The Urban Writing In China Miéville’s Bas-Lag Trilogy

China Miéville’s(1972-)Bas-Lag Trilogy includs three novels:Perdido Street Station(2000),The Scar(2002)and The Iron Council(2004).These three novels revolve around three cities:New Clobuzon,Armada and Iron Council which is on the train.New Clobuzon is the central city,while Armada is a mobile sea city transformed by countless pirate ships,the Iron Council is a permanent mobile train on the city.Through the contrast of the three cities,the author express the critical thinking to the New Clobusan which is named Cacotopias.By constructing two cities:Armada and the Iron Council away from the central continent,the contrast expresses the author’s thoughts on capitalist rule and to practices his thought experiments on democracy and revolution.The first part of this paper focuses on the political,economic,and humanistic forms of New Clobuzon as Cacotopias: New Clobuzon is enveloped by a dictatorial and tyrannical rule,and capital gradually alienates all kinds of intelligent creatures,represented by Remade,who,as victims under tyrannical punishment,are gradually objectified into commodities and become individuals without dignity and freedom.The second part unfolds from the comparison between the two cities Armada and the Iron Council and New Clobusan.Far from a dictatorship,the Armada is a city of mixed people and mixed spaces.With a crude form of democracy,each individual gains equality and autonomy.Away from the arena of capital,develop economic activities through pirate plunder.The city becomes a healing field for personal’s scars.The Iron Council is a city on a train.It is a city that unites the proletariat,such as transformed people,workers,intelligent creatures,and prostitutes,to rise up against the capital revolution.As the city eventually returned to New Clobusan,the Iron Council became a symbol of dreams and hopes of constant revolution.The third part concludes with a comparison between the previous explorations of the city of the evil tropics,the city of New Clobusan,and the two cities of possibility:that is,all three cities have,in general,a consistent style of hybridity and decaying imagery,and the author writes about New Clobusan as a representative of tyrannical rule,but also about the new possibilities and gaps under this violent rule.The Armada and the Iron Council,for example,are both fields of critique and contemplation for the author’s criticism of violent rule and capitalist economic relations.At the same time,the two possible cities serve as a base for experimentation,which gives a better glimpse of the author’s idea of the ideal city construction.The author’s imagination of socialism,his critical reflection on the human condition,and his philosophical thoughts on the "possibility" of hope are unfolded in his exploration of subversion and rebirth through the contrast of the three cities’ destinies.These imagined cities tend to be a rebellious force,and at the same time present a path of return to the New Clobusan,a cyclical path of advance and return,of success and return to failure,a metaphor for the exploration of the city’s destiny,and a field for the author’s critical reflection.Faced with the situation of constant return and the loop of constant failure,the text presents the best reference: the greatest meaning of revolution is the possibility of the perseverance of action and hope.These experiments and explorations are no longer meaningless,but a kind of reflection and accumulation of experience,a driving force and symbol of a never-ending dream for the future.The dilemma that creates the circle of repetition is a way out,and at the same time a possibility.