It only took two days to read through The City & The City. Getting immersed is not easy when the narrator is operating under a completely different frame reference of your own and then proceeds to not explain it until like halfway through the book. Luckily, I’m very used to jumping into the deep end while reading–an unfortunate result of accidentally starting too many series on the second book rather than the first, because the sequel was the first and only available option and was never clearly marked as such. That’s what reading this felt like.
What’s funny is I remember when China Mieville’s Un Lun Dun came out. I never got to read it (the downtown bookstore is shipping it in for me this week, though), but it had sounded fascinating. I didn’t even realize this was the same author until they mentioned “UnLondon” in the interview section, and that set off a “wait a minute…” line of thought.
I’m still not sure why this particular book was chosen. Was it perhaps to illustrate how properly explaining things helps with your audience? I fail to see how it connects to forming an argument on what you do with the future unless the point is that your actions can have unforeseen consequences. Or maybe it was there just because it was a good book, but that’s not how the education system works, unfortunately.
-Miriam
DarkestElemental616 