Miévillians discussion

Thread for discussion of Railsea

Terrific YA for the smart kid.

thanks for the headsup, Trav and Aloha - I've just TBRed this (being a smart kid :P).

It was wonderful. God the man is a genius. My favourite part was the nod to Robinson Crusoe near the end.
And for people who complained about the ending, well yah boo sucks to you. It was perfect. A journey never ends really does it?

PS And the man is hot.

Andrea wrote: "PS And the man is hot."

You said that already :P

I can't say it enough.

Andrea wrote: "I can't say it enough."

Countdown until every Mieville thread has:

PS And the man is hot.

Scribble wrote: "Andrea wrote: "I can't say it enough."

Countdown until every Mieville thread has:

PS And the man is hot."

working on it.

I like that he doesn't do 'pat' endings. :)

I think I can tackle Miiéville pretty easily now. Where I can squeeze him in between reading difficult encyclopedic and postmodern novels, completing Proust, Danielewski, Hofstadter and Faulkner, I don't know. But I must! I'll grow another head.

Besides, the man is the best looking of the lot, except for Mark Danielewski.

Traveller wrote: "I like that he doesn't do 'pat' endings. :)"

No, not what you call touchy feely.

Aloha, I'm sure Mieville would approve of you growing another head. And being included with all those other difficult torturestomes.

His hotness will inspire me. It's amazing what hormones can do for you.

Aloha wrote: "His hotness will inspire me. It's amazing what hormones can do for you."

*sigh*

*sigh*

...and the man has a brain too! :D

How can a man be so sexy pouring water? He can be sexy pouring water while pondering about the metaphorical symbolism of its molecular structure.

Which leads me to wonder, is "metaphorical symbolism" redundant?

Time to gawk at his hotness...

Traveller, you interrupted my inputting of Feynman's books. I realized that I did not input the books I have of his. Stop waving a sexy, brainy guy in front of me. I was settling for paunchy and nerdy brainy guys.

Eye candy.

Scribble wrote: "Eye candy."

And brain candy. And ear candy.

He's the whole candy dish.

Richard wrote: "Scribble wrote: "Eye candy."

And brain candy. And ear candy.

He's the whole candy dish."

I'm stealing this for later use.

see message #5

Now back to Railsea - I was wondering if you all think he was trying to be humorous?
I don't know how to phrase it, but I personally found the concept of hunting for the Great White Mole really hilarious.
The whole thing IMHO was so very clever, I'm just asking if the tongue-in-cheek mood I detected was deliberate or just in my mind? Was it a side-effect of writing for YA maybe?
I'm just not literarily educated enough to know.
Your thoughts?

PS Do you think he grinned when he wrote the Robinson Crusoe bit?

Look at how he's pouring that water.....

Ahem! Yes, it looks like it's a play on the Melville classic. BTW, when I first heard of Miéville, I kept on mixing his name up with Melville. Oh, he drew the pictures in the Railsea book, too. That's when I fell in love with him. I have a weakness for guys who can draw.

I feel an overwhelming need to enroll in the English program at the university where he teaches. And it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the picture above, I swear!

He teaches? I better find out where. It's not stalking. I swear it!

*sigh* He's the brainy gal's (and guy's) dream boat.

According to Wikipedia, "He teaches creative writing at Warwick University."

Nataliya wrote: "I feel an overwhelming need to enroll in the English program at the university where he teaches. And it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the picture above, I swear!"

uh huh

o.O

Dan wrote: "Richard wrote: "Scribble wrote: "Eye candy."

And brain candy. And ear candy.

He's the whole candy dish."

I'm stealing this for later use."

As long as you use it in a noirish vein, I'm fine with it.

Richard wrote: "As long as you use it in a noirish vein, I'm fine with it. "

I can't noir 24-7. Sometimes I like to Wodehouse it up.

Time to get an airplane ticket to the U.K. I used to date a guy name Warwick. It's kismet!

Aloha wrote: "*sigh* He's the brainy gal's (and guy's) dream boat."

*sigh*



*sigh*

*sigh* I think we need to have a picture gallery, instead of lusting after him in a YA section.

Dan wrote: "Richard wrote: "As long as you use it in a noirish vein, I'm fine with it. "

I can't noir 24-7. Sometimes I like to Wodehouse it up."

Heh. The candy dish can be the silver cow-creamer of your book!

Ok, back to the YA novel then.

I wonder how many people who have read this one have not read 'Moby Dick'. I wonder whether it matters at all as far as enjoying this one is concerned.

I don't think it is necessary to read Moby Dick before reading Railsea. Railsea is a YA. I doubt he intended that you should read Moby Dick before reading this. Most kids would not have.

For those hankerin' after pictures, look in the group pictures folder. I even found one of the famous butt-grabbing incident.

But Miéville at this point must know that his main audience will not be YA, it will be adults who are willing to read anything he writes for whatever audience he writes.

I read Moby Dick as a pre-teen; in all likelihood I should do a reread.

Nataliya wrote: "Ok, back to the YA novel then.

I wonder how many people who have read this one have not read 'Moby Dick'. I wonder whether it matters at all as far as enjoying this one is concerned."

I'd say most who read Railsea haven't read Moby-Dick. Esp. in the intended YA seg.

I suspect it's not necessary to have done so to really get the most out of the book. He's not that kind of eat-your-spinach writer!

When I read Railsea, it was pretty much Miéville adventure/ecology strange creature story. There's no need to read Moby Dick to understand the book.

But... but the Captain Ahab parallels! On the second thought, Miéville does do a splendid job explaining the quest for the sake of the quest/chasing the dream bits, I guess.

Aloha wrote: "When I read Railsea, it was pretty much Miéville adventure/ecology strange creature story. There's no need to read Moby Dick to understand the book."

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

This is my review - it was very much Romanticism genre I thought, kinda twisted in a weird way.
But hey, what do I really know about literature, with my scientific background. I'm just winging it here.

Nice use of ampersand, Andrea :)

"Twisted in a weird way" pretty much sums up Miéville's writing, doesn't it?

Nataliya wrote: "Nice use of ampersand, Andrea :)

"Twisted in a weird way" pretty much sums up Miéville's writing, doesn't it?"

thank you very muchly sweetie