Embassytown by China Mieville

The Unseen Book Club

We discuss Embassytown, China Miéville's weird science fiction novel about a colonial outpost confronted by sudden upheaval and insurgency. We get wrapped up in allegory, metaphor, and how living through crisis can sometimes be the only way to find the necessary language for survival.
What is a Trotskyist? // October, Miéville's history of the Russian Revolution // untranslatable language and the conflation of the sign and the signifier // writing about colonialism without allegory // the Opium Wars // humans as similes // fantasy racism // The Festival of Lies // the latent violence of the colonial order // utopian uncertainty // the marks of insurgency on the body // the gestural nature of language // becoming politically activated // why read science fiction politically? // transformation through struggle // literacy and cognition
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Music by ex-official: https://exofficialexo.bandcamp.com/
Art by Eli Liebman: https://elimack.weebly.com/