A reread: Perdido Street Station
Mar. 4th, 2018 11:44 amI really need to change my icons - but what to? I made my default icon years ago. I'm not a huge fan of The Knife, but I liked the photoshoot - and here we are years later with this weird picture being my "face" on this site. M
(Maybe I should go full-out Sailor Moon, because that's been a constant.)
So, a little while ago I realized that I hadn't finished a book in a year. I can say it's because I've been really busy with my dissertation, but the real reason is that I just haven't been making time. A couple days ago, I decided to start fixing this, by imposing a simple rule: No electronic devices in the bathroom. Since I like to take long baths regularly, this creates a lot of time for reading.
I'm already well into a reread of Perdido Street Station by Mieville. I read it so long ago that I remembered almost nothing about it. In the meantime, I've read other books by him.
And the reread is... really interesting. Mieville hasn't matured yet. He packs every paragraph with descriptors that hammer home the chaotic and filthily organic nature of his setting. He tries to draw your attention to every repulsive little detail... I finish a page and I don't wonder, at all, how Mieville created such an atmosphere because the method is so transparent. He's constantly showing his hand.
He learns to tone it down in later books. You come out of those books with the sense of a strange, lived-in world that, yes, has its repulsive side (whether physical or metaphysical) - but it's done so much more deftly.
I'm having fun with this reread. I like seeing a skilled author in the process of getting made into an even more skilled author.
(Maybe I should go full-out Sailor Moon, because that's been a constant.)
So, a little while ago I realized that I hadn't finished a book in a year. I can say it's because I've been really busy with my dissertation, but the real reason is that I just haven't been making time. A couple days ago, I decided to start fixing this, by imposing a simple rule: No electronic devices in the bathroom. Since I like to take long baths regularly, this creates a lot of time for reading.
I'm already well into a reread of Perdido Street Station by Mieville. I read it so long ago that I remembered almost nothing about it. In the meantime, I've read other books by him.
And the reread is... really interesting. Mieville hasn't matured yet. He packs every paragraph with descriptors that hammer home the chaotic and filthily organic nature of his setting. He tries to draw your attention to every repulsive little detail... I finish a page and I don't wonder, at all, how Mieville created such an atmosphere because the method is so transparent. He's constantly showing his hand.
He learns to tone it down in later books. You come out of those books with the sense of a strange, lived-in world that, yes, has its repulsive side (whether physical or metaphysical) - but it's done so much more deftly.
I'm having fun with this reread. I like seeing a skilled author in the process of getting made into an even more skilled author.
