[Severian]

So I just bought a Kindle copy of The City & the City by China Mieville.
My first foray into this guy's apparently brilliant and twisted universe. Hoping for something mind blowing here.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

So I just bought a Kindle copy of The City & the City by China Mieville.
My first foray into this guy's apparently brilliant and twisted universe. Hoping for something mind blowing here.

So have you ever read Borges or did school ruin that for you too?

[Count Mecha]

Originally Posted by Severian

So I just bought a Kindle copy of The City & the City by China Mieville.
My first foray into this guy's apparently brilliant and twisted universe. Hoping for something mind blowing here.

I read his novel Perdido Street Station recently. Definitely an interesting read, but not outright mindblowing. The plot is really great for a while until it takes a turn that seriously hamstrings it. There's a pretty interesting bit towards the middle where the lead (a scientist) explains to another character a triangular relationship between the physical, the social, and the occult in relation to crisis energy, the novel's odd manifestation of unified field theory. It was a novel really full of ideas, some better than others. I enjoyed it, enough to be interested in reading more of his stuff. Hope it's at least the same for you and that novel.

[Toilet & Bowels]

I read Kraken by China Meville, it was Ok, but it was too long, and not as clever or funny as it wanted to be. It was a bit like reading an overly cocksure Joss Whedon.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

So have you ever read Borges or did school ruin that for you too?

Only one hundred years of solitude, and no, he never came up in school.


Edit: what the fuck ? Was I making a joke here? This doesn't make any sense.

My answer is, rather, than when we read "One Hundred Years .." , which was ruined for by a shitty class, we talked about the technique being derivative of Borges.

So actually no, I have never read Borges. Sorry. I will get started soon of you give me a good place to start.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

Only one hundred years of solitude, and no, he never came up in school.


Edit: what the fuck ? Was I making a joke here? This doesn't make any sense.

My answer is, rather, than when we read "One Hundred Years .." , which was ruined for by a shitty class, we talked about the technique being derivative of Borges.

So actually no, I have never read Borges. Sorry. I will get started soon of you give me a good place to start.

oh hey i just got your PM yeah. i was trying to respond to this the other day, before you edited.

actually i find garcia marquez to be the polar opposite of borges-- not sure what your teacher lied to you about, but they couldn't be more different. garcia marquez borrowed more from faulkner and kafka and rabelais (not really rabelais but there are parallels) and even hemingway (hemingway the journalist)-- he couldn't be borges and he knew it and never tried. moreover, garcia marquez, as a journalist, is very much involved in the personal drama of his characters-- borges on the other hand didn't believe in the individual and didn't give a shit about it-- the older he gets the more his characters become a sort of faceless cypher. and yeah he really didn't believe in the individual in a very metaphysical way.

although this has to be said, melquiades (the gypsy of "100 years," as you'l recall) is a character that was inspired by borges-- just like the blind librarian in umberto eco's name of the rose. that fucking borges! all knowledgeable writers worship at his shrine.

anyway, read the fucker. he wrote little short stories. all amazing. philosophical, and will blow your mind. ah, the pleasure...