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Oh and btw, i agree with him that ALIEN 3 is underrated.
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JG: What cultural influences shaped your writing?China M: My sister and I watched a hell of a lot of TV, which is partly why I don’t buy the argument that it stultifies children’s imaginations—I think it depends almost entirely on the context in which you’re watching it. British children’s TV in the 1970s and early 1980s was extremely good, and these days I often realize that something I’m writing is a riff from that early viewing. Programs I remember vividly include Doctor Who [1963-89], Chorlton and the Wheelies [1976-79], Blake’s 7 [1978-81], and Battle of the Planets [1978-79]. These days I’m a flat-out, awe-struck fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer [1997-2003].
We didn’t see many films when I was young, but since my teens I’ve been watching more. I’m very tolerant of sf bubblegum (though the truly moronic, like Independence Day [Emmerich 1996] or Burton’s Planet of the Apes [2001], leaves me frigid). I loved The Matrix [Wachowski brothers 1999] and I’m sure I’m not the only writer who can feel its influence, especially in fight scenes. I loved the Alien franchise, particularly Alien [Scott 1979] and Alien3 [Fincher 1992] (which I think is very under-rated). I like most half-decent (and many completely un-decent) monster films. I like John Carpenter when he’s on form—I’ve seen Prince of Darkness [1987] probably more than any other film. In terms of influences, the aesthetic that I try to filch respectfully comes most from filmmakers like the Quay Brothers and Jan �vankmajer.
Probably one of the most enduring influences on me was a childhood playing RPGs: Dungeons and Dragons [D&D] and others. I’ve not played for sixteen years and have absolutely no intention of starting again, but I still buy and read the manuals occasionally. There were two things about them that particularly influenced me. One was the mania for cataloguing the fantastic: if you play them for any length of time, you get to know pretty much all the mythological beasts of all pantheons out there, along with a fair bit of the theology. I still love all that—I collect fantastic bestiaries, and one of the main spurs to write a secondary-world fantasy was to invent a bunch of monsters, half of which I’m sure I’ll never be able to fit into any books.
The other, more nebulous, but very strong influence of RPGs was the weird fetish for systematization, the way everything is reduced to “game stats.” If you take something like Cthulhu in Lovecraft, for example, it is completely incomprehensible and beyond all human categorization. But in the game Call of Cthulhu, you see Cthulhu’s “strength,” “dexterity,” and so on, carefully expressed numerically. There’s something superheroically banalifying about that approach to the fantastic. On one level it misses the point entirely, but I must admit it appeals to me in its application of some weirdly misplaced rigor onto the fantastic: it’s a kind of exaggeratedly precise approach to secondary world creation.
I’m conscious of the problems with that: probably my favorite piece of fantastic-world creation ever is the VIRICONIUM series by M. John Harrison [The Pastel City (1971), A Storm of Wings (1980), In Viriconium (1982), and Viriconium Nights (1984; rev. 1985)], which is carefully constructed to avoid any domestication, and which thereby brilliantly achieves the kind of alienating atmosphere I’m constantly striving for, so it’s not as if I think that quantification is the “correct” way to construct a world. But it’s one that appeals to the anal kid in me. To that extent, though I wouldn’t compare myself to Harrison in terms of quality, I sometimes feel as if, formally, my stuff is a cross between Viriconium and D&D.
JG: You mentioned being drawn to the systema..see link
Link:http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/mievilleinterview.htmMy sister, wv-ewe, yelled at me for expressing this, but…and i dont mean to piss on protest whether its the womens march or the science march…but….wont these nice folks just go right back to their comfortable-sleep once a Dem gets into office? Where were they when Clinton and Obama were destroying the poor and handing over power to the banks and corporations who then turn around and destroy the biosphere?
Sorry, couldnt help it. Thats how i feel.
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vI don’t know.
But the first order of business is to stop the hemorrhaging.
We can worry about long term patient outcomes later.
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Well, as i keep trying to tell the evil-liberal-ewe, the fact that i express my feelings about this on a little message board does not mean i have the power to shake up the Womens marchers or the Nerd Marchers. I mean, i cant DO ‘anything’ to help or hurt the marchers. So there’s that. I’m no threat to the ‘movements’ 🙂
The thing that infuriates me is — and you know damn well this is true — the nerds will go right back to sleep as soon as a Hillary or a Biden or whoever-Dem gets elected. They think Trump is the enemy. But Trump did not begin the destruction of the biosphere. Clinton, Obama, Bush, etc all had a hand in it. So where were they when the Dems were giving all this power to those wonderful Corporations and Banks ? And dont change the subject to talk about strategy and alliances and all that. Thats a separate thread and a separate topic and i would no doubt agree with you and zn on that topic — just stick to my narrow question — Where were they when the dems were destroying the biosphere?
…oh and where was Gondor when Rohan needed help?
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vSorry, couldnt help it. Thats how i feel.
Well, later, down the road, after we win, you can have them purged.
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Good. I’m keeping a purge-list. All the liberals have to go. And the conservatives. And the Alt-righters and the rightwing fringe folks. And any religious people. And the centrists, of course. And the new-agers. And the apathetic folks. And all the rich people. And the pro-corporatists. And anyone who likes malls.
So thats just a good start. The entire list is not complete yet.
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