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.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
China Miéville in the Wall Street Journal
From the Wall Street Journal:
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6 comments:
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.
Back 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."
Terrific quote - glad I have never moved on to the serious stuff. It gets in the way of the important things in life...
I love the quote!
And my copy arrives the day after tomorrow - Thursday!
It 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.
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