Week 4: Rat King


This book was outside of what I’d normally read, but I really enjoyed the experience. I say that as somebody whose favorite genre is urban fantasy. Although a lot of the coming-of-age elements were reminiscent of the classical hero’s journey, the rest of the novel was definitely coming from a lot of other genres. The tone, for instance, was very dark, much less in line with traditional fantasy and much more in line with horror, where a protagonist has to struggle against a very negative world to find a little goodness. Though it was supported by the basis of the story of the Pied Piper, China Miéville managed to build something very unique on top of that classical fairytale, really emphasizing the violence of that original story. Our monster is the Piper, and that monster isn’t so much defeated as he is sealed away along with his cave of children who have to suffer for all eternity. Saul’s story begins with the murder of his dad and ends with him deposing his genetic father, a rapist obsessed with getting back his kingdom. These elements definitely solidify the dark tones and the horror elements of the story. I think the additional backdrop of Jungle music, the underground city of London, and the gritty superpowers of rats, spiders, and birds melded really well into a very specific, new language of magic that would complement the dark tone of the book. For a first novel, I think it’s really successful, despite some of the rough edges when it comes to jumping viewpoints or the structural organization of the plot. I’d definitely be interested in reading more by China Miéville when I have the time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 11: Johnny Mnemonic

I didn't have much time this week, so I read a short story instead of a book. Johnny Mnemonic was an interesting little read, and I think it did a pretty good job of covering the aspects of cyberpunk even in its limited span. We have the powerful femme fatale character saving the male protagonist, a nice reversal of roles which is common in cyberpunk. The woman is upgraded with some kind of cybernetic enhancements for fighting, as these types of cyberpunk women often are. I really liked the concepts within this short story, like the veteran dolphin who was hooked on drugs, the moving, pulsating killing floor where the story reaches its final battle, and the way “Johnny Mnemonic” himself was essentially selling his brain for encrypted storage protection. It was the nice blend of grimy underworld and futuristic technology that cyberpunk is often characterized with. The story wrapped up rather abruptly – following the defeat of the hitman, the protagonist quickly ...
Read more

Week 3: A Wild Sheep Chase

This book was incredibly weird, but it’s easy to see how the important concepts within the novel are expressed using symbolically strange events or objects. The recurrence of an evil sheep seems to align closely with its goal of creating an organized empire over humanity. The way I interpreted this, I think Murakami has a very negative view of large businesses and the way these enormous monopolies seem to brainwash the populace. The term “sheeple” comes to mind. The protagonist often ruminates on the commercialized, industrialized landscape that is slowly replacing the one he used to know. He ends the novel on a positive note by supporting one of the small businesses he loved when he was younger, a jazz bar. It seems because of these elements that Murakami’s main message with the book is really a critique on commercialism. One of the things I didn’t really understand about this novel was the presence and subsequent disappearance of the girl with the special ears. S...
Read more

My Guesses for the Future

50 years of technology 10 years down the road: Right now, there's some semi-cutting edge technology coming out allowing us to create an edited video to make it look like somebody is saying something they're not really saying. It's a lipsync technology that will likely be touted as perfect for dubbing movies in other languages. There's also a technology coming out which allows you to sample a person's voice and create totally new dialogue that mimics that voice. Combined, these two technologies will be able to effectively create a video clip of somebody saying something that they never said. I think it's very important that we don't advance on this combination of technology, but I know if we try to suppress it, it's only going to start coming out in the worst sorts of ways. It has the potential to be used to create fake videos of politicians making statements they never actually made. It can be used to blackmail just about anybody, in fact. I'd sa...
Read more