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'Tis the Season

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Call me childish, but I love all the nonsense – the snow, the trees, the tinsel, the turkey. I love presents. I love carols and cheesy songs. I just love Christmas™.'It would be a dream come true to be able to celebrate Christmas properly: to wake up to a Stocking™, visit Santa™ and open Presents™ around the Christmas Tree™. But this is a luxury reserved for those with shares in YuleCo – controllers of this joyful season – who don’t agree that it’s a holiday for one and all.In this short story, China Miéville’s astonishing imagination allows us a glimpse of how a dystopian Christmas might be.

16 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2010

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About the author

China Miéville

164 books15.6k followers
A British "fantastic fiction" writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" (after early 20th century pulp and horror writers such as H. P. Lovecraft), and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from commercial, genre clichés of Tolkien epigons. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party. He has stood for the House of Commons for the Socialist Alliance, and published a book on Marxism and international law.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

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237 (36%)
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42 (6%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
Profile Image for Nataliya.
988 reviews16.2k followers
April 27, 2023
“Slogans bobbed overhead like flotsam. FOR PEACE, SOCIALISM AND CHRISTMAS; HANDS OFF OUR HOLIDAY SEASON!; PRIVATISE THIS. One placard was everywhere. It was very simple and sparse: the letters TM in a red circle, with a line through them.”
Well, so I'm that curmudgeon that tends to see the commercialism in the major holidays instead of just enjoying them. I just get too cynical around holidays. When Grinch's heart grows three sizes, I'm there with Sheldon Cooper of 'The Big Bang Theory' worrying about the dangers of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Seeing Christmas decorations in the stores in the middle of autumn still makes me want to rant. I mean - come ON!

So yeah, and I just find out that China 'His Majesty' Mieville has a short story about commercialized Christmas? It's my non-commercialized Christmas gift, here on his website: http://chinamieville.net/post/1549054...
"We were surrounded by radical Christmasarians."
Dark satire on the overcommercialized holiday (Christmas™) in the best socialist traditions, complete with the protest march featuring people from all walks of life? (" 'Blessed be,' yelled a radical pagan in my ear, and gave me a leaflet demanding that once we had won back the season we rename it Solsticemas.") In the world where even the crown jewel of all disgustingness (ahem, eggnog - barf!) cannot be used without paying a fee to the company that owes the rights to it?
"I wouldn’t have been able to use much of the traditional stuff, and if you can’t have all of it, why have any? (XmasTym had the rights to Egg Nog. But Egg Nog’s disgusting.) Those other firms keep trying to create their own alternatives to proprietary classics like reindeer and snowmen, but they never take off. I’ll never forget Annie’s underwhelmed response to the JingleMas Holiday Gecko."
Again, this proves that I will read anything His Chinaness decides to write. Even if it means supporting Christmas.

Of course, I can chose to look it it as simply not supporting privatising and commercialism. Yeah, that makes it more bearable. And appropriate to read in April. Or in Christmas(TM)-appropriate December.
"Right in front of them was a group of badly dressed people selling copies of a left wing newspaper and carrying placards with a photograph of Marx. They'd superimposed a Santa hat on him. 'I'm dreaming of a red Christmas,' they sang, badly."

————

Read it free and legally here, courtesy of CM himself: http://chinamieville.net/post/1549054...

——————
Also posted on my blog.
Profile Image for Cecily.
1,330 reviews5,400 followers
December 26, 2020
Ivy decorations you can still get away with; holly’s a no-no but I’d hoarded a load of cherry tomatoes, which I was planning to perch on cactuses.

As a famously Marxist atheist, China Mieville is not an obvious candidate to write a Christmas™ story. However, he has said he wants to write in every genre, so here this is. It’s a short story first published in Socialist Review in 2004.


Image: Merry Christmas™

It imagines the tragi-comic consequences of ultra-capitalist Christmas™. A divorced father wants to give his daughter a special festive celebration, but the whole thing is copyrighted, trademarked, licensed, and breaches incur astronomical fines.

It felt so forlorn, putting my newspaper-wrapped presents next to the aspidistra, but ever since YuleCo bought the rights to coloured paper and under-tree storage, the inspectors had clamped down on Aggravated Subarborial Giftery.

They encounter “radical Christmasarians” fighting for a peoples’ Christmas, and there are plenty of mentions of all the things we associate with the festival (religious and secular) that lend echoes of more traditional Christmas™ stories, making this something of a palimpsest 😉.

Ironically, one message you can take from it is that names and branding are part of what gives things meaning.

But it’s primarily a bit of fun. A refreshing change from a typical Christmas™ story.

Read more

You can read the short story, free, on Mieville’s page, HERE.

A novel with slightly similar ideas, but far cleverer and funnier, is Marc-Uwe Kling’s Qualityland, which I reviewed HERE.

Festive felicitations

I ran out of characters to say that in my review of 2020 on GR, so this is an excuse to send best wishes to my GR friends, and for good health in 2021.

I was given bookish socks, and some of the proceeds go to literacy charities! Here they are:
Profile Image for mark monday.
1,887 reviews6,350 followers
December 9, 2017
____mas in the future is a corporate affair. Don't use the wrong trademarked words or you may get a merry truncheon to the head! Although I agree with the story's critique on the corporatization of holidays, and of course endorse its anti-authoritarian stance, it was all much too obvious and on-the-nose for me. And also quite tiring. Alas.

Read this short story for free! Right here:

http://socialistreview.org.uk/291/tis...

 photo noescape1_zpsae5kbn1r.jpg

I did rather like the idea of cherry tomatoes on a cactus, for that non-trademarked Christmas tree type feel. May have to give that one a try.
Profile Image for Gerhard.
1,320 reviews896 followers
December 24, 2020
Thanks to Nataliya for bringing this delightful little gem to my attention. And to all those who thought that China Miéville did not have a sense of humour. This short story (it is not a novella by any stretch of the imagination) is wickedly funny and on the nose, skewering both a capitalist and socialist over-compensation to the Festive Season. Published originally in the 2005 collection ‘Looking for Jake’, it is the perfect antidote if you are harbouring any secret Scrooge-like feelings towards Christmas™.
Profile Image for karen.
4,012 reviews172k followers
December 22, 2018
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

boilerplate mission statement intro:

for the past two years, i’ve set december’s project aside to do my own version of a short story advent calendar. it’s not a true advent calendar since i choose all the stories myself, but what it lacks in the ‘element of surprise’ department it more than makes up for in hassle, as i try to cram even MORE reading into a life already overcrammed with impossible personal goals (live up to your potential! find meaningful work! learn to knit!) merry merry wheee!

since i am already well behind in my *regular* reviewing, when it comes to these stories, whatever i poop out as far as reflections or impressions are going to be superficial and perfunctory at best. please do not weep for the great big hole my absented, much-vaunted critical insights are gonna leave in these daily review-spaces (and your hearts); i’ll try to drop shiny insights elsewhere in other reviews, and here, i will at least drop links to where you can read the stories yourselves for free, which - let’s be honest - is gonna serve you better anyway.

HAPPY READING, BOOKNERDS!


links to all stories read in previous years' calendars can be found at the end of these reviews, in case you are a person who likes to read stories for free:

2016: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2017: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

scroll down for links to this year’s stories which i will update as we go, and if you have any suggestions, send 'em my way! the only rules are: it must be available free online (links greatly appreciated), and it must be here on gr as its own thing so i can review it. thank you in advance!

DECEMBER 22



No, like most people, I was going to have a little MidWinter Event, just Annie and me. So long as I was careful to steer clear of licenced products we'd be fine.

Ivy decorations you can still get away with; holly's a no-no but I'd hoarded a load of cherry tomatoes, which I was planning to perch on cactuses. I wouldn't risk tinsel but had a couple of brightly-coloured belts I was going to drape over my aspidistra. You know the sort of thing. The inspectors aren't too bad: they'll sometimes turn a blind eye to a bauble or two (which is just as well, because the fines for unlicensed Christmas™ celebrations are astronomical).


this is a not-very-subtle satirical story about the commodification of christmas and the perils of privatization. lack-of-subtlety has never been a dealbreaker for me, so i enjoyed it just fine; it got some giggles out of me:

It felt so forlorn, putting my newspaper-wrapped presents next to the aspidistra, but ever since YuleCo bought the rights to coloured paper and under-tree storage, the inspectors had clamped down on Aggravated Subarborial Giftery.

but it's also not likely to stick with me for very long. fans of miéville are extremely devoted and completist, so they will probably love it like the moon. i'm not not a fan, i just haven't made my move into those miéville waters yet. this story alone wouldn't convince me that i needed to read more, but everyone knows that you can't judge a thing by its christmas episode, so i'm reserving judgment. someday i will be part of that world, but for now, i have to plow through twenty more books before the end of the year, so i don't have time to spare. HIT ME WITH SOME BOARD BOOKS, STAT!

read it for yourself here:

http://socialistreview.org.uk/291/tis...

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come to my blog!
Profile Image for Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ .
973 reviews843 followers
May 31, 2025
I was looking for a more modern Christmas story and knew I had this one on one of my to-read lists.

I liked it! I don't read much dystopian fiction, so to me it was a fresh & funny take on the commercialisation of Christmas and a real contrast to the sweet, old fashioned values of Christmas Day in the Morning which I have also just read.

It also reminded me of some recent protests in my own country where sometimes I had trouble recognising 'my' Aotearoa.



https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
Profile Image for Gabriela Ventura.
294 reviews135 followers
December 20, 2018
Fica aí a dica de presente para o amigo oculto com a parentada reaça - caso você ainda tenha recebido o convite para a ceia de natal desse ano.
Profile Image for Hákon Gunnarsson.
Author 29 books162 followers
December 26, 2020
Now that was a first for me, I think. A Christmas dystopian short story. It's a comment on the over commercialisation of Christmas, and in some sense it works as such. And it is amusing, worth a chuckle or four, but it's not great. Still, I'm glad I read it, because I think it is an interesting, and unusual Christmas short story.
Profile Image for Ana.
148 reviews1 follower
December 24, 2018
Eu tô por fora do gênero New Weird Fiction. Acho que preciso me atentar mais, porque adorei a esquisitice do Miéville. Li em português, disponivel gratuitamente no Kindle e no original, disponivel no blog do autor.
O Natal®, a arvore de natal®, o papai noel®, musicas natalinas® e todo o resto viram marcas registradas e a festa é controlada por empresas/lojas licenciadas, cujo o unico intuito é o consumo (ja é assim, nao?).
Ai rola uma manifestaçao dos Christmasarians radicais e slogans esquisitos: FOR PEACE, SOCIALISM AND CHRISTMAS.
E as pessoas na manifestaçao? Feministas radicais vestidas de branco, usando cenouras no nariz como sNOwMEN (essa seria minha ala lol), Red&White Bloc, Muslims for Christmas, Gay Men's Radical Singing Caucus. Tô só imaginando a cena. Que piraçao! lol



Profile Image for Lucas Mota.
Author 8 books138 followers
December 14, 2020
Todos os símbolos culturais do natal foram patenteados e custam caríssimo para serem utilizados de forma legal. No meio disso, um pai divorciado tem a oportunidade de passar um natal "real" com a filha pela primeira vez. O "real" se refere a possibilidade financeira de adquirir os direitos de uso dos símbolos icônicos das festas natalinas. Durante uma caminhada pela cidade ele é surpreendido por uma manifestação de um grande grupo de pessoas em defesa do natal livre.
É um conto bem curto, mas a riqueza de temas e camadas é admirável. Um dos elementos mais óbvios é a crítica ao consumismo e da capitalização em cima de uma festividade religiosa. Mas o conto fala muito mais do que isso. Fala sobre a liberdade de abraçar uma tradição e sobre a importância de grupos diversos demostrarem apoio a causas diversas.
Um conto de natal é uma história que aposta na linguagem simples e no alívio cômico baseado no absurdo da situação.
Profile Image for Augusto Guibone.
Author 1 book46 followers
December 15, 2019
Eu estou EMBASBACADO em como essa história foi boa em tão poucas páginas??? Não tem o que falar muito por ser um conto pequeno, mas a ideia dele é GENIAL!
O autor conseguiu subverter a ideia do que se entendia como natal e criar uma distopia política com diversas camadas que eu fiquei bobo!

O natal sendo privatizado e tratado como algo proibido o criminoso?? Eu queria um ROMANCE sobre isso! Genial. Sério.
Profile Image for M.G. Mason.
Author 16 books95 followers
December 25, 2020
Social commentary on the commercialisation of Christmas does not come better than this! In fact, the political satire of commercialism, exploitation and even capitalism does not come better than this and it does it in a way that only a socialist with a dark sense of humour like Miéville can.

It starts out typically of our first-person narrator discussing his and others’ enjoyment of the festive season. Hell, it got me in the spirit! But it all comes crashing down just a couple of paragraphs in when he refers to not being able to hold a party because he couldn’t afford the EULA fee.

Yes, this is a world where big businesses own copyright on all the symbols and everything else associated with Christmas (you need a license to use tinsel and even to drink eggnog – but nobody does that because they don’t like it). Some businesses try to invent their own Christmas traditions but they never catch on.

In their support of these strange trademark and copyright laws, there are government inspectors making sure that people do not break the law by using unlicensed holly and tinsel or unlawfully store their presents under the aspidistra (because wrapping paper, christmas trees and the very act of putting presents beneath a tree are trademarked and licensed!)

Our protagonist has won a competition by YuleCo to attend an official Christmas party and gets to enjoy all of those things for which they own the copyright – much to their own delight and the jealousy of their friends. However on the way to the party on the 25th, they get caught up in a protest of Christmasarians – radicals whose sole purpose is to freely and openly break these trademark laws.

But the protest becomes a riot and all manner of protest groups get involved – Christians alongside feminists alongside reformed Marxists alongside radical pagans… all wanting a piece of Christmas in the way that they want. A parody, yes. Silly, yes. But with a serious message about not just commercialism but also those having an exclusive claim on the True Meaning of Christmas(TM) and trying to force others to mark it the way they want us to mark it.

Just hilarious! Read it as an alternative to the usual round of Christmas literature and you shan’t be disappointed. It’ll give you a laugh and if you’ve become bored or fed up with the enforced jollity, maybe it will put you in the right frame of mind to start enjoying it again.

See more book reviews at my blog
Profile Image for Jana Bianchi.
Author 76 books241 followers
December 28, 2018
China sendo China! Genial porque começa parecendo engraçado e absurdo, aí no meio do caminho você vê como é real e meio trágico... E termina engraçado de novo.
Profile Image for Arthur .
284 reviews72 followers
January 10, 2021
Um Natal privatizado, que ideia genial. Um conto curtinho sobre pai e filha querendo ter o melhor Natal de suas vidas... e tendo, no meio de uma manifestação cheia de camadas. Amei quando o conto parece ter uma intervenção fantásticas, de anjos (não seria incomum pro China, acho), mas era só o Partido Cantor Radical dos Homens Gays cantando maravilhosamente. Gostei das ilutras também.
Profile Image for Nuno Ferreira.
Author 19 books85 followers
December 26, 2015
A linguagem prática, a escrita fluída e a sátira agregada são as principais virtudes deste conto. Gosto da forma como China Miéville conta a história de um pai em estado de nervos num futuro não tão estranho quanto isso. O controle do consumismo e a privatização compulsiva são duas realidades que não se encontram assim tão longínquas dos dias de hoje, assim como um certo separatismo entre classes sociais, aqui evidenciado pelo dito controle implementado no acesso às festividades.

O uso do símbolo de marca registada seguido aos termos associados ao Natal tornou-se cómico no decorrer da leitura, embora numa história mais longa pudesse cansar. Fica aquela sensação quando se pensa: "sorrir ainda é de graça". Bem, comemorar festas tradicionais não é tão de graça como isso, mas não é preciso pagar imposto para lhes ter acesso, como acontece neste futuro pintado por Miéville. A reviravolta final foi engraçada mas provocou-me mais confusão do que choque ou surpresa, assim como o papel de Annie nesse desfecho. Ainda assim, foi um final bem explícito e não empobreceu o conto.

A história é alusiva ao Natal e deixou uma moral, e embora não me tenha despertado nenhum sentimento em especial, gostei bastante da escrita e fiquei com vontade de conhecer mais deste autor. Recomendo nesta época dada ao consumismo, um convite a valorizar o "pouco" que julgamos ter.

www.noticiasdezallar.wordpress.com
Profile Image for Carlos Río.
Author 10 books10 followers
December 29, 2014
Sin ser un gran cuento, "Noche de paz" es divertido y muy simpático. Lo mejor que tiene es el entorno que se crea Miéville, porque la historia en sí no está muy allá. Pero tiene mucha gracia ver cómo todo lo que damos por sentado de la Navidad es una marca registrada ("Navidad", "Acebo", o "Villancico" llevan al lado el ™), y si no pagas, no puedes utilizarlos, y la gente se tiene que conformar con sucedáneos.

http://www.elrincondecarlosdelrio.com...
Profile Image for Thiago Lee.
Author 21 books101 followers
May 23, 2021
O China é genial, e esse continho curto mostra as características mais bizarras de sua ficção (o que é ótimo!)
Profile Image for Lucas.
45 reviews
January 18, 2019
Adorei "Um conto de Natal" do Miéville. Foi meu primeiro contato com este autor de quem já ouvi grandes comentários e que é alguém que recebe grande investimento da maravilhosa Boitempo. Como muito raramente surfo a onda da literatura contemporânea, não sabia sequer o que esperar.

O fato é que o conto me surpreendeu! A premissa sci-fi é saborosa: um futuro em que as grandes corporações se apropriaram dos símbolos natalinos (e quem sabe o que mais), de forma que o cidadão comum precisa pagar para utilizar uma árvore de natal, uma imagem do Papai Noel ou uma doce melodia de fim de ano. A bem da verdade, é uma mera extrapolação do dado bem real de que cada vez mais na nossa sociedade é preciso pagar para ser feliz! E se não for preciso, as forças hegemônicas tratarão de investir para que no futuro próximo assim seja.

O texto de Miéville sugere uma denúncia contra o mecanismo social de transformar tudo em mercadoria, brincando com as fronteiras entre sentimentos íntimos e subjetivos versus o direito a propriedade imaterial. Para minha surpresa, os elementos mais absurdos do conto parecem de alguma forma os mais realistas também. A tentativa do Capital de comandar os sentimentos humanos me remete aos dizeres bastante reais na tela dos caixas de fast-food: "Sorria sempre". Ora... sinal de uma metáfora bem construída.

Adiciona a obra também o fato do narrador ser um pacato cidadão, um 'coxinha' na gíria atual, que se vê não intencionalmente participando de uma manifestação contra a apropriação dos signos natalinos. O que é maravilhoso, pois permite que Miéville retrate os manifestantes "revolucionários" como um conjunto de indivíduos ansiosos para retornar as velhas e simples tradições insanamente consumistas do natal de antigamente. Ou seja, a revolução se perdeu do horizonte. A distopia chegou. Os alicerces da opressão não são mais o alvo, mas apenas a luta constante para retornar ao degrau anterior de exploração! "Ah, que bom o tempo em que eu trabalhava construindo 100 bonecos por dia para na noite de natal comprar 1 boneco para meu filho! Lutemos por isso!"

Se a crítica ao capitalismo é a premissa inicial da história, então o deboche ou mais precisamente a crítica mordaz da esquerda atual - suas sandices, suas tacanhices, seus problemas de comunicação, organização etc etc etc, assim como seus aleatórios arroubos de genialidade - formam o recheio principal da história.

Talvez Miéville não receba mais pedradas pelo conto porque o personagem principal, o protagonista inadvertido, alienado e medíocre seja um conversador. Um "Arthur" do Guia dos Mochileiro das Galáxias. Um indivíduo que a esquerda, em geral, espezinha e acusa de ignorância e insensibilidade.

Mas convenhamos.... Leia o conto com calma e reflita: de todos os ângulos a ação repressiva é assustadora, mas é só nas lentes desse sujeito tacanho que as ações populares e revolucionárias parecem caóticas, confusas ou ridículas?

Ho-ho-ho e boa leitura!

O livro está disponível para download gratuito aqui: https://blogdaboitempo.com.br/2018/12... (less)
Profile Image for Nadine in NY Jones.
3,172 reviews279 followers
December 23, 2018
Story 23 in my 24 Days of Shorts

Call me childish, but I love all the nonsense - the snow, the trees, the tinsel, the turkey. I love presents. I love carols and cheesy songs. I just love Christmas™.


If the personal is political, then what is Christmas?

This had none of the subtlety and nuance that I've come to expect from Mieville.

read it for yourself here:
http://socialistreview.org.uk/291/tis...


My 24 Days of Shorts
1. Yiwu by Lavie Tidhar
2. The Night Cyclist by Stephen Graham Jones
3. AI and the Trolley Problem by Pat Cadigan
4. Sleeper by Jo Walton
5. She Commands Me and I Obey by Ann Leckie
6. Your Orisons May Be Recorded by Laurie Penny
7. This World is Full of Monsters by Jeff VanderMeer
8. The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal
9. Triquetra by Kirstyn McDermott
10. A Human Stain by Kelly Robson
11. Our King and His Court by Rich Larson
12. Errata by Jeff VanderMeer
13. Night's Slow Poison by Ann Leckie
14. A Kiss With Teeth by Max Gladstone
15. God Product by Alyssa Wong
16. Our Faces, Radiant Sisters, Our Faces Full of Light! by Kameron Hurley
17. The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo by Zen Cho
18. The Devil in America by Kai Ashante Wilson
19. Blue is a Darkness Weakened by Light by Sarah McCarry
20. The Too-Clever Fox by Leigh Bardugo - not available
20. The Future of Work: Compulsory by Martha Wells
21. Daughter of Necessity by Marie Brennan
22. Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss
23. 'Tis the Season by China Miéville
24. Julian: A Christmas Story by Robert Charles Wilson
Profile Image for Dario Andrade.
746 reviews24 followers
January 7, 2019
China Miéville, nesse breve Conto de Natal, usa de recurso algo comum na ficção científica: pegou um aspecto da realidade e o estica, o exagera, o leva às raias do absurdo e do paroxismo. Aqui, o Natal, ou melhor, tudo que gira em torno da festa, se tornou propriedade privada, pertencendo a alguma corporação que controla tudo, desde a árvore até as canções e tudo o mais que hoje estaria em domínio público. O resultado é uma sociedade um tanto quanto parecida com a nossa em alguns aspectos, justamente porque no final das contas parece que se pode aceitar tudo, todos os disparates com absoluta normalidade.
O final, porém, parece algo precipitado. Ele tenta um final engraçadinho, mas poderia ter investido em algo mais elaborado.
Profile Image for Gabriela.
139 reviews
July 21, 2024
4,7★ É um conto bem curtinho, que traz no começo um estranhamento absurdo com maneira que é colocada a privatização do Natal, mas que no final só te faz querer se levantar e se juntar aos manifestantes.
Profile Image for Milena.
132 reviews3 followers
December 26, 2018
A ideia do conto é boa, mas achei a narrativa um pouco apressada, curta demais.
Profile Image for Maggie K.
486 reviews132 followers
December 14, 2017
Christmas has been privatized, and our protagonist tries to salvage some family tradition out of the season, but his daughter has her own ideas.
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