Perdido Str Station Discussion : PSS SECTION 2: Chapters 4-6

[Nataliya]

Robert wrote: "I am surprised that no one has commented here about Yagharek's crime of Choice-theft. I have resisted out fear of some kind of spoiler because while now, in this Chapter 6 we hear about his crime i..."

I think that had CM revealed what happened here, everyone would have had a visceral hate of Yagharek for the rest of this book, instead of us growing attached to him and then getting the gut punch when the crime is revealed - just like it happened for Isaac.
The question that I had was - was the punishment and Yagharek actions at the end enough to atone for what he did? And on this read-through I'm confident that the answer for me is - yes. So I made my peace with the choice-stealing garuda. But more when I get to chapter 52 on my (unfortunatelly stalled) reread.

[Traveller]

Sorry guys. I'm going to make an attempt to finish the book for us tonight, ok? Please bear with me for a few more hours.

[Cecily]

This is only my fourth Mieville, but I'd realised from the other three that cleavage was a common theme, and I was reminded of that in this section, shortly before the text spelt it out when Motley explains the importance of transition, as Andrea pointed out (comment 14). I presume that will be relevant throughout the book.

As to whether Motley's particularly complicated body hybrid is a punishment (as for the Remade) or, as Traveller asks (comment 18) a choice, there could be other factors, such as an S&M aspect, or just an analogy with extreme narcissism and cosmetic surgery?

As for whether being Remade is worse than death (comment 24), if so, wouldn't most of them commit suicide?

Knig (comment 27) highlights "how despite vivid descriptions, we don't really know precisely what he llooks like? Here mielville utilises a well known technique which masters such as Ligotti and lovecraft employ: emotive descriptions which always leave a vagueness rather than concretisation" - something characteristic of the Arieki/Hosts in Embassytown.

Robert (comment 50) mentioned Yagharek's crime of choice-theft. Yes, I'm intrigued, but Mieville likes to tease the reader, so I'm happy to wonder and wait.

[Traveller]

Cecily wrote: "As for whether being Remade is worse than death, if so, wouldn't most of them commit suicide?
..."

Interesting point!

[Derek, Miéville fan-boi]

Yeah, I'm not big on fates worse than death. If you _can_ survive it, it may be terrible, but it's not worse than death.