Friday, September 30, 2016

China Mieville - This Census-Taker

In
Keying, No Obstacle Withstands.

What an elegantly gap-filled, worryingly incomplete and unsettling novella this is. I can't help find its absences and silences frustrating, beholden as I am to the usual desires for narrative and resolution, but that only adds to the power of This Census-Taker - like a missing or painful tooth, you can't help constantly probing at it, to still be met by the same lack each time.

The Hope Is So:
Count Entire Nation, Subsume Under Sets. -
Take Accounts. Keep Estimates. Realize 
Interests. So
Reach Our Government's Ultimate Ends.