Multiple Faces and Urban "Monsters":On China Miéville's Urban "New Weird Tales"
China Miéville,a British author,is one of the most important writers of the"New Weird Tales"of contemporary science fiction.In Miéville's works such as King Rat,Un Lun Dun,and The Last Days ofNew Paris,he imagines non-human groups like the rat tribe of London,depicts the"pseudo-London"composed of discarded objects,and showcases "monsters"from "surrealist art"coming to life in Paris.Through these narratives,Miéville presents a grotesque and terrifying urban landscape,revealing"monstrous others"that exist beyond human cognition yet are omnipresent.This breaks the notion of hu-man exclusive possession of the city and its rejection of multiplicity,forcing people to face and acknowl-edge the intrinsic others.At the same time,Miéville legitimizes this diverse and hybrid metropolis,gran-ting life to the monsters catalyzed by science and art—monsters often fighting against the real "evil".In this way,Miéville provides a novel aesthetic experience of the multifaceted urban visage and rejects the escapist "comforting"means found in Tolkien's works,emphasizing the writing of"multifaceted world"and "monstrous others"to observe and even change reality and achieve a certain utopian ideal.
China Miévillescience fictionnew weird talesKing RatUn Lun DunThe Last Days ofNew Paris
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