Mieville Thread!

[Steerpike]

Also, steerpike, you have read more of Mieville's academic writings, so I was wondering as to your input on this. Wikipedia suggested he said this: "Law is structurally indeterminate as applied to particular cases, and so the interpretation which becomes official is always a matter of force; the stronger of the contesting parties in each legal dispute will ultimately obtain the sanction of law. Therefore, he states: "The attempt to replace war and inequality with law is not merely utopian but is precisely self-defeating. A world structured around international law cannot but be one of imperialist violence. The chaotic and bloody world around us is the rule of law." My question is, what then does he suggest to replace law with or to restructure the conflict?

Is he just a deconstructionist in his arguments or does he propose solutions?

I'd agree with his posits about what law is and how it is created and its effect, as his posits are presented in the above statement (e.g. law largely being the arbitrary creation of dominant interests), but I fail to see his conclusions as naturally emanating from those statements. E.g. his statements about law as being non-utopian and self-defeating. I suppose he may be saying it's self-defeating in that it does not inherently advance equality even though people think it is inherently neutral and equal., but I don't have enough information to go on based on the wikipedia statement.

I actually haven't read Mieville's work on international law, I'm rather embarrassed to admit (Between Equal Rights is on my to-read list - I'm not writing on Mieville for my dissertation, sad to say, so I haven't gotten to it yet).

I might hazard a guess that if Mieville was to offer an alternative it might be to work towards the dissolution of nations altogether - a very Marxist idea - while also working against the root causes of war itself.  The answer isn't to try and "patch" imperialist politics and warfare with international law, it's to get rid of the imperialist politics.  Easier said than done, of course.  That would be my guess, though.

[LD]

Ok. Thanks! I didn't know that you hadn't been able to get to it yet

[LD]

Odd... http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/11/the-perdido-street-project
Tor.Com published a fan story in the land of Mieville.

[LD]

Possibly relevant for a bump given the sidebar conversations.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Love me some Mieville. More accurately, I love his Bas-Lag stories (largely because I love his setting).

[Weave]

Bas-Lag is excellent, but I have a particular soft spot for the City & the City and Railsea. My most recent read by him was Embassytown, which didn't really resonate with me like his other books did.

Looks like he recently put out a new(?) book called Three Moments of an Explosion. Might have to check that out.

[Steerpike]

I haven't read it yet but it's a short story collection. Looking for Jake was pretty good, and I read everything he writes as a matter of course so I'll definitely pick it up at some point.

Though I love virtually everything he's written my current order of favourite novels probably goes:

The Scar
Perdido Street Station
Embayssytown
Un Lun Dun
Iron Council
Kraken
The City & the City
Railsea
King Rat

[LD]

Good Idea. I will give that a try as well:

Perdido Street Station
The Scar
Un Lun Dun
Kraken
The City & the City
Iron Council
Embassytown


I find it difficult to decide between Perdido and the Scar... I probably need to re-read both to definitively decide. I have been meaning to re-read The Scar. It has very good sections, but it also sprawls a bit.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Ditto regarding Station and Scar. Personally, I find it hard to directly compare the two, since the latter is tied to the former (i.e., many of the cool, novel, and enjoyable setting elements of the former are built upon by, or at least continued in, the latter). I read the first half of the Scar first, and greatly enjoyed it. Then, I re-read the first half and the second half after reading Station. The re-read was significantly more enjoyable.

[Weave]

Hmm, looks like you guys put Un Lun Dun up there pretty high. I haven't gotten around to reading it - now I'll definitely have to check it out.

Also The Scar is my favorite of his, definitely. Freaking love that book.