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Yes, as meriko notes, I went to see China Miéville read at Stacey's about two weeks ago. I meant to write it up that week, really I did.
I'd never been to the SF Stacey's before. It seems to have many many floors. I BARTed over a little bit early, sat and scribbled in a notebook while waiting for things to get started.
Mister Miéville looks pretty much like he does on the jacket of Perdido Street Station — shaved, pierced, young, hip — but substantially less cranky. He stood next to the podium, looking a little uncomfortable, as the Stacey's M.C. introduced him, reciting a litany of awards and such.
He was reading from his new book, The Scar, which I've not yet read. His stuff tends to be sort of grim, gritty, horrific fantasy — more surreal and lyrical than, say, Clive Barker or Stephen King, more tendency to linger on the gore than Neil Gaiman, more imagination than most swords-n-sorcery authors. He gave us fair warning: "I'm reading by far the grossest part of the book, so if you like this, the rest should be easy going." Actually, he read two bits, one of which was lush descriptive scene-setting, and the other of which was, yes, pretty gross.
I haven't been to that many author readings in stores. Unlike the Neil Gaiman events, where everyone in the building has paid good money, and is there for the express purpose of listening to the reader, at a store reading there are people in the next aisle over, clunking around, talking to one another, etc., and in this particular venue, there was Market Street financial district lunchtime traffic outside the window to boot, so it wasn't easy to get into listening to the reading. Also, the combination of Miéville's rich, lyrical prose style and his somewhat lilting reading style added up to a sort of hypnotic effect; I found myself enjoying the texture of the noises washing over me without paying close attention to the meaning of the words. In contrast, at Gaiman's readings, the semantics have stayed at the forefront, and for the most part his prose stays relatively simple despite the fact that both writers have access to an impressive vocabulary. No criticism of Miéville is intended by this — in a similar venue and given an opportunity to read entire stories (or novellas!) I'm sure he would be just as captivating.
After the reading proper, Miéville did a little Q&A. He talked a little bit about his issues with Tolkien and about his incorporation of his political views into his writing (he tries not to let his politics get in the way of the writing, and I think he succeeds in that). When asked about how he develops his characters, he digressed a little: "I start with atmosphere... the next stage is creating monsters, which is why I got into this business; [audience laughs] no, really!"
Someone said "tell us about your name." He replied: "My parents were hippies. [laughter] That's all." It's his real name. He went on to explain that it was also an instance of Cockney rhyming slang: "china plate" → "mate" [i.e. friend], thus one might say "hello, me old China" to greet a longtime friend.
I didn't really take very good notes on the rest of the Q&A. He talked a little bit about author influences (Philip K. Dick, Mervyn Peake, among others less familiar who I didn't write down because I have trouble hearing unfamiliar spoken names) and about music (he writes with music playing, so sometimes he has a soundtrack in mind for a chapter; obviously most of King Rat calls for drum'n'bass) and about filmmakers (he mentioned Czech animator Jan Švankmajer, who I'd never heard of).
Posted by russell at August 07, 2002 02:03 PM