Author and illustrator China Mieville speaks to Alan Kelly about the world of young adult fantasy books for the post-Potter generation.

Mieville is a strange fish, a strange fish in fantasy literature
or the “New Weird” literary movement, but nowadays he isn’t bothered
euphemistically referring to his work this way.

“It was a term that cropped up at a certain moment, a few years
ago,” says Mieville, “That I think was useful to point at something
happening at the time, and that after a while, without repudiating in
any way, I decided was not particularly helpful for me to talk about
any more. I was being a bore and kitsch about it.”

All literary moments are arguments, and I think it was a useful argument.”

Un Lun Dun is Mieville’s first foray into Young Adult fiction and
one of the most splendid children’s books to have appeared post-Harry
Potter.

“I’d always wanted to write a book for younger readers because I
remember very vividly how it felt to read, at that age; that kind of
abandon and totality.”

Mieville’s intention with Un Lun Dun was in part as homage to the
many books that he loved and grew up with. “Particularly the Alice
books, but by no means confined to them. I would love to write
another.”

Mieville hopes to write more children’s books throughout his life, interspersing them with his other work.
The
story is not unlike Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, but other than placing
characters in an alternative unseen London, there is much difference in
content and narrative.

“I’m an enormous fan of Neil Gaiman and his stuff is swilling
around inside me like the stuff of all the writers I admire and love.”

Mieville hadn’t read Neverwhere when he started work on Un Lun Dun,
“But I read it early on and the overlap of ideas is clear, though as
you say I don’t think they are fundamentally structurally similar.”

Mieville points out that the idea of a London Phantasmagoria is one
that has a long and rich tradition, “Of which Gaiman’s book is an
indispensable part.”

In Un Lun Dun giraffes stalk a spectral borough craving human flesh,
milk-cartons make a good substitute for kittens, ‘halfling’ boys
are ostracized because they are the offspring hybrid of humans, ghosts
and a large cloud called The Schwazzy. Un Lun Dun is a rollicking
adventure of a story.

Unsurprisingly, Mieville has won a number of awards, including the
prestigious Arthur C Clarke award for Perdido Street Station and the
British Fantasy Award for The Scar.

So, what does “The Smog” (a giant cloud of predatory pollution)
in Un Lun Dun represent? “I think it’s not terribly helpful a lot
of the time to think in terms of what things ‘represent’ in fiction
– its fiction, it is what it is.”

“Of course that’s not to suggest that fiction doesn’t use all
kinds and all levels of metaphors and insinuations, everything in
fiction spins off all sorts of meanings, that’s part of what makes it
interesting,” he says.

“But if it simply ‘represents’ one or another thing, then it does
make you wonder, what’s the point telling the story? I also think
writers are often not best placed to discuss their own ideas, as
they’re so often wrong about them, in my opinion.”

Mieville goes on to say that  having the Smog as a villain in
his book might imply things about “pollution” or
“garbage-culture: “And I’m not saying those aren’t helpful
things to  consider if you think about the book, but not at the
expense of thinking about the Smog as a giant sentient cloud of
predatory pollution. We can have our cake and eat it.”

The writer gives the usual list of names when discussing influences
– Lovecraft, M John Harrison, Michael Moorcock, Dambudzo Marechera,
Charlotte Bronte, Max Ernst, “et many al” — but does feel
there’s something a bit unsatisfactory about that. “The question of
influence is complicated.

I think in many cases writers are the last people to be aware of
what influences them. Also, you don’t have to like a book to be
influenced by it (though, to be clear, I do like Gaiman’s stuff, a
lot).

You can spend a lot of your time unaware of an influence, or being
influenced by arguing with something.” He cites C S Lewis’s Narnia
books as influential on his work, “But I don’t like them much. Then
there are books you love but, that for some reason it would be hard to
pin down, don’t resonate in your own writing as much as books that you
may not like as much. It’s a stew.”

So, what does he think of young adult fiction now? “I think this
is an exceptional time for Young Adult fiction. Some of my favorite
books of the last several years — by David Almond and Philip Reeve
among others — have been in this age-group, and they’re easily the
equal and more of most of the ‘adult’ books around.” Mieville
adds: “This is a great time for the field.”

Un Lun Dun is out now and published by Pan McMillian