China Mieville in Bangalore

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Mr. Mieville has been touring India as part of the British Council's Lit Sutra program, and he was in my town last night. He read to us from Kraken - which was an absolutely stunning experience. Amongst other things there's a worker's revolt in the afterlife. After that, there was a panel discussion with some apparently randomly-picked young Bangaloreans (although one of them asked very good questions) and then a question-and-answer session with the audience. I took the opportunity to ask him about the paradoxical way in which fantasy fans and writers sometimes seem to waver between craving the imaginative freedom of fantasy and somehow wanting to retreat from that, domesticate it. He spoke at some length on this topic, and pointed out that sometimes good things can come from this 'domesticating' urge, this tension between imagination and codification - citing things like the Call Of Cthulhu game which he used to be into, and which has brought a number of people into the Lovecraftian fold. He did say that he is deeply distrustful of epic fantasy, finding it pernicious on many levels. When asked about influences, Lovecraft was the first name to be mentioned, followed quickly by William Hope Hodgson, Arthur Machen and then the 70s New Worlds writers - Michael Moorcock, Brian Aldiss, JG Ballard and so forth. He also said that among his less obvious influences are the book Jane Eyre - he feels there is something of that book in everything he's written. At the end of the session he signed books for many of us. Afterwards, I was fortunate enough to head to the same restaurant he was taken to, so I shamelessly sat down at his table and carried on with the conversation. A very memorable evening for me, and I can't wait to read the new book when it comes out.

 

[j d worthington]

Sounds like a wonderful evening, J.P. I envy you. While I have had the good fortune to have such conversations with some of the writers I so admire, it certainly isn't frequent enough (though I suppose the majority of them being long dead might have something to do with that)... and it is always a stimulating experience; especially when you have someone as articulate and thoughtful as Mieville to deal with.

Congratulations!

 

[Nesacat]

Congratulations indeed ... Mieville is very articulate and thoughtful. He comes across as not only loving what he does but also as having put a great deal of thought into the whole process of being a story-teller. He's pleasure to talk to and I am looking forward to Kraken.

 

[Ursa major]

[envy]

Sounds as if you had a really great time, knivesout.

 

[GOLLUM]

Yep, as reiterated in my recent PM to you, China is very accommodating with the fans and a highly articulate person to listen to first-hand.

I had a similar literary evening with Neil Gaiman promoting his then new YA novel The Graveyard Book including a reading the year before last as I recall and it was fabulous! In fact I got my mug in the local rag no less. A scary but true story...

Thanks for sharing...