This was a rare occasion when I bought
a book that I didn't know much about. I had read three books by China
Mieville. I read King Rat some years ago and remember it
vaguely as disgusting. I absolutely loved The City and the City,
that Julia had recommended (if I had been aware that it was by the
author of King Rat I probably wouldn't have wanted to read
it). I started Kraken and gave up after a hundred
pages. But someone who has written The City and the City is
worth attention, and there are also people whose opinion I value who
rank Mieville high. I was browsing amazon to fill up my tablet for
travel, and there was one of those silly recommendations: “If you
liked X, you may also like Y”. Or perhaps just: “Most popular
now”. I didn't read the synopsis.
I am
not an avid SF reader so I may be quite wrong about my sense of
novelty, but in the first place I don't care whether it is SF or
anything else. No spoilers, but this novel is about the use of
language. Not about the characters' use of language or even the
society's use of language, but about the writer's use of language.
You read the first ten pages, and you don't understand anything
because all words are strange. You can clearly see that they are
nouns, verbs and adjectives, but the meaning is hidden – so far.
Then gradually all these empty signifiers are provided with
referents, that are also strange and unfamiliar, but it works. And
this is such a brilliant example of the interdependence of form and
content: the novel is about
language, but it also uses language in a way it propagates for.It is also an example of what you can do with language in fiction - possible worlds and all that. Playing with words. It reminded me of a maths colleague explaining high-order dimensions: don't try to visualise it, just think. I hope nobody comes with the bizarre idea of making a movie out of it. I am sure somebody will.
I
wonder whether the author has been reading the same books as I the
past couple of years. The novel oozes of
cognitive poetics.
No comments:
Post a Comment