Chine Mieville's New Weird

We see new weird unabashedly taking on current and controversial issues. We look at China Mieville's "Polynia" which discusses the early like of a boy growing up in London after something extraordinary happens. Enormous and very real ice bergs float over London on a horizontal plane in the sky. Though they tend to make the ground colder wherever they pass over, they seem to face no threat other than dropping the occasional small piece of ice on the land below. Enormous pieces break off but continue to float on their horizontal suspension. Through the boy's research we learn that all over the world other things are happening. In Brazil coral thought to be extinct now grows out of water on all of the government buildings. In Japan the undergrowth of the rainforest takes over and destroys factories. All over the world it seems that countries who have destroyed enormous natural creations are now being plagued by their reoccurring presence. Another of Mieville’s “Covehithe” describes decommissioned and long abandoned oil rigs who suddenly reconstruct under the ocean, only to crawly back on land with their support beams as legs, drill to refuel, and lay eggs that in turn grow smaller baby oil rigs the size of a man. While certainly fitting into the concept of the new weird, this talks more about living things and purpose and challenges the reader to identify why such a thing as a living oil rig emerging from he sea to lay eggs somehow still registers as a beautiful act of nature. Somehow the act of a father sneaking his young daughter out to watch this rare sight does not seem as strange as it should. Almost off-putting, it challenges what we see as a beautiful act of nature. It challenged what we see as normal. In many of his writings, though things happen that seem strange to us, Meiville does a wonderful job at bringing us right into the world view and understanding that here, these things are not strange. To everyone else in this world, these happenings are a part of growing up, something to show your children. 

Bridgette Olavage