Saving the City in China Mieville's Bas-Lag Novels (Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council) (Report‪)‬

And any city, she told herself, is better than none.--The Scar (467) What strikes and almost overwhelms every reader of China Mieville's Bas-Lag novels is the richness of the set up, the novum, in each novel. Almost as striking, at a second glance, is the omnivorous political enthusiasm which can be inferred from a multitude of details, terms and movements. These overlapping features give rise to questions. Where might a narrative be taken in such a complexly given world? Which, if any, of these political and cultural potentials can be realized? This essay begins by sketching the variety of the political values and hopes embodied in Mieville's fiction, and then suggests that these narratives repeat an ambiguous trope of saving the city. This is the direction in which the narratives take the rich multitude of life and where the political potentials end up. It is a complex compromise.