the Greater Nomadic Council

Miéville Creates World

Since one of our authors posted something about Miéville a month ago, I thought I'd be nice and point out this Crooked Timber post about a bad review he received, although that's more of a starting point for the real meat:

Maybe the reviewer is just expressing a profound but completely generalized distaste for the whole venture. What he really wants to say is that a book with such an atmosphere shouldn’t have been written. But if that’s how you feel, quibbling about little details is rather beside the point. Come to think of it, there should be a word for that critical sin. Reviewers called upon to consider a work they just don’t believe could possibly be good, because it’s somehow profoundly the wrong sort of thing, according to them. And then they sort of waste everyone’s time, scrutinizing and pretending it’s some detail that’s vexed them.

John Holbo then goes on to show how this is the typical reaction to authors and architects who create entirely new worlds and visions. Yet another example of good writing today. I think I was a bit hasty is claiming we see little of it on the web; just not enough. More, more, more!