China Miéville skews the picturesque

China Miéville skews the picturesque

Saturday 11th June  16:00

 

China Miéville skewers the picturesque in a talk specially written for the festival, followed by a Q&A session.

What is the picturesque? What is its role in our psyche and how does it work? And just what is that work? Why is the cosy and charming so often so unsettling? China Miéville looks askance at the quaint – and reveals how it’s always looking menacingly askance right back at us.

‘Over and over again, book after book, Miéville’s mature work forces the reader to ask the question that most writers get to prompt once in a literary lifetime if they’re lucky: what is this new thing we are being shown? Repeatedly, as a writer of the fantastic, he forces a redefinition of what fantasy can be’ – Francis Spufford, The Guardian.

Price: £15