  Maybe he would benefit from better editing.  PSS was good though, if
>messy, a bit slow at times and too long.  It was what I like to call a
>kitchen sink novel.  He was bursting with images and ideas and wanted to
>get them all out without a certain amount of control or cohesiveness.
>  Again, not the best writer in the world, but definitely a good 
>imagination
>and worth watching.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:	Alice K. Turner [SMTP:aturner6 at nyc.rr.com]
>Sent:	Thursday, December 02, 2004 10:30 PM
>To:	urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net
>Subject:	(urth) More Mieville
>
>Yes, The Scar is a lot better than PSS (though it completely falls apart at
>the end), and IC is hopeless (I think, though I've only ventured into it
>for
>three chapters). I plead guilty to using the term "hack," but I'll retract
>that. He's not exactly a hack, since that implies churning the stuff out
>mindlessly. Mieville, I think really believes in what he is doing, but
>unfortunately (from my point of view) what he loves is pulp horror, mainly
>taken from movies. You can tell that from the excerpted quotes that
>intrigued some of you. He has also been poorly edited, especially in PSS,
>which is nothing if not repetitive, with terribly clunky prose.
>
>-alga
>
>
> > 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
>
>
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