{"id":3517,"date":"2013-10-15T17:19:59","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T16:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wortraub.com\/?p=3517"},"modified":"2013-10-15T17:19:59","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T16:19:59","slug":"extreme-visions-a-conversation-with-china-mieville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/?p=3517","title":{"rendered":"Extreme Visions \u2013 A Conversation with China Mi\u00e9ville"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">How science fiction inspires the future of our cities Pt. 4<\/h2>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p>Buildings as large as\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/betterymagazine.com\/stories\/arcologies-science-fiction-in-the-city-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">cities<\/a>, entire city blocks\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/betterymagazine.com\/stories\/growing-skyscrapers\/\" target=\"_blank\">growing like plants<\/a>, or personal flying devices and high-speed mass\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/betterymagazine.com\/stories\/future-transportation-3\/\" target=\"_blank\">transit systems<\/a>\u00a0inspired by science fiction scenarios \u2013 as part of our science fiction explorations we have shown you glimpses of how designers, architects, and engineers approach our urban future in creative ways. At the same time, the sheer utopian vision of science fiction can also become overwhelming; it can be truly radical and uncompromising, sometimes beyond the scope of our wildest dreams. So, let\u2019s explore some of the genre\u2019s more extreme ideas and futuristic flights of fancy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">China Mi\u00e9ville counts among the most successful contemporary authors of fantastic fiction in the UK \u2013 and many of his striking stories deal with the very essence of our cities. In his novels, the urban environment constitutes more than a mere backdrop to the action: It becomes an acting agent itself. \u201cIt is not conscious,\u201d Mi\u00e9ville argues, \u201cbut I suppose that is because I am a city creature. I find cities endlessly fecund and inspiring. Living in a city like London, you don\u2019t just get on with your life in a place that happens to be called London. It is a specific thing: living in London. The city intrudes into your life and this, in turn, translates into fiction as a manifestation of character \u2013 it is how we experience it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">More at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/betterymagazine.com\/stories\/extreme-visions\/\" target=\"_blank\">bettery-magazine.com<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How science fiction inspires the future of our cities Pt. 4 Buildings as large as\u00a0cities, entire city blocks\u00a0growing like plants,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,66],"tags":[859,875,873,876,1017,99],"class_list":["post-3517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-literatur","tag-bettery","tag-china-mieville","tag-city","tag-future","tag-literatur","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3519,"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3517\/revisions\/3519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wortraub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}