"Un Lun Dun" by China Miéville
Image Sources
References
Work, Politics
- Blaschke, J. L. (2007). Un Lun Dun. SF Site. Retrieved from http://www.sfsite.com/10b/un258.htm
- Bould, M. (2003). An interview with China Miéville. New Politics, 9(3), 169-176.
- China Miéville. (2013). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Mi%C3%A9ville
- Clean Air Act 1956 (2013). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_1956
- Grant, G. J. (n.d.) The future of British fiction is getting weirder: An interview with China Miéville. Booksense.com. Retrieved from http://www.indiebound.org/author-interviews/mievillechina
- Itzkoff, D. (2008, February 3). Elsewhere’s Children. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/books/review/Itzkoff-t.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&
- Jordan, J. (2011, May 13). A life in writing: China Miéville. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/14/china-mieville-life-writing-genre?intcmp=239
- Kaur, R. (2007). Un Lun Dun. Socialist Review. Retrieved from http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=9955
- Kirkus (2007). Un Lun Dun by China Miéville. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/china-mieville/un-lun-dun/
- Kunz, N. (2007 April 1). Grades 5 & up. School Library Journal. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6430475.html
- Lacey, J. (2007, May 4). Among the unbrellas. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/may/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview28
- Locus Award (2013). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_Award
- Looking for Jake (2013). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_for_Jake
- Miéville, C. (2004, November 27). This much I know. The Observer. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/nov/28/sciencefictionfantasyandhorror.features
- Miller, L. (2007, March 5). Un Lun Dun. Salon. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2007/03/05/mieville/
- Random House (2013). Un Lun Dun written and illustrated by China Miéville. Retrieved from http://www.randomhouse.com/book/114265/un-lun-dun-by-china-mieville#abouttheauthor
- Sallis, J. (2007). Three days to never/Un Lun Dun. Fantasy & Science Fiction, 112(5), 58-63.
- SkellieSkar (2012, September 20). China Mieville: 'My job is not to try to give readers what they want but to try to make readers want what I give' – interview. Guardian.co.uk Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/sep/20/china-mieville-interview
- Tracton, S. (2012, December 20). The killer London smog event of December, 1952: A reminder of deadly smog events in U. S. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/the-killer-london-smog-event-of-december-1952-a-reminder-of-deadly-smog-events-in-us/2012/12/19/452c66bc-498e-11e2-b6f0-e851e741d196_blog.html
- Un Lun Dun (2013). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_Lun_Dun
- Wagner, T. M. (2006). Un Lun Dun. SFReviews.net. Retrieved from http://www.sfreviews.net/unlundun.html
- YALSA (2013). Best books for young adults 2008. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklists/bestbooksya/08bbya
- fantasy fiction author, comic writer (DC), academic
- left-wing, member of International Socialist Organization
- 2001 Social Alliance candidate
- teaches writing at Warwick University
- Writer-in-Residence at Roosevelt University in Chicago
Education
- Oakham: independent, public, co-ed school in Rutland
- gap year teaching English in Egypt
- BA in social anthropology, 1994, Clare College, Cambridge
- Masters & PhD in international relations, 2001, London school of Economics
- Frank Knox Fellowship at Harvard
- PhD thesis, "Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law
- UK 2005 (Brill), US 2006 (Haymarket)
Questions
- Does the language make the book harder to read? Still understandable with help from the glossary? Is the British English a barrier? Should they have Americanized it the way they did with Harry Potter? Would that have detracted?
- If you’re familiar with British culture (watching BBC shows, etc.) did this feel pretty accessible? If not, how accessible was this?
- Could he have written the beginning of the book differently, more exclusively from Zanna’s POV?
- how is slavery and freedom used as a theme, or idea?
- what effect did the illustrations have on the story for you? additive, enhancing, distracting? what about how Miéville only illustrated “inanimate” objects and monsters/creatures/villains? how would it have changed things had Miéville depicted more of the main characters?
- did you find the environmental or political ideas to be appropriate? too strong?
Other Works
abcd
China Tom Miéville
- Born Sept. 6, 1972, Norwich
- raised in Willesden, NW London
- China = Cockney rhyming slang for "mate"
- mother Claudia, sister Jemima
- lives in London with partner Emma Bircham
Un Lun Dun
- UK: Jan 2007, Macmillan
- US: Feb 2007, Del Rey
- 2008 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book
- New York Times Bestseller
- YALSA Best Books for YA, 2008
- on a YALSA read-alike list for Mockingjay
the Great Smog and Clean Air Act
- 1952 London Smog
- dense fog, sooty black smoke
- Dec 5th-9th
- couldn't see your feet in daylight
- 4000+ dead in one week
- 8000+ following weeks
- 1956 Clean Air Act
- UK Parliment
- in effect until 1964
- reduce air pollution
- cleaner heating fuels
- moving power plants away from cities
Reception
- Praise
- SLJ starred review
- Neil Gaiman, Norman Juster, Carrol, Baum, Miyazaki, Kipling
- pollution, environmentalism, suspicion of specter of terrorism
- reversal of genre clichés and tropes, deconstructive, homage
- ages 10+, grade 5+, grades 5-9, greater range than YA categorization
- Criticism
- too reminiscent of Gaiman
- 50 pages to warm up to material
- characters didn't come alive
Programming Ideas
- writing and art
- what would the name of the abcity of your hometown/current city be? what would it look like?
- Minneapolisn’t
- what would your favorite words look like made flesh? draw them
- write about a situation where the UnGun would have come in handy for you, and what you might have put in it, and what the effects might have been
- addressing environmental issues/concern
- Earth Day clean up, trash clean up on streets or in park
- book club with other British authors or alternate cities
- pair with some British TV/movies
Quotes
- SFReveiws.net: refreshing observation to the effect that there's nothing particularly impressive about a hero if it's what a person was predestined to be. Real heroism comes from real people rising to the occasion. Only fools wait around for saviors.
- New York Times: careful to show that language can be used to obscure and mislead, and that those who do not care enough to master it inevitably end up in someone else’s thrall
Miéville on "Un Lun Dun"
- doesn't like "theme", rather "ideas"
- abuse/use pollution came AFTER ideas of monsters
- deliberately didn't draw main characters
- started working on it before reading Gaiman's "Neverwhere"
Elizabeth Rome-Skogen, St. Catherine University, LIS 7220, April 2013