When skeptics ask him, "How did you get into sci-fi and fantasy?" he has a response. "My answer is: How did you get out of it?" says Mr. Miéville. "Because if you look at a roomful of kids, huge numbers of them will love aliens and monsters and witches...and at a certain point, some of them will start to leave that behind and go on to what they think of -- wrongly -- as more serious stuff."Amen.
The Geomancer
5/20/09
China Miéville in the Wall Street Journal
From the Wall Street Journal:
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Here's a second "amen" from the congregation. It's funny: as I embark upon my steampunk/fantasy book, I find myself manacled by the chains I wear when I write crime fiction: Keep It Real. It's not easy breaking those chains mentally and letting myself go. It's almost like I'm a bit scared to just let loose. Don't know what I'm afraid of.
ReplyDeleteBack to Mieville, I find it interesting that, in the original WSJ piece, that quote is the last thing written. It's as if the author didn't/couldn't answer the question and decided to pose the question to the readers.
The journalist shows their limits here: "'The City' may be 'weird fiction,' but it is rooted in the real world. ...There are no elves or UFOs."
ReplyDeleteTerrific quote - glad I have never moved on to the serious stuff. It gets in the way of the important things in life...
ReplyDeleteI love the quote!
ReplyDeleteAnd my copy arrives the day after tomorrow - Thursday!
ReplyDeleteIt will make a nice break from Asimov's Foundation Series, which I am enjoying immensely.
Quite a range. He sent me an arc of it a few months ago, but I am so snowed under with manuscripts I can't get to it yet. It taunts me.
ReplyDelete