--- layout: post status: publish published: true title: ! 'Weird Council: The first international conference on the works of China Miéville #mieville2012 (storify)' wordpress_id: 2409 wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/?p=2409 date: !binary |- MjAxMi0wOS0xNiAxMDoyNDowMSArMDIwMA== date_gmt: !binary |- MjAxMi0wOS0xNiAwOToyNDowMSArMDIwMA== categories: - Literature - Academia tags: - Literature - academia - storify comments: [] --- <p><script src="http://storify.com/martin_eve/weird-council-mieville2012.js"></script><br /> <noscript>[<a href="http://storify.com/martin_eve/weird-council-mieville2012" target="_blank">View the story "Weird Council: #mieville2012" on Storify</a>]<br /> <h1>Weird Council: #mieville2012</h1> <h2></h2> <p>Storified by Martin Eve · Sun, Sep 16 2012 02:22:19</p> <div>@thecityhermit Not true! (that's my own monograph). Edited collection on China Mieville will come out in 2013 #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Attempting to Storify all tweets from #mieville2012. Page keeps crashing! Either server rubbish continues or the weird cannot be Storified.Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Thanks to @the_blochian & all participants for a rich, thoughtful, and stimulating conference! Honored to have taken part. #mieville2012Kristin Noone</div> <div>Thanks for organising such a stimulating conference, @the_blochian. I'm still pondering so many of the papers. #mieville2012Dougal McNeill</div> <div>Still caffeinatedly reading my shiny copy of Red Planets #mieville2012Cel West</div> <div>Oh, right: for #DialH fans, China loved writing it & great sense of freedom, but likely ending soon. Collected ed. in spring. #mieville2012Kristin Noone</div> <div>Arch! Forgot to purchase Red Planets! #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Think I need to buck my ideas up academicaly after attending #mieville2012 There's sooo much theory I've been ignorant of for waaay too longJosh Pryer</div> <div>Hoy cumple 40 nuestro trosko favorito #mieville2012J.</div> <div>I have audio and video and notes to edit together in to a response to the day. Much to chew over. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Well that has been an utterly thudding brilliant day. Most fascinating talks on SF and weird fic I've ever experienced. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Thanks to all for so many quality papers and splendid organization - sorry I had to cut and run for an endless train #mieville2012Andrew M Butler</div> <div>...and now I feel less anxious that my own stuff could just be derivative apeing shite #mieville2012Josh Pryer</div> <div>Had a great time at #mieville2012 ! It meant a lot to me that he answered my question in the Q&A, I had such low confidence in my writing..Josh Pryer</div> <div>I want to defend Suvin, but sometimes others quoting him at length makes the job impossible. Rieder had some very odd quotes. #mieville2012Dougal McNeill</div> <div>Fabulous paper from John Rieder on genre & SF. They're not species like birds you discover 'out there', but practices. #mieville2012Dougal McNeill</div> <div>Finding idea of #mieville2012 very confusing. Author-focused academic cons are for long-dead, firmly canonised litfic writers, aren't they?Martin Jenner</div> <div>Despite being well out of my intellectual comfort zone, the Weird Council was excellent. Well done to organisers and speakers #mieville2012Hamish Jones</div> <div>Excellent. Great interview with China. Thanks for the questions people. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>@the_blochian I hope the wine turned up pronto at 7pm. Good conference. Nice people. Come and do another one #mieville2012Jon Millington</div> <div>And that's a wrap…Weird Council programme done. Mingling in the bar now. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Q:Who are your influences? A:I don't know. We forget. I'm willing to consider that there are many I've forgotten. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Really feeling I'm #mieville2012 are any of the sessions going to up anywhere?Gav Reads</div> <div>There's an Althusser joke in Un Lun Dun! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Bingo! As China mentions Agamben, says City & the City born partially out of arguing against #mieville2012Cel West</div> <div>. @Kosmogrrrl there's the answer! Mieville has unspecified huge problems with Agamben #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Reading tweets about #mieville2012 makes me wonder: which other contemporary genre writers could be the subject of a conference?David Hebblethwaite</div> <div>China: Scene in Gullivers travels with sword fight w giant wasps wonderful because "it has no satirical cognates". #mieville2012Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>So envious of everyone at #mieville2012. On the other hand, would not give up this weekend with @XtinaSchelin for the world.Rose Fox</div> <div>China "open to any argumentative strategy". Quite right. Genre terms are a tool kit, not a set of jam labels. #mieville2012Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>…Abcanny interesting descriptor. Weird fiction a good genre label. NOT KEEN ON STEAMPUNK! #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>"I never think strategically about fiction." IE timing, political response. etc #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>China busy demonstrating Neil Easterbrook's thesis: fascinated "aesthetically" by the "sociopathy" of the language of law. #mieville2012Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>@booktrunk Such is fame. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>@damiengwalter #mieville2012 sounds like one huge ego trip?Steph</div> <div>@damiengwalter Perhaps this sounds a bit mad but he inspires me to be a better writer, a better citizen and a better person #mieville2012Alex Carnegie</div> <div>Q: Who are the two China Mievilles? A: Distinction between identity to readers and identity to academics.Fortunate to be both. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>"I feel strangely vulgar offering fiction at this conference." China after reading a story at Weird Council. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>"I do not labour under the illusion that I Am China Mieville" ~China Mieville #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>And now, the man himself! China Mieville! @TheProfRog thanking @the_blochian and @contemporaryfic for their ace organisation! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>And now for the man himself: China #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>At break, asked China how he was enjoying the conference. Response: "it's very flattering, isn't it?" So modest. #mieville2012Kristin Noone</div> <div>China Mieville's reading and Q + A begins in 20 minutes. Will attempt to tweet as much of it as possible. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Adding new voices to my curated list Essential Sci-Fi from Weird Council : https://twitter.com/i/#!/damiengwalter/essential-sci-fi #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>John Rieder on The Matrix: "...it's ok." #mieville2012Kristin Noone</div> <div>@thecityhermit see @pkincaid_critic 's book What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction for revision of genre understanding #mieville2012Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>Emerging central theme of Weird Council the acceptance within SF studies of Fantasy. Parralels a similar shift in fandom. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>@subpress @katwithsword The Weird Council 2-day academic conference on China Mieville's writing. China M here throughout #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>@subpress @KatWithSword #mieville2012 a conference on the works of China Mieville!Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@KatWithSword What is #mieville2012 ?William Schafer</div> <div>Roger Luckhurst defending/historicising Suvin. In this very building 30 years ago Suvin asked Riger if he was an M15 plant! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Stimulating presentation from John Rieder on the stakes in genre theory. Too bad the conference book won’t be out until 2015! #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>#mieville2012 Rieder: genre fluid and historical; taxonomy a means of analysis & not an end.Cel West</div> <div>Rieder: generic forms just as fluid & stable as the institutional practices that construct, maintain & perpetuate them #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>@the_blochian He says such brilliant things so simply, and then 5 minutes later your brain catches up and thinks, wow! #mieville2012Kristin Noone</div> <div>20 minute long straw man. #mieville2012Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>Hmmm…someone please remind me to buy a copy of Red Planets before I leave Weird Council. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>For Miéville fans and those at #mieville2012 - I interviewed China about RAILSEA for @subpress: http://bit.ly/PtLXvfKat Howard</div> <div>Rieder reframes his critique of Suvin in a generous way; an attempt to include his valued objects #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Given the Suvin-bashing I'm tempted to play devil's advocate & say his writing on utopia as a literary genre remains useful #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Do you pathologically mingle SF and super-natural fantasy? #mieville2012 I do!Damien Walter</div> <div>http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/95488 This is my interview with China Mieville, from a while back http://t.co/ #mieville2012 happy 40th, China!Laurie Penny</div> <div>@effjayem #mieville2012 George O Smith's 'Venus Equilateral'-practical engineering legwork in the face of a hostile universe. (No aliens)Susan Calvin</div> <div>Rieder: Suvin's insistence in correct taxonomy generates meta-literary & aggrandising terms in arrogant fashion #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Power drain! Ahhhrggghh!!! Bye bye! #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>"Overvaluation of generic differences"; problem of agency @ stake in genre theory #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>I guess, in line with grammar and linguistics, we could call these descriptive and prescriptive genre theories. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Texts do not belong to genres, they use them. Questions of motive and intention must then be central to genre theory. #mieville2012 THIS!Damien Walter</div> <div>Texts use genres. Agency is central, says Rieder. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Texts do not belong to genres, they use them. #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>Truth and authority are the crucial aspects of constructed genre upon which genre theory should focus, says Rieder #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Loving the extended avian metaphors. So calmly eloquent. #mieville2012Kristin Noone</div> <div>Rieder: what if narrative genres are not simply out there like bird species, waiting to be discovered? #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Genres are historical, mutable constructions - entwined with social - says Rieder. Stakes much greater this way. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Arguing hairsbreadth genre definitions is a trivialisation of genre theory. #mieville2012 IE genre argument = yawnDamien Walter</div> <div>@damiengwalter Mieville & Bould's Red Planets another unmentioned reference point here - critique of the Suvinian paradigm #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Problem is that genre theory trivialises own stakes as "science of forms". Rieder saying it's about more than categorisation #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>The word ‘capitalism’ has been thrown around a lot. #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>“@damiengwalter Darko Suvin is taking a beating here. #mieville2012â€Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Darko Suvin is taking a beating here. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Rieder not going down traditional critique of Suvin's identification of SF, but rather at what is at stake in genre theory #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>John Rieder extending the argument; Suvin vs Mieville; what are the stakes in genre theory? #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>What are the stakes in genre theory? #mieville2012 Seriously, what are they?Damien Walter</div> <div>Up now Prof John Rieder from University of Hawaii speaking about genre theory w/ ref to Darko Suvinian & China Mieville #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>John Rieder up now. Love his book. #mieville2012Kristin Noone</div> <div>Last in this panel, before China Mieville himself, is John Rieder on the stakes in genre theory. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>That was the sound of my left brain hemisphere exploding. Sorry everyone #mieville2012Roger Luckhurst</div> <div>Mieville subverts quest narratives, says Williams. Linked to undermining ideological structures. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Realism has engulfed sf, so for cognitive estrangement to work sf has to go beyond the technological sublime. #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>Make do and mend technology is an old tradition in sf. See Colin Kapp's Unorthodox Engineers. #mieville2012Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>Williams looking at salvage, linking back to opening keynote - not re-, or nostalgia #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@Kosmogrrrl #mieville2012 lots of Hardt and Negri, though.Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>This is 'effing fascinating. I wish I could communicate it better to you at this time. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>#mieville2012 he even mentions Joissance & fantasy! I like this guy.Cel West</div> <div>Sadly no-one here has mentioned Agamben. Having still not read any, however, I cannot really complain. #mieville2012Cel West</div> <div>SF as flashy propaganda for hegemonic technological state? #mieville2012 "SF has to escape itself."Damien Walter</div> <div>@ianfmartin yehhh it's the first big Miéville conference. Check out #mieville2012Tristan Burke</div> <div>Rhys Williams saying many things I agree with about capitalism, historicity, constraints of genre. Also, pasty jokes.#mieville2012Cel West</div> <div>Sf does not cognitively estrange from reality but from pseudorational models of reality. Rhys Williams #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>(and I mean critique as thoughtful engagement with) #mieville2012Kristin Noone</div> <div>@damiengwalter #mieville2012 imminent or immanent?Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Back to Suvin; cognition vs. ideology #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Also much critique of Suvin, continuing. #mieville2012Kristin Noone</div> <div>"SF is capable of having an imminent relationship with critical theory." Worthy of discussion. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>@ClarkeAward It's awesome! Some great papers & frantic coffee breaks *waves back tentacularly* #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Interesting emergence of medievalism as a theme (monstrous bodies) #mieville2012Kristin Noone</div> <div>Williams outlining model of cognition as process-based. Aligning with Suvin's model. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Hope everyone at #mieville2012 is having fun *waves*The Clarke Award</div> <div>Rhys Williams on cognition, fantasy, politics & hope. Beyond Suvin #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>MT @ClarkeAward "Iron Council still scooped the Clarke though despite being "punished" and I think it's really rather cool" #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Excellent analysis of generic expectations, rational view of criticism #mieville2012Gary Phillips</div> <div>Damn auto correct spelling! Sangster not Songstar. #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Sangater: Iron Council, according to one reader is not "insta-love." More adeptly chosen Goodreads reviews being displayed #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>"[Bas Lag]: Mieville's Anti-Trilogy" #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Conventions for Bas-Lag novels set in first and generic expectations established. Iron Council defies these and is "punished" #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Trilogical expectations & Iron Council #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Interesting suggestion of stylistic consistency as a quality of commerical genre fiction. Readers dislike change of style. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Mieville and genre expectations through Goodreads ratings of trilogies. Interesting change of pace. Also, XKCD. #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>Sangster now showing Peake as correlate for trilogy and satisfaction drop off. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@the_blochian He's also a Peakean. Curated the exhibition @ the BL recently #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Sangster re-sorting various GoodReads stats and giving interpretations of data and reasons for ratings/adds (eg trilogy) #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Interesting use of Goodreads as arbiter of success / popularity. Quality? #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Awkward moment for China - we're being shown tabulated coversion ratings for all of his novels! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Sangster cites the awesome xkcd on star ratings. He's giving an analysis of GoodReads. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Sangster gleefully making use of rich resources for contemporary fiction (here, http://Goodreads.com). He's a Romanticist. #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Matt Sangster on Mieville, Goodreads judgements & generic expectations #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>@PennyRed You should! We'd happily link to it from the post-Weird Council materials & film clips website #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Back in the Weird Council for the afternoon panel on Genre. Interested to see if we parallel the fandom arguments. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Last panel before China Mieville speaks. Genres. Matthew Sangster on generic expectations in Iron Council. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Only now I learn of #mieville2012 ? Why didn't anyone tell me about this (I hate you all).Marco </div> <div>Confess I expected more from Body panel. Curious how the body never absent from con, but hasn’t been central either #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>Feel intellectually out of my depth and like I shouldn't be here, but it's awesome to be amongst fellow Miéville fans! #mieville2012Josh Pryer</div> <div>Wish I could be at #mieville2012. So jealous.Theodoros Chiotis</div> <div>@the_blochian not sure about that. What about the end of Iron Council? Xenon's revolution... #mieville2012Laurie Penny</div> <div>Wish I could be at #mieville2012. Tempted to dig out the interview I did with China a while ago.Laurie Penny</div> <div>Interesting critique of that ethical/moralising divide there from @effjayem #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@thecityhermit also Iron Council... #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Easterbrook: embodiment of ethics most significant aspect of Mieville's fictional project -immanent process of transformation #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>This is like labelling lectures you don't like "didactic" and this you do "thought provoking". #mieville2012Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>Easterbrook: the embodiment of ethics (rather than politics) is the most important aspect of Mieville’s project. #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>Easterbrook distinguishes between moral fiction (which gives a code) and ethical fiction (which asks you to think). I fear . #mieville2012Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>@effjayem I thought linked to aestheticization of the ethical - avoids direct codification of moral didacticism #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Most papers have gravitated to Perdido Street Station, the City and the City, and Embassytown. #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>"You'll never unsee again", Ashil's statement in C&C, purports to give unmediated view; we know is impossible says Easterbrook #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Fascinating paper by Neil Easterbrook. #mieville2012 looking forward to the book.Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>Neil scripted a reference to Sherryl that she had to read in the 3rd person, disclaiming any association w/ his pedantry! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Metaphor is language as the differential grotesque. Neil Easterbrook #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>Differential grotesque not about Hegelian Aufhebung (passage from PSS). Produces cognition #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Vint-as-Easterbrook: Mr Motley in Perdido Street Station is an icon of the differential grotesque #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Easterbrook says point of this conference is so he can steal our ideas! Ha ha! Seriously, though: no. Ha! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Easterbrook: Mieville's ICFA interview. Tactile fabric of real turns us to ethics no matter how grotesque-irresolvable #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Mieville has deep commitment to equality. Marxism emerges as social, rather than economic. Politics as ethics. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Mieville's work is not dogmatic or politically didactic says Easterbrook #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Mieville shows collapse of bodies from private to public domains, says Easterbrook #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Odd experience-Sherryl Vint reading Neil Easterbrook's paper in 1st person. Unfortunately Neil wasn't able to travel to conf #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>"body without organs" #deleuzebingo #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Sherryl Vint as avatar for Neil Easterbrook on the Differential Grotesque #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Last in this panel is Neil Easterbrook, paper read by Sherryl Vint, on Mieville and the body of ethics #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Noone: monster always offers temporary egress from constraint - Jack in New Crobuzon & Robin Hood #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>@martin_eve Just think Robin Hoody #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Noone: Mieville's short story Jack Half a Prayer offers an embodiment of mythical time. Similarities with Robin Hood #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Most of my "knowledge" of Robin Hood is mediated through Disney. Thus this paper is causing me mental strain. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Kristin Noone on echoes of Robin Hood in short story Jack. Figure of the Remade and fReemade links back to Haug #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>More De Certeau being brought out by Noone - discourse invested with authority #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Amphisbaenas...#mieville2012 http://pic.twitter.com/55a5mvzLcontemporaryfiction</div> <div>Medievalist Kristin Noone from UC Riverside excited at possibility of medieval Mieville panel. Medieval abreal? #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Now Kristin Noone is on, speaking on Robin Hood and Mieville #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Tradition of combinatorial monstrosity into which Mieville writes, concludes Haug #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>#mieville2012 Cyberspace - Internet - as 4th spatial dimension; love for technology as love for the monstrous, like Mieville's Kepri #ideasCel West</div> <div>Haug: Borges story references H P Lovecraft in the style of fan fiction. Brilliant, here come the Cthulu slides! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>@NakedSasquatch @damiengwalter #Mieville2012 academic conference event. Ongoing. Mieville is here.Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>There really are snakes with heads at both ends. http://news.discovery.com/animals/venomous-sea-snake-pretends-to-have-two-heads.html Sort of. #mieville2012Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>Haug showing us Lovecraft's combinatorial teratology in Call of Cthulu. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@damiengwalter All this #Mieville2012, what is it? Is it from a lecture he gave? An academic event?Chris LItes</div> <div>Haug managed to sneak one of those "bad taxidermy" meme pics into his presentation! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>One of the monsters Haug is showing us! #mieville2012 http://pic.twitter.com/GCL0bNTjDr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Haug's teratology considering medieval bestiary - crocodile, hydrus, etc. Problems of representing monsters thro description #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Borges: Ramon Llul & his amaxing smurf hat http://is.gd/bBvTP4 #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Incompostability - Deleuze via Borges via Leibniz. Mieville creates weird affect through combining impossible things. #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Monster: no more than a combination of parts of real beings, and the possibilities border on the infinite. Borges #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>Haug discussing Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings. Mieville's Garuda & kracken.Nice accompanying slides for affective affinity #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Borges: "A monster is no more than a combination of parts of real beings" #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Haug approaching Mieville through Borges - combinatorial approach to monsters. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Haug speaks of thrill and disjunctive combinations in the monster #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@martin_eve If it’s a practical session I will start to worry #mieville2012Penny Schenk</div> <div>Hallvard Haughty up now. Just apologised for his "intensely boring approach" of reading Mievill via Borges! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Teratology: the study of monsters! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Hallvard Haug up first in the "bodies" panel - combinatorial teratology. Not as theoretical as it sounds! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>The Haug on Combinatorial Teratology & Mieville's Monsters #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>#mieville2012 'Splicing' panel: Macneill on utopia as process/always imminent & Sanders on child's forced return to real world subvertedJulia Round</div> <div>Questions on generic slutcore #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Some pretty rigorous interrogation of Sanders' genealogy going on in the Q&A. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Oh no wait, he's finished! Questions now for Joe SS and Gordon MacN. Why should children be the only ones allowed to imagine? #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Amusingly we've heard nothing about Mieville's fiction yet. Ah, spoke too soon. Here it comes... #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Saunders: fetishising the arbitrary line between childhood & adulthood eg Pullman. Child sexuality rep as fall from innocence #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Children must return to mundane world at the end of children’s books because the childhood/adult boundary is fetishised. #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>Sanders: Children's fantasy part of broader arbitrary social separation of childhood and adulthood. It fetishes the boundary #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@ActuallyAisha They will! We're publishing an edited collection with @gylphi's Contemporary Writers: Critical Essays series #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Sanders' paper is truly hilarious, by the way! Thoroughly entertaining! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Sanders now invoking @neilhimself's Graveyard Book in his history of child separation in children's fantasy #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Saunders: this arbitrary logic of children's fantasy can be traced in C S Lewis, Phillip Pullman &Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Arbitrariness of rules at end of His Dark Materials retained; "it sort of thinks it should", says Sanders, paraphrasing Deeba #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Saunders outlining traditional division of magic & mundane at ends of children's lit as child-hero separated from new world #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>On Lewis, Pullman & the pitfalls of allegory #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Ha ha, now Pullman. #iamaprophet #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Joe Sutliff Saunders giving an entertaining paper on Children's Fantasy. Narnia is "everyone's favourite punching bag" #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Oh yep, there's "everyone's favourite punching bag": Narnia. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Deeba: "You're just saying that because you sort of think you should." #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Sanders: Familiar move of tragic child return to mundane world having gained power in magical realm (Narnia, Pullman?) #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Those interested in MPW_scp's paper on the abnatural might like his article on "Alternative Fictioneers" http://www.alluvium-journal.org/2012/06/01/alternative-fictioneers/ #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Now Joe Sutcliffe Saunders on children's fantasy form and Mieville #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Joe Sutliff Sanders on blurring the lines between child & adult fiction, real & unreal London in Un LunDun #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>MacNeil: Iron Council shows repetition & difference of utopian systems rather than assigning static identity to moving concept #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>MacNeil now bringing Massumi on movement and prior inhibition into contact with Iron Council #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>IC: revolution is unrepresentable, Jameson's unknowability thesis - utopia produces unintended effects. Council = problematic #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>*failure of (in last tweet, not failure or) #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>MacNeil says that, for Mieville, revolution is unrepresentable. The revolution will not be represented. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Failure or collective and of other utopian impulses in Iron Council should not be surprising, says MacNeil... #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>In fact, more Deleuzian terms emerging in this paper than I can tweet: lines of flight, difference and repetition... #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Gordan MacNeill is talking my language of utopian secession, processual change, anti-closure (with a little more Deleuze) #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>MacNeil articulating a revolutionary mode similar to Deleuze and Guattarri's rhizomatic assemblage #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Utopian becoming in IC recalls Deleuze's "the new"- something else, a trajectory of invention. 3rd synthesis of time? #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>@the_blochian #mieville2012 I don't know, but you should definitely get Tony to ask that as a question! Ha ha!Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@martin_eve Is it deliberately in the style of Alan Moore's favoured pink sparkly suit? #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>@NakedSasquatch #mieville2012 ?Damien Walter</div> <div>MacNeill: Iron Council recalls Lenin's point abt the revolution being a mountaineer, forced back to reascend the mountain #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>@the_blochian #mieville2012 it really is very sparkly!Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Gordon McNeill, Cacatopic history, utopian closure & Iron Council #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Resonance with Lenin's image of revolutionary as mountaineer at start of Iron Council, says MacNeil. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Videoing all through lunch so skipping second panel to eat. Follow #mieville2012 for updates.Damien Walter</div> <div>Gordon is discussing Iron Council, Cacatopic History & utopian closure. He is sporting a fine sparkly metal T-shirt #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>“@MinxMarple the tweetstream emanating from #mieville2012 is electric.â€Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Gordon McNeil kicks off the afternoon starting with Jameson on enslaved utopias #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Even just knowing that there's a #mieville2012 conference going on is enough to make me give off a tiny squee.Russell Briggs</div> <div>Checks out stream for #mieville2012 . *blinks, walks away shaking head*Berwyn Lloyd</div> <div>the tweetstream emanating from #mieville2012 is electric.Minx Marple</div> <div>While #mieville2012 rolls back and forth I am in conference with Christopher Priest's new novel.Gollancz</div> <div>Relationship between resurgent interest in 4th dimension and mathematical modelling technology. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Embassytown's Spanish Dancer the most gifted linguistic #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Mieville is using a poetic substitution technique to reach beyond the limits of forumaltions like 'hyperspace' #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Polysemic term Breach as interstitial and abstracted location occupied by authority, among other readings #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Orciny (C +C) - n #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>“@damiengwalter theory of genre here which could describe all fantastic genres as approaches to the idea of the 4th dimension†#mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Blacklock says that Lovecraft does a nifty linguistic dodge by fusing multiple incongruent Euclidean structures #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Blacklock: Lovecraft reps pinnacle of representational jargon. His geometric vocabulary isn't as well informed as geological #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Pulp provides privileged access to Higher Space; cf. non-Euclidean spaces of Lovecraft #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Ballard of course, also. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Blacklock tracing history of higher space fiction; Conrad, Hueffer, Lovecraft. Let me also plug Pynchon's Against the Day. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>For those that like me would have loved to be at Weird Council today, but can't, follow @damiengwalter who tweets from #mieville2012Margrét Helgadóttir</div> <div>Blacklock conferring Abbot's Flatland, possibly referenced in Embassytown? Madness persistent threat of 4-D space #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>What is the meaning of above or behind for a four-dimensional being? Asks Blacklock. How is 3-D language insufficient? #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>First 'non-Euclidian' of the day #mieville2012Gary Phillips</div> <div>Mieville's "manchmal" from Germany "sometimes". Mieville re-purposes to describe lived space in Embassytown #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Mark Bould exploring etymology of the "immer", from German manchmal (sometimes), repurposed to describe lived space #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Mapping the Immer #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Blacklock: 4d cube animation links to planurgy #mieville2012Julia Round</div> <div>Thanks @MPW_scp for a fascinating paper. BIG apologies for complications of Skype! Hope you can hear the other papers ok #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Planurgy -n : Trans-dimensional origami. #mieville2012 Relates to non-euclidean geometry, modernist art, cubism, 4th dimensional space.Damien Walter</div> <div>Cubist & Futurist multiple perspectives, & influence from non-Euclidean geometry, also relevant for Mieville, says Blacklock #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Paratactic Pile Ups, Bruno Latour & ab-maths mashed up with Mieville #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Mieville's use of term "aether" in PSS links directly to 19C theories of science and light transmission, says Blacklock #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Excellent. A Primer of Mievillean Space from Mark Blacklock, Birkbeck. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Blacklock usually gives us excellent stuff on mind-bending 4th dimensional topography. Today looks to be no exception. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Williams concludes a fascinating paper on abnatural resources about how affect becomes effect. Thanks @mark_p_williams! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Blacklock speaks. Outrider from The Diffuse College. Primer on Mievillean Space. Read with Konvulut n+1 #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Now Mark Blacklock is up! Continues riffing on @theprofrog's keynote! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Williams: abnatural quality of persuasive metaphor turns affect into effect #mieville2012Julia Round</div> <div>A few abnatural sound effects interfering with some of the points being made here. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Awesome feedback cycle. Ab-sonics indeed. @contemporaryfic #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Multiple dysfunctional back channels going on right here #mieville2012Paul Graham Raven</div> <div>Williams: Mieville's political contribution is that his fiction considers the mundane to be as radical as its monsters #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Williams tracing the abnatural across Mieville's fictions & his articles in International Socialism & Historical Materialism. #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Williams: presence in the Arieki biorigging of Embassytown. Transformative move towards resource metaphor of the ab #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Williams looking at ab-surd in Embassytown; rational numbers, voicings and ab-. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Now discussing Mieville's concept of the 'abnatural' … the 'abdead'. Neither dead / undead, real / unreal. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Ab-natural in Embassytown takes form of alt-realities such as Immer #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Abnatural sonics @ Weird Council #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Williams: although the term abnatural doesn't appear until Iron Council it has relevance in his earlier fiction #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Mieville's ab-natural can be retroactively applied to his canon, says Williams #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Fantasy is always subversive even when most commodified? Struggle to relate that to Wheel of Time! #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Thaumaturgical punishment of criminals in Perdido Street Station is one example. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Williams tracing the abnatural through Mieville's fiction. All the way from New Zealand! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Curse of Skype #mieville2012Gary Phillips</div> <div>Williams: fantasy the most appropriate mode for Mieville's praxis as theorist & Marxist #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Phew! Mark P Williams is delivering his paper via Skype. Really hope the connection holds out ok #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Mark Williams will be talking about ab-natural resources. Skype connection a little flaky but not bad. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Owen Hatherley, the panel's chair has now arrived now... And Skype is working for Mark P. Williams. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>A failure to map represents a failure to exert poltical control over an ever changing city. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Institutional attempts to map New Crobuzon all fail. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Maps are not institutionalised in PSS; not a tool of power says Zahringer. Contrast with Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, says Eve. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>The maps of Perdido Street Station would be useless to the characters in the book. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Difference between immanent walker & map-reading voyeur; tour vs map. Map in PSS just 1 perspective & "useless" says Zahringer #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>"The map is not the territory" #mieville2012 #mapbingoDr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Perdido Street Station presents itself as a mediation on cartography, says Zahringer. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>oops my bad, panel is on SPACES. Raphael Zahnringer on the maps of Perdido Street Station. #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>@damiengwalter #mieville2012 think it's actually "spaces"! I'm here.Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Cartography and Perdido Street Station. Yes, I am in the right place. #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>@effjayem Raphael Zahringer kicking off the spaces panel, starting off with a 13th century map. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>First panel of the day at Weird Council. LANGUAGES. Expecting this to reference Embassytown heavily then! #mieville2012Damien Walter</div> <div>Have arrived at Weird Council just in time for coffee! #mieville2012 Who else is here?Damien Walter</div> <div>@effjayem and yes, I know the shift in the hosts is the principle change, but it's a strenuous transformation #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Sherryl Vint always good money. Today on the AbReal. #mieville2012Farah Mendlesohn</div> <div>Finally snuck in late to #mieville2012 conference. No longer having pink hair clearly has camouflaging benefits.Cel West</div> <div>Vint: the fiction writer as golem-maker. Gramscian quote about the abreal (from China's essay in the HM special issue) #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>...only differences. Saying something new allows possibility of being something new says Vint. #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Absence of polysemy in Embassytown - material actions make thinking new ideas possible. Upturns Saussure's "in lang. there's.. #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Isn't Language in Embassytown a little problematic: how can the hosts conceive of what they want to stage beforehand? #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Vint: Billy learns real power lies in what he can do with language. And something about living ink. Not sure what-need coffee! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Faith not an intellectual mistake says character in Kracken. Equal ontological weight to metaphor & that which it represents #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Yes, what IS the plural of apocalypse? Everything's ending in Kracken. Crisis of abreal fractal poss. reduced to singularity #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>I wonder if Vint's term fractal is problematic? She doesn't seem to be implying infinite recursion... #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>The City & City literalises the poststructuralist axiom that language makes the world we inhabit. Defamiliarising says Vint #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>@thecityhermit #mieville2012 I read it more as a metatextual formation...Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@martin_eve Indeed. Temporarily distracted by imagining the Noch Nicht and golemetry as interruption! Where's our Time Golem? #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Golemtry in Iron Council. Unalive has meaningful possibility (pointing) that's always-already there. Golemetry-as-interruption #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>@contemporaryfic think subsequent delineation from other anti-Capitalist immanent/critical utopias is doing it for me #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Does “fractal metaphor†just mean polyvalent? #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>Vint: Uther Dhoul's Possibility Sword in The Scar. Example if Blochian Real-Possible. Thinking about Vorschein (anticipation) #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>At last! Our first mention of Ernst Bloch. Like Deleuze's virtual, the utopian trace & abrealism offer immanent possibility #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Utopian trace. Now @the_blochian will be pleased. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Abrealism multiplies, fractally, our understanding of the real and realism, says Vint. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Vint: fractal metaphor shows gap in abrealism btwn mimetic realism & reality. More than deconstructive logic of "both"& "and" #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Mimetic realism never enough to capture reality, says Vint. Adorno on objects, concepts and remainders in ND? #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Vint: proliferation of rails in Railsea-metafictional elements tell us we're being told a story. Metaphor fractally begetting #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>To answer own question, seems to be something to do with fractal narrative logic, says Vint. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Moles have been mentioned. @galoot will be pleased. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Not sure how this ab-realist formation differs from DFW's ONAN in IJ, or Pynchon's alternate histories... #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Sherryl Vint talking about "abrealism" as a narrative logic in CM's work #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Vint exploring narrative logic of abrealism in Mueville. Drawing on Chu Ling's (?) HM essay in "Marxism & Fantasy" issue #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Mieville's work not mimetic and spurns realist tradition says Vint, questioning Suvin. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@cameo #mieville2012 I'll try to take that as a compliment!Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Sherryl Vint on metaphors & SF #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Sherryl Vint up first today on metaphor and language in Mieville's work #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Vint admtis to being nervous following Roger Luckhurst's opening keynote yesterday! Starting with SF v lyric poetry #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>@martin_eve your #mieville2012 tweets are the only reason I followed you!Cameo Wood</div> <div>Argh. No northern line from Charing x. Running late for #mieville2012Mark Blacklock</div> <div>Being an onlooker at #mieville2012 conference again today. My thoughts re City & City, nationalism, identity & conflict gradually coalescingCatherine Baker</div> <div>Because they’re… Weird. #mieville2012 OK I’ll stop now. Have fun, conference goers.Penny Schenk</div> <div>You just know that Weird Council is terrible at providing essential services like rubbish collection, parking permits #mieville2012Penny Schenk</div> <div>Day two of #mieville2012 begins with a keynote from Professor Sherryl Vint http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/events/ies-conferences/MievilleGylphi Limited</div> <div>A quick warning to all that I'll be posting again today on the #mieville2012 conference. If that's not your cup of tea, mute in your client.Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>The playfulness of the octopus: could China be pulling our legs? #mieville2012Jonathan Catherall</div> <div>Day 2 of Weird Council: hoping as per @TheProfRog talk yesterday for more on Mieville's playfulness today #mieville2012Jonathan Catherall</div> <div>Heading off to Weird Council for day 2 of #mieville2012. Glorious day & no commuters! Some great papers lined up today incl China M himself.Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Now my own paper's out of the way I can sit back & actually enjoy listening at #mieville2012 ! Looking forward to hearing Sheryl Vint soon.Dougal McNeill</div> <div>@DianaJSpencer Hi, thanks for #ff the #mieville2012 hashtag. Sorry you couldn't make it-Mievillean to have simultaneous virtual discussion.Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Some fascinating papers at #mieville2012. Now in Chipotle, because I can.Cheryl Morgan</div> <div>On the tempting lures of allegory...#mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Afraid I scarpered from #mieville2012 a little early, crying off with various tasks to do. Great day, though!Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Final session, which @TheProfRog has reduced to 30 mins to give more time for beer. #mieville2012Cheryl Morgan</div> <div>Lang doesn't have time to explore connotations of term "Ambassadors" in Embassytown, but I'm curious! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>A few #followfriday recommendations for you. First up the #mieville2012 hashtag for live action from Weird Council at Birkbeck. #ffDamien Walter</div> <div>Speaker suggests that Hosts in Embassytown could not have law as we understand it as they cannot understand abstraction. #mieville2012Cheryl Morgan</div> <div>Colonial structure underpinning International Law, says Lang - definitely works for Embassytown #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>International Law doesn't always work, says Lang, and Embassytown is emblematic: EzRa as intervention? #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Enforcement is a problem in International Law, says Lang. Breach in City&City could be lawyers' fantasy. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Anthony Lang now speaking on international law in Mieville's work. His 12-year-old kid thinks it's cool he's speaking! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Lang on from apology to utopia #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Int. law prof told by his 12-yr-old son "a guy who looks this cool could not be writing about the stuff you write about" #mieville2012Cheryl Morgan</div> <div>Finally, an expert on international law! St Andrews' Anthony Lang exploring Mieville's contributions to critical legal studies #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>McNeill's conclusion: Iron Council forces us to confront our historic failures - Benjaminian imperative to fail better. #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>McNeil says that diegetetic structuring of Iron Council is pre-Adorno's missed moment. Optimism, not philosophy, lives on? #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Hello Wellington peeps. LotR set built on Maori sacred site? Rivendell? #mieville2012Cheryl Morgan</div> <div>Lots of Modernist anchors at #mieville2012 today; definitely one for David James' project of Contemporary-Modernist interlink #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Ah yes, the metaphor of a train with no destination standing for continual revolution. #mieville2012Cheryl Morgan</div> <div>Revolution is always untimely, says McNeil, but Iron Council re-inscribes importance of historical agency #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>McNeil quoting the excellent Fire Alarm for a historical materialism sensitive to magical cultures #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Ah, at last a paper on Iron Council and revolution. #mieville2012Cheryl Morgan</div> <div>McNeill: Iron Council restores centrality if thinking revolution to the leftist tradition. Should be read w/in anti-capitalist #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Dougal McNeil is talking at the moment on Iron Council and revolution. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Doug McNeill from University of Middle Earth on Iron Council, Benjamin & Revolutionary Reversals #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Dougall McNeill from Victoria University of Wellington up now. Says he comes from "Middle Earth" - lives where LOTR was filmed #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Korsika concludes that Mievillean breach doesn't function as external/anomalous. Reminded of "immanent transcendence" of weird #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Korsika looking at historical examples of scapegoats for abstract crisis of capital - Nazism and anti-Semitism #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Korsika using examples of abstraction from King Rat then moves to Breach on emancipatory projects. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Korsika: bourgeois project of emancipation in King Rat, "Let's put the rat back into fRATternity". #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Marx's critique of economic policy goes back to abstract categories, like commodity form, says Korsika #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Anej Korsika (really this time) on abstractions and Mieville. Kicks off with Hegel and logics historical immanence. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Anej Korsika; "now for something completely abstract" #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Is the city monstrous? Don’t think I agree. Perhaps it is for Mieville, at least in PSS. Is it in City and the City? #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>@martin_eve I’m really enjoying your livetweeting of #mieville2012 :) City&City a fave book of mine; found EmbassyTown harder to love…Diana Spencer</div> <div>Colebrook: London saturated w/ entropy. Spiritual image of the power station shitting out energy & connectivity #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Colebrook compares Looking For Jake wx Horror at Red Hook; http://is.gd/ixokpF #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>How much do I wish I was at #mieville2012 I am so cross that I am stuck with my horrible thesis instead.Minx Marple</div> <div>Martyn Colebrook, New World Entropy, London & Mieville's short fiction #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Andy Butler contra Suvin on the "cognitive uncanny" #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Tyodor functions like Derrida's ambiguous figure of law-asserting the paternal law of right/wrong. Breach defines the 2 cities #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Butler shows interesting framing of the law in City&City - ideas of externality especially considering Breach #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Thanks to Andy Butler for a great story idea. #mieville2012Cheryl Morgan</div> <div>Most of active police characters in City&City are male. Most victims are female, points out Butler. Agency? #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Butler on police function. Reminds me of Foucault's description: dual function of repression & creation of productive subject #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>(on that, see also Tom McCarthy's C) #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Nice to see a speaker delivering a talk from spidery quotes in a miniature pocket notebook! Freud's failure to define uncanny #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Andy Butler doing the Polis in different voices; uncanny slight return #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Wall: Non-human, corporeal agency of the city-as-organic-monstrosity. Shaped & shaping population w/in it. #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Wall: New Crobuzon represents the bloated body of capitalist production. Railroad - tongue of this urban beast #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Bad Cheryl asked really long question then monopolized GoH at coffee break. #mieville2012Cheryl Morgan</div> <div>Thoughtful but not readily tweetable presentation from Duggan on the Doubled City of China Mieville and Bruno Schulz. #mieville2012Chris Lynch</div> <div>A quick recommendation for all at #mieville2012 who also like/are curious in Schulz: read David Grossman's See Under: Love. Incredible.Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Robert Duggan now speaking on The City & The City in relation to Bruno Scholz. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Weird fiction, says Scholz, is always a representation of war and its monsters have always been so #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Christina Scholz on China Mieville & the Revolution of the Weird #mieville2012contemporaryfiction</div> <div>Christina Scholz now on Mieville's revolution of the Weird. Juxtaposing Mieville w/ Lovecraft #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Guess I could get stuck into the Weaver and narrative instability. But sometimes I just want to read without annotating. #mieville2012Andrew Ferguson</div> <div>In Mieville, invisibility instrument of state power, says March-Russell. Worth contrasting w/ Sam Thomas' Pynchon & Political #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Following #mieville2012, realizing I don't have anything properly academic to say about China's work. Teaching City&City in spring though.Andrew Ferguson</div> <div>@GeorgeTtoouli Hmm, I don't think so. Would be very Mievillean if another Mieville conference is simultaneously taking place! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Paul March-Russell on now, speaking on invisibility in Mieville #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Can't make the Weird Council #mieville2012 ? Cognition as ideology: A dialectic of Sci-Fi theory > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZkqMo8U7KMTony Eddicott</div> <div>Today everybody is talking about the MiévilleCon http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/events/ies-conferences/Mieville #mieville2012Marta Peirano</div> <div>Why am I not at #mieville2012?Daniel Rourke</div> <div>@19thC4d #mieville2012 perhaps not, Mark. Perhaps not.Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Lockwood now on to McCarthy's C. History of communications tech in telegraphy. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>The weird ungrounds its own canon #mieville2012Mark Blacklock</div> <div>Deleuze and guattari's argument tjat language's true function is a fabulatory power #mieville2012Mark Blacklock</div> <div>"reading as fabulatory infection" - NOW THIS is the sort of thing brings all the Miévilleheads to the yard. #mieville2012Penny Schenk</div> <div>“@thecityhermit So does translation sometimes require bodily transformation? #mieville2012†< Embassytown implies soDr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Cole kicks off with Nietzsche - our world as a fiction. Transient, truth is passing. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Lockwood and coley double-act up next. Always interesting to see how this works out. #mieville2012Mark Blacklock</div> <div>Mieville does not offer us a utopian vision of multiculturalism, says Pont, but rather a querying of the challenges therein. #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Pont quotes Kraken with the "shit title" Ph.D. thesis... But, apparently, it's untranslatable into French #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Question in the novel, says Bassett, relates to persistence of identity. Which forms of identity can persist? #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Shift in Embassytown is towards Paul Ricoeur's mode of metaphor says Bassett #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>First panel of the day: Languages. Caroline Bassett is rescuing characters within Embassytown - opening language & things #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>The octopus if history (painted by Klee's lesser known brother). Eyes staring, mouth open, tentacles spread. #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>The Octopus of History! #luckhurst #mieville2012Mark Blacklock</div> <div>Luckhurst now ending his jokey, yet serious, keynote with Benjamin's "octopus of history". #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Slide reading "insert obligatory quotation from Bruno LaTour on hybrid objects here". Then we get Pynchon's octopus Grigori! #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>@Tomcat_Redroom I doubt anybody here is that hard #mieville2012Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Junkspace or salvagepunk? Rummaging through ruins in a post-apocalyptic & dead world #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>"Sometimes, novels are actually footnotes to pre-existent scholarship, reversing the usual order of things" #mieville2012 Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>'Don't fucking tell me about secret cities. Don't.' #mieville2012Mark Blacklock</div> <div>Luckhurst goes straight to the good juice for Hinton. #mieville2012Mark Blacklock</div> <div>Claims there's 4th dimensional text in Arcades Proj. I feel @TheProfRog may be making a point with humour #academicconference #mieville2012 Dr Martin Paul Eve</div> <div>Extreme librarianism ftw! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> <div>Great pre-conference welcome with @gylphi. See y'all bright & early fir Wierd Council tomorrow! #mieville2012Caroline Edwards</div> </noscript>