Jack by China Mieville – From The New Weird
In yesterday’s post about “the New Weird”, I probably made it pretty clear that I’m not sure what exactly this appellation means. But I did find time to read one of the story’s from the anthology The New Weird yesterday. The short story was called “Jack”, and it was written by China Mieville. I’ve not read anything by China Mieville before, so I didn’t know what to expect. After reading this story, I’m not sure what to expect from China Mieville’s writing in the future either. I really enjoyed the story. The “Jack” of the title is “Jack Half-A-Prayer”, and I’m not sure if he’s a character only used in this short story, or if he’s part of a larger milieu.
I wouldn’t have described “Jack” by China Mieville as horror necessarily, although it was definitely horrific. If I had to put a label on the story, I’d call it “fantasy” or “dark fantasy”. But I can see what this particular short story has in common with some of Clive Barker’s work, and I feel like I’m coming to terms a bit with the concept of “the New Weird”.
I also did some more reading on the subject of “the New Weird” yesterday, and about the anthology itself. Apparently the anthology is organized very specifically, with a section for some of the recent ancestors of the sub-genre, some examples of the genre itself, and then some analysis and literary criticism in the form of essays about “the New Weird”.
I’m also engrossed in a novel right now called The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. I’d read She’s Come Undone a few years ago and liked it, but I LOVE The Hour I First Believed so far. It’s one of the only novels that’s actually moved me to tears, which is a rare and important achievement in a work of literature. (Literature is supposed to affect you emotionally, otherwise, what’s the point?) I’m only about halfway through the book so far.
We do carry copies of both books at the store here. Neither one is horror, strictly speaking, not in the sense of vampires or ghosts. But much of The Hour I First Believed is concerned with the Hurricane Katrina and Columbine, which are two of the more real-life horrific events in our country’s history. So I’ve included it in our stock here.
I’ll write more tomorrow. My son’s got strep, and I have to take him to the pharmacy to get some antibiotics today.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 10:45 am and is filed under Horror Fiction, The New Weird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.