Miévillians discussion
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Perdido Street Station
Perdido Str Station Discussion
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PSS SECTION 1: Chapters 1- 3
Trav, thank you for establishing a debate that is so interesting.
Scribble and I were talking last night about what the word Perdido might mean. I was focussing on the images of the station because he must have chosen it as the title for a reason, then we thought - why the word Perdido? 1. I see in Spanish Perdido means lost. But CM is not a superficial sorta writer, with meanings immediately apparant.
2. It also hints of the word English Perdition which means a state of eternal punishments and damnation. Also utter destruction and ruin.
3. The original Latin root means destruction, ruin. My Latin is very rusty so I can't quite work out the verb form and it's not in my school Latin books (which I still have)...can someone help? I have a strong feeling its the first person here.
I really think the title is an important element. And my gut feeling is that the Latin root would be the underlying meaning. And the full interpretation might be in the verb form chosen.
And this is not because I've read the book before.
I promise.
aha!! I love teh Googlehttp://latindictionary.wikidot.com/ve...
The closest is the perfect tense:Perdidi: which means I have wasted/destroyed.
or
Perdidero which is the future perfect tense: I will have wasted/destroyed.
This is my story and I'm sticking to it.
Extremely interesting observations about perdido, Andrea! I had also looked up perdido, when i caught on how many allusions Mieville likes to make.I had been happy to stick with 'lost' though i never followed it up as persistently as you had, and your final conclusions make sense!
I'm thinking i should move that thread for spoiler-inclusive discussion to this folder, and then we can discuss all kinds of goodies where those who haven't yet finished the read won't be spoilerized.
Thread for spoilers coming up! I'm not saying this is a spoiler, but it made me think of the fact that many here might have read the book before, and might be itching to make spoiler-y comments that take the ending of the book into consideration.
Im really truly saying this non spoiler wise Trav. I have only used the words in the first three chapters to say what I have so far. Promise.
Andrea wrote: "Im really truly saying this non spoiler wise Trav. I have only used the words in the first three chapters to say what I have so far. Promise."Hehe, i know! I can see you've been veerry careful, but in any case, for general purposes I do think a spoiler-y thread is necessary for a read like this where we have many re-readers. Just hop out quickly and go see it. I moved it to right next door. And i quoted you in it. ;)
China Mieville is a very political man; and a very educated lefty socialist aware of recent 20th century world history.My reaction to the title is that it means "Lost Street Station" or "Forgotten Street Station" as in a place no one remembers or cares about.
During the 70's and 80's right-wing dictatorships of South America, Argentina and Chile particularly, the fascist governments arrested and/or "disappeared" tens of thousands of students, labor activists, dissidents, and other "communists". After it became obvious that these people were gone forever, the people in these countries began to call these "disappeared" people "Los Perdidos"---The Lost.
To socialists and others on the left (like myself) the Spanish word "perdido" has a chilling implication.
P.S. I don't remember this word being discussed in the book at all; so I don't think this is a spoiler. This is only my opinion/observation.
Mosca wrote: "China Mieville is a very political man; and a very educated lefty socialist aware of recent 20th century world history.My reaction to the title is that it means "Lost Street Station" or "Forgott..."
Very interesting perspective there- thanks Mosca! Yes, i think this angle is actually rather pertinent to the kind of government that Mieville depicts. We'll soon be getting to sections where we can have a good chat about the political milieu that Mieville presents to us in New Cruzobon.
For now, what do you think about the social aspects? The way that non-humans seem marginalised?
Also, i think it's rather hilarious that Mieville wangled it that such anatomically strange creatures can still actually copulate with humans.
I think it was Ian who noted in one of his updates, the significance of how Lin and Isaac have very different eyes physically speaking- Lin has insect vision (the multiple fragments); so they are lovers who literally see differently (and implies that they see the world differently in a metaphorical sense) ..and yet they are very fond of one another and attached to one another.
She the artist; - he the scientist.
A case of opposites attract?
Rf: PerdidoIn the sense of "destroy" as we recognise in English, the Latin (or italian) perdere takes on this meaning in a passive contruction only. I perdere/lose an object, but not perdere/destroy an object.
The tense isn't relevant (except in so far as looking for which word resembles 'perdido' closest) because the adjective form also takes the same construction and is what is being used in the title (derivatively from Latin in its Spanish incarnation).
So the active tense use is: I have lost (past perfect)
The adjectival is the lost/destroyed nuance: Lost/Destroyed Street Station.
The aspect of waste - either to waste away or to be wasted (but not in the sense of rubbish) is also present.
But.....if you accept that this is really New (alternative universe) London, it follows that Perdido Street Station is modelled (from the descriptions) around Liverpool Street Station, which has a history of disrespair and rebuilding.
Rf: opposites attractScientist vs artist
I think this might be the superficial interpretation but isn't the true one, since only if you accept that one precludes the other, that one is rational and one is intuitive, might you consider these opposites.
I think it is merely the means in which both arrive at their creative self-expression that is different.
WRT character: Isaac is the closet conventional. Lin calls him a monster, but he names them both perverts. He is also not heterodox in his science but sloppy in his approach, and shuns the role of disciplinarian (in the old sense of the word).Menace pervades the first chapter as much for the obvious as for the subtle...the closing line about clouds moving. Clouds move in many ways but not uneasily....however the use of the word here is a summary as much perhaps of their relationship as their precarious existence.
what a wonderful thing a group read is! I am seeing so many new meanings through everyone's eyes. Mocsa, your interpretation has added so much extra depth to my reading. Scribble, your insights are adding so much richness. Plus everyone else.
{cries with joy}
Chapter 2 Impressions:The etymology of the protagonists' names:-
If you accept that Mieville does nothing without a reason, consider that he has used an Asian spelling for his female protagonist of a girl's name meaning either forest or jade (organic or mineral - specifically silica). Jade is also symbolic with weapons (as a material used in the construction of heads) and beauty, therefore, I tend to think it is the latter that informs the choice of name, given Lin's physiological appearance.
Isaac means laughter in Hebrew....and that's a can of worms I'll leave to Andrea :)
Ok...inside Kinken proper. What's the point of making the males mindless? Imitating bees?
Lin cannot overcome her own social conditioning in her response to the male, but is sensitive to the discomfort of the bird acting as taxi.
Lin is making a journey of which Isaac will not approve. Given the infusion in the settings of danger, though not overt, it is to be expected that her destination is a potentially hazardous one. So that is the reason Isaac would not approve? In which case, their relationship reveals care for each other beyond satisfaction of a (perverted) itch.
The closing with the reference to Perdido Street Station as the junction of 5 railway lines...again, assuming a Victorian London, 5 railway lines terminated in London during the early years of this era.
What's interesting here is that we are reminded again of flight, before having our attention drawn (via a train in the opposite direction - thus taking us back and leaving Lin) to the station as the chapter closes.
Andrea wrote: "what a wonderful thing a group read is! I am seeing so many new meanings through everyone's eyes. Mocsa, your interpretation has added so much extra depth to my reading. Scribble, your insights are..."So long as it's with joy and not boredom :D
Chapter 3 Impressions:As to be expected, the chapter opens with Isaac on a train.
Mention in chapters 1 and 2 of remaking as punishment, first as a melding of man and machine, but here in the tavern Isaac notes an animal face affixed to a human. This is a bit dodgy for me...punishment on the one hand however anthropomorphism is referenced in Chapter 1. Punishments are fitted according to the crime...but what I wonder the nature of crimes that would dictate affixing sentient anatomy to a human? I remain at this point unconvinced.
Is Mieville having a gentle (?) dig at Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica and Ragnar Frish' Econometrics: Quantitative formulation of the laws of economic theory or more simply referencing Newton's voluminous and unpublished works on alchemy? Or neither, since it suits to point at a 'treatise' on the subject while making the fairly crude observation that analysis = description (qualitatively true, quantitative defined by mathematics and latterly statistics)?
The chapter closes with a physical entity representing flight (after an experiment considering water - antithesis of air) who is also named predator.
Clearly, Mieville enjoys juxtaposition.
"Perdido Street Blues" Perdido Street is a street in New Orleans.
Louis Armstrong wrote and performed a song called "Perdido Street Blues".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqBgap...
Lyrics:
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/vie...
To the extent that the novel is a romance, Perdido might be used in the sense of losing your heart, and then breaking your heart (or having it broken for you).
Traveller wrote: "She the artist - he the scientist.A case of opposites attract?"
I'm conscious that I've only read a quarter of the book, but I would speculate that the mutual attraction is partly about complementarity, the fact that the two add up to a sum greater than the parts.
See the scientific usage of the word:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compleme...
Thanks for your interesting background on the Italian, Scribble, and fro your perspectives on it Ian, Mosca, and Andrea as well.The slightly differing but mutually enriching perspectives of all of you enriches my own experience of the novel and the way that Mieville might be playing with meaning.
He definitely does the latter- he is a very allusive writer, and that is a large part of the fun--is discovering little Easter eggs planted around the text of the novel for us to unearth and discover- and I have by far not seen the half of it, so i'm very grateful for the enriching group discussion.
It's like I'm being given complex insect vision through all of you- i see a piece of the same scenario through multiple bits of eye, heh.
Now I'm wondering whether Mieville looked at it from an Italian or a Spanish perspective, but in either case, the word "lost" is quite apt as may become more apparent later on.
I also love how people see personal meanings in texts like this that fits in with their own paradigms of life.
Scribble wrote: "WRT character: Isaac is the closet conventional. Lin calls him a monster, but he names them both perverts. He is also not heterodox in his science but sloppy in his approach, and shuns the role o..."In many ways, paradoxically, i don't see Lin and Isaac as that much different, even though he is the scientist and she is the artist.
Keep in mind this is a postmodern novel, and therefore we can expect some subversion of traditional roles. This will become more apparent later on in the novel, where we find out Isaac is more of a rogue scientist than one that conforms to rules- (In some respects a bit like Eisntein?) though, to my mind, Isaac is not very ethical as we see him at the start of novel. Or is he? We can re-examine this question in later sections.
Regarding Lin calling Isaac "my monster", i thought that Mieville was being playful here. Humans would tend to think of Keprhi as "monsters", but Mieville subverts it. Lin also mentions she doesn't regard Keprhi as being bugs with human bodies, but : Humans have Khepri bodies, legs, hands; and the heads of shaved gibbons, she had once told him.
However, since Mieville tends to be dense, allusive and playful, i think it might also hint at Isaac being a 'monster' in the deprecatory sense we often use it for humans.
To me, Isaac has some good points. I do think he might really care for Lin, but maybe his "monstrous" pride and hubris is still a bit too strong at this stage for him to be entirely likeable.
Scribble wrote: "If you accept that Mieville does nothing without a reason, consider that he has used an Asian spelling for his female protagonist of a girl's name meaning either forest or jade (organic or mineral - specifically silica)."Wonderful catch there, Scribble! I had missed out on researching Lin's name, so that is a wonderful piece of research and observation that you did there.
To me Lin evokes both a bit of an Oriental as well as a native American flavor- and I found the anthropology, sociology, biology and procreative mechanisms of the Kephri very interesting indeed.
He's built up a pretty imaginative 'take' on the Egyptian Kephri- totally different from the original Egyptian Scarab god-figure.
Despite being speechless, Lin communicates quite well with signing, other hand gestures and foot stomping. Scientists are seldom praised for their communication skills, so perhaps this characteristic of Lin's is part of her allure for Issac.
Traveller wrote: "Thanks for your interesting background on the Italian, Scribble."Actually, as I said to Andrea the other night when she asked me about why "perdido", it isn't the Italian that's relevant, it's the Latin, and I think it's a bit of a wild goose chase fossicking after fools' gold to look for implicit meaning in the conjugation.
Let me clarify further:
In Latin, who and in what time tense is intended is supplied by the entire word. As the first derivative of Latin, Italian uses the (what was then) vulgar construction of avere to have, as we do in English (and note that the infinitive in English requires a further disintegration using 'to' to indicate its use), to conjugate (who is speaking and when).
(Aside: it's the same with Arabic - high Arabic is constructed like Latin, and Egyptian Arabic is actually even more basic in construction than Italian).
Why this is relevant is to answer your musing:
Traveller wrote: "Now I'm wondering whether Mieville looked at it from an Italian or a Spanish perspective, but in either case, the word "lost" is quite apt as may become more apparent later on."
because perdido is a Spanish construction (being one step further removed from the Latin) and is more commonly known, as pointed out by Mosca's reaction - and here is where I think Mieville's cultural influence, as well as an understanding of his readership is a factor, because while Brits have a love affair with Italy, they are far more attached to Spain, and perdido as a construction would be more familiar than the equivalent in Italian perso in the informal, or perduto in the more formal. So it was a deliberate choice to use a word with the chance of being more familiar to his audience. I wouldn't be surprised if Mieville has visited a city with a Perdido Street in it.
It's worthwhile noting, as I mentioned, "Perdido" as Mieville has used here is in the gerund form ie adjectival. To conjugate as a verb you need an additional word. Which is also why I think looking for the actual conjugation is irrelevant.
In any case, the stem perdere ie the Latin infinitive (which is still used in Italian) provides the meaning. It's the kind of thing that familiarity with romance languages renders overlooked - what I'm saying here is that I'd never even thought of looking at why Mieville chose "perdido" because it's an unconscious awareness of the meaning, even without the historical context that Mosca provides, so if Andrea hadn't asked about it, we wouldn't be having this discussion at all.
Which brings me to the names of Lin and Isaac.
Because I'm in Singapore, Lin is spelled Lin here, so I immediately think of the Asian spelling - ergo, it's not any particularly observational brilliance on my part. Because of my background in Japanese I knew about jade (but when I checked there is the forest meaning, but has a different pronunciation in the original, as opposed to adopted, Japanese language), so it was relatively straight forward to look at the uses of it (arrow and spear heads) which is how I see Lin (although she is composed solely of carbon and not with a silicon head).
All I know about Isaac is that it means laughter...but where I think Mieville might be going with this is that the original Isaac was the result of faith.
Traveller wrote: "Regarding Lin calling Isaac "my monster", i thought that Mieville was being playful here. Humans would tend to think of Keprhi as "monsters", but Mieville subverts it. Lin also mentions she doesn't regard Keprhi as being bugs with human bodies, but : Humans have Khepri bodies, legs, hands; and the heads of shaved gibbons, she had once told him."
I'd agree she was being affectionate, as was Isaac. I just think it's telling that she thought of him (in isolation), and he named them both perverts. Lin is intrinsically heterodox, Isaac is superficially so. This I see as a difference, but I'd also agree with that their individual pursuit of their raison d'etre is a common trait.
Traveller wrote: "It's like I'm being given complex insect vision through all of you- i see a piece of the same scenario through multiple bits."
Ah yes, we're a Kephri head. So who wants to play at being the body?
Chance wrote: "Despite being speechless, Lin communicates quite well with signing, other hand gestures and foot stomping. Scientists are seldom praised for their communication skills, so perhaps this characteristic of Lin's is part of her allure for Issac."
As far as Chapter 3, I don't have a sense of the basis for the relationship, thank you for making this point, Chance.
In reference to Ian's early question about colors I've noticed that the lighting in the scene expresses the emotional setting if the moment. The gaslights and sometimes candles can shine brightly with new hope or barely provide any light at all when all is lost. There is no electricity or vehichles running on gasoline. We have black sooty steam engines and gas lights which are sooty as well. But there are wild flowers growing through the pavement in unoccupied zones
Annie wrote: "In reference to Ian's early question about colors I've noticed that the lighting in the scene expresses the emotional setting if the moment. The gaslights and sometimes candles can shine brightly ..."Yes, the novel is in a sort of Steampunk setting, and the technology is still more or less Victorian.
This makes the Thaumaturgy and so forth rather fun. Nice observation about the colours => emotions. :)
Chance wrote: "Despite being speechless, Lin communicates quite well with signing, other hand gestures and foot stomping. Scientists are seldom praised for their communication skills, so perhaps this characterist..."
That is an interesting observation that i haven't thought of. Thanks!
Traveller wrote: "That is an interesting observation that i haven't thought of. Thanks! ..."Now that I've read beyond Chap 3, I think Issac is a regular chatterbox.
Lin I remember as smarter and hipper than Isaacwah! I want to be reading along with you!
Chance, I agree, and also, I think Isaac isn't socially a very sophisticated person, i didn't find...but please, continue to the next sections now, if you wish. The read is not officially open, and you can go and post into any of the following sections as soon as you have read the amount of chapters they cover. :)
Read with us Mags! You were the person who got me into starting this group, you know!
Traveller wrote: "Therefore i find him hypocritical and pandering to racists/racism."Racism or Speciesism?
Robert wrote: "Traveller wrote: "Therefore i find him hypocritical and pandering to racists/racism."Racism or Speciesism?"
Specieism of course! ;)
Nice to see you here, Robert!
Where did the section for Chapters 4-6 go? Is it only me or are they missing?
It seems I'm a late comer simply by being on time, but better First, let me say, Andrea, that I am very appreciative of your choice of pen-lifestyle. I too am a user of that underappreciated writing instrument known as the fountain pen. I only have the one (curse Bic for not marketing their disposalble fountain pens (!!) in North America!), but it's all I use, and it seems appropriate given the subject matter under discussion that I use something ornate, metallic and precision crafted to discuss constructs and analytical machines and (I guess?) pterabirds. So, onward.
This is my second reading of the book, and unfortunately this time around my mind seems to want to focus on all the things which bug me about it, which was rather annoying for me, particularly as I read the prologue. The prologue is the kind of thing I actually really hate in a prologue. Lots of information, but no context, no anchor from which your understanding can safely grow without getting lost in the next quick gust of expository information. It's not as bad as e.g. the prologue of Guy Gavriel Kay's The Summer Tree which I also read recently (the prologue, that is), but I found it a poor way to start off. Considering I didn't even remember its existence from my first reading and was confounded by the next such interlude my first time around, it's probably no surprise I feel that way.
That said, once you get most of the way through it and you get to the juicy bits, like Perdido Street Station itself, the train lines and the tantalizing cruelty of the sky, it at least sets the tone well.
Fortunately Chapter 1 is wonderful. I was surprised, though, by Lin's animated non-linguistic communication. She claps; she stamps her foot. I don't remember her doing this later on: was it a concept the author abandoned half-way, or is my memory just faulty? I found it a nice, attentive touch, and a striking mental image to conjure: a naked, voluptuous woman---albeit with a scarab for a head---stamping her foot in irritation while she cooks breakfast. You almost want to insert an affected pout, but of course her "face" would be incapable of this.
The neighbourhood of Salacus Field is also shown as lively and vital. It's dirty, as all of New Crobuzon seems to be (seriously, is any part of it not dirty and falling apart? Do the rich live in squalor which is simply more expensive and merely crumbling at a slower rate?), but cosmopolitan, liberal and welcoming. Whereas the rest of New Crobuzon seems to mostly be segregated ethnic or class-stratum neighbourhoods, Salacus Field is a neutral zone where people can just be themselves. When we went to Kinken for contrast I came to appreciate why Isaac and Lin would feel more comfortable there.
Miéville's work to differentiate the neighbourhoods of the city were, however, sabotaged in my eye by the intrinsic constant of dirt and decay----and his dogged determination to make absolutely sure you really understand it's super-duper-wowwy-zowwy-omg-lol-OTL dirty. He lays it on awfully thick, and eventually it ceased to have any impact whatsoever for me: (view spoiler)
Oh, well. A second reading seems to be beneficial, though, that's for sure. While I've been reminded of the pet peeves I've also been reminded of what I like about it: the chracters. Right away Isaac and Lin, both individually and as a couple, are complex, free spirits bound by the constraints of the clashing societies jostling around them. I could say quite a lot about them, but there's already some discussion on that score above---and it's late here!
Maybe tomorrow I'll want to settle down
Until tomorrow I'll just keep moving on...
Ian wrote: "@ Message 1:I'm interested in readers' perception of the colour of the novel.
Interesting. I had not considered color. But most of the cityscapes I envisioned with reddish hues, muddy maybe. And for some reason it was always almost nightfall, or close, in my mind. Think Arabian nights and desert campfires in a city.
Ian wrote: "@ Message 1:I'm interested in readers' perception of the colour of the novel."
I’d be interested to know if anyone has weighed their copy of the book and gleaned any significance about its mass. Mustn’t there be some significance there? I only have a digital copy which weight probably does not relate to the 623 pages of the analog version. OH, wait. I just noticed there are at least 34 editions of this book. They could not all weigh the same could they? Perhaps it is just that variation in weight that means something.
Or maybe... it’s Not the weight of the book at all but really the number of pages. Notice, astute reader, there are 623 pages.
There it is!
It just jumps out at you: there are the numbers 6, 2 and 3.
It’s Incredible!
6 is 2 times 3.
Now that’s gotta be significant.
Robert wrote: "Ian wrote: "@ Message 1:I'm interested in readers' perception of the colour of the novel."
I’d be interested to know if anyone has weighed their copy of the book and gleaned any significance abo..."
{giggle}
Traveller wrote: "I think Isaac isn't socially a very sophisticated person."Strange then that I find myself identifying with Isaac.
Robert wrote: "I’d be interested to know if anyone has weighed their copy of the book and gleaned any significance about its mass. "Haha, Robert.
The digital copy mightn't allow you to appreciate the full heft of the left or what's left of the heft.
lol Ian. that was indeed very clever.
Robert wrote: "I’d be interested to know if anyone has weighed their copy of the book and gleaned any significance about its mass..."Yes. The force of the analysis divided by the accelerating significance is equal to the book's mass. But I'd be at loss to measure its weight.
J. wrote: "It seems I'm a late comer simply by being on time, but better late on time than never, right? First, let me say, Andrea, that I am very appreciative of your choice of pen-lifestyle. I too am a ..."
J, i don't know what more i can do than send out multiple PM's and make multiple group announcements to notify other members that some members requested that we start early. I did ask for feedback on the issue in my PM's. Those that replied, all indicated that it was fine with them if we started a bit early. ;)
*Trav smiles indulgently at her pedantic friend, and pictures him sitting in a scene in the Bas-lag world, writing with a gold (or silver?) fountain pen, in the light of a gas lamp, on a piece of vellum that he had made himself (- or no, i think it would be papyrus, rather) dipping his pen every so now and then into a bottle of ink that he had made himself.
The ink he had extracted from a special kind of lapis-lazuli stone that is found lying on the banks of the river Tar (or the river Canker, perhaps?).
He had to wash it very carefully, to wash off all the mud and slime, before he started crushing the stone to extract the colour for his ink. Perhaps, he keeps a few squid in a tank in his cellar to complete the recipe for his ink, from their squideous emissions. However, i suspect that J. might find this procedure, not to mention the squid themselves, a bit icky.
Perhaps too icky to his tastes?
He is sitting there now, in the yellow glow of his gas lamp, writing a letter to Traveller, expressing his annoyance at the fact that the Perdido Street Station group read had started early and without him. *
:)
You're not far off the mark, my dear, but you forgot to factor in two things: laziness, and the fact that New Crobuzon is a major port. Rather than weaving papyrus myself oor skinning poor unfortunate animals myself, I can just buy vellum myself---at a considerable discount by sweet-talking the impressionable young lady behind the counter. I would make my own pigments, however. The confluence of the Tar and Canker, where they meet and form the Gross Tar would probably be an unpleasant hunting ground, but given what some people throw away it would be a treasure trove. Or could one just use colour-berries, I wonder?
My dear J., from what i know of you, you would get your brother to harvest the squid (in exchange for fixing his steam computing machine for him ;) ) and you would pick colour berries to use as ink, yyeess, of course- i should have realized that.However, i also see you picking reeds for your mother to weave some papyrus for you. You would say that her papyrus is better than any you could buy from impressionable young ladies in the City.
Unless you went to buy vellum and papyrus from the young lady outside the bookstore as an excuse to browse through the books and to "accidentally" brush her hand as you take the vellum from her.
Of course, you would be staring deep into her soulful eyes as you make your purchase. I can just see the half-smile on your face.
Hi everyone. As I'm late to the party, I'm going to cover some ground you've all been through before, but: Perdido Street station: my book has a map of NC where PSS is shown with the five lines going in in classic pentagram fashion, with the city forming a cicrle around the pentagon. So we have a classic pentagram
Interestingly, look at the position of air: this is exactly where Spatters is, the 'hood of the immigrant geruda (air bound) whom Isaac and Lin seek out in a later chapter.
The pentagram is also used in the bahai faith which is interesting (Mielville lived in Egypt for a long time), where the pentagram is known as the 'temple', an interesting allusion for PSS which serves, if you remember, not only as a station but as the administrative center of the town.
Main characters: Talk about bucking the trend. Isaac is described as a beached whale, enormously fat and pasty white. Lin is red. she seems to fit in more with the city even though she is a xenian, than Isaac.
Wow, that pentagram concept is interesting, Knig! I'm starting to realize more and more that Mieville drew maps of Bas-lag and new Crubozon, most probably as he wrote, or before he wrote the novels. I've posted various examples of maps in some other threads) My book shows a map of new Crubuzon that i presume that Mieville himself drew.But, that pentagram takes things to a new level of abstractness that i find wonderful to explore! I love when a novel is constructed so tangibly that one can draw maps of it, and follow threads and patterns through it.
Virginia Woolf's novels tend to have some of that quality as well. You can draw abstracts of them with pen and paper.
Cardinal directions are given in the text each time a character moves. My map is digital and split in half. I'd be interested in tracing the character's motions if I could ger a big paper map.
Annie wrote: "My map is digital and split in half. I'd be interested in tracing the character's motions if I could ger a big paper map."Annie,
Most towns of any size have Copy shops that specialize in making large copies of digital files--for a price.
But a phone call that discusses you file type (.jpg,.tiff,.png, etc.) and the price schedule--is free.
You might feel that a smaller or mid-sized copy, but one bigger that one you can do at home, is worth the price to you.
But you might need to combine the two files in Photoshop or some such software first.
Annie wrote: "Cardinal directions are given in the text each time a character moves. My map is digital and split in half. I'd be interested in tracing the character's motions if I could ger a big paper map."Annie, you a clever clever girl...let us know what you find please?
Miévillians
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Just wanted to pop in and say that while I'm not participating in the group read this time (I'm on the final book of a two-year reading list and just have to finish it) - PSS is a book I've..."
Join in any time you feel like it, Clouds! You don't have to participate all the time-- just throw your 2c in whenever the urge takes you. :)