Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Trump looks to kill student loan forgiveness program
UPDATED TUE, FEB 11 2020 Annie Nova@ANNIEREPORTER

KEY POINTS

The Education Department’s budget would be slashed under Trump’s 2021 budget.
Cuts include the end of subsidized student loans and the popular public service loan forgiveness program.


President Donald Trump is calling for cuts to the Education Department
Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images

As student debt continues to climb, President Donald Trump on Monday released a budget for 2021 that would slash many of the programs aimed at helping borrowers.

Student loan spending would be cut by $170 billion in Trump’s plan, titled “A Budget for America’s Future.” The reductions include “sensible annual and lifetime loan limits” for graduate students and parents and the end to subsidized loans, in which the government covers the interest for borrowers who are still in school or experiencing economic hardship.


It would also reduce the number of repayment options for borrowers and nix the popular, if challenged, public service loan forgiveness program.

That program, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007, allows not-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans canceled after 10 years of on-time payments. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates that up to one-quarter of American workers are eligible.


“The Trump Administration already has a reputation of being anti-borrower,” said Mark Kantrowitz, a higher education policy expert. “This just takes it further.”

In all, Trump’s proposal would request $66.6 billion for the U.S. Department of Education, trimming the budget by $5.6 billion, or nearly 8%. The proposed cut is less steep than last year, when he called for a nearly 10% reduction in spending for the department.
Still, any cuts to student loan relief programs are unlikely to sit well with many voters.

Eighty percent of Americans agree that the government should make it easier for people with student debt to repay their loans, a study by The Pew Charitable Trusts found. Another poll found that nearly 60% of registered voters said they would support a plan to cancel all existing student loan debt.

Meanwhile, leading Democratic presidential candidates on the campaign trail are vowing to cancel the majority or all of the country’s outstanding student loan debt.

Bernie Sanders has proposed wiping out the country’s $1.6 trillion outstanding student loan tab.

Elizabeth Warren’s plan would cancel $50,000 in student debt for borrowers with household incomes of less than $100,000. People who earn between $100,000 and $250,000 would be eligible for forgiveness on a sliding scale.

---30---

WINDMILLS AND WIND TURBINE STORIES


Windmills on the American Plains (U.S. National Park Service)
https://www.nps.gov › articles › windmills
May 10, 2019 - European windmills were impractical on the American Plains. They were large, expensive, and required constant maintenance as their cloth ...

How do offshore wind farms affect ocean ecosystems? - DW
https://www.dw.com › how-do-offshore-wind-farms-affect-ocean-ecosyste...

Nov 22, 2017 - Some scientists say wind turbine areas are like artificial reefs, creating sanctuaries ... The impact of large-scale wind energy farms on marine ecosystems is diverse ...

Wind Energy Vision for Canada | Wind Produces No Toxic Waste‎
Adwww.canwea.ca/wind-energy‎

Today's wind energy is the lowest cost source of new electricity generation! One province and five U.S. states reliably operating with over 20% of supply from wind. A Clean Solution. A Benefit to Communities. A Canadian Success Story.
Insights, Facts and Stats
A Competitive Price
A Reliable Partner
A Wind Energy Vision



ACCIONA | Exprimenting with the wind‎
Adexperience.acciona.com/‎

El Perdón wind farm is the oldest commercial wind farm in Spain. Renwable energies for designing a better planet. Engineering. Solar Energy. Water Treatment. Articles and News. Wind Power. Brands: ACCIONA Energy, ACCIONA Sustainability, ACCIONA Construction.

MEGALOMANIAC SUFFERS FROM MEGALOPHOBIA

TRUMP FEARS WINDMILLS 
THERE IS A NAME FOR THAT


HEADLINE;
MEGALOMANIAC SUFFERS FROM MEGALOPHOBIA


TRUMP'S PHOBIA ACTUALLY DOES HAVE A NAME, IN FACT MORE THAN ONE
Megalophobia: 22 Pictures (and Videos) Of Things Larger ...
https://blog.depositphotos.com › megalophobia-22-pictures-and-videos-of-...

Aug 30, 2018 - Just know that the fear of things larger than life exists and is true for many, so by scrolling the images ... Wind turbine in comparison to a human.

What Are Agoraphobia Symptoms? - 5 Shocking Facts‎
Adwww.healthprep.com/Agoraphobia‎

Reveal how to detect and diagnose the early signs of agoraphobia today. Find out the common signs and symptoms of agoraphobia to be aware of immediately. Treatment & Prevention. Health Risks. Preventative Measures. Treatment Options. Important Facts.

Ancraophobia (NOTHING TO DO WITH ARACHNIDS OR ANARCHISTS) 
Ancraophobia, also known as anemophobia, is an extreme fear of wind or drafts. It is rather uncommon, and can be treated. It has many different effects on the human brain. It can cause panic attacks for those who have the fear, and can make people miss out on regular everyday activities such as going outside Ancraophobia - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Ancraophobia

Thank you for putting a name to my bizarre fear of wind turbines https://www.reddit.com › megalophobia › comments › thank_you_for_put...
Apr 22, 2017 - r/megalophobia: A place to post images of all things large, particularly ones that are "triggers" for those with megalophobia.
Questions about Anemomenophobia : Phobia
Mar. 5, 2016
Wind turbine : megalophobia
Nov. 22, 2015
fear of windmills : megalophobia
Jul. 15, 2019
Do offshore wind-farms make anyone else uneasy ...
Jan. 30, 2017

10 Weird Phobias You Have Definitely Never Heard Of
https://allthatsinteresting.com › weird-phobias

Ancraophobia or Anemophobia Both terms are used to define the fear of wind. People who suffer from ancraophobia tend to become anxious out of doors and near open windows.

Quixotic | Definition of Quixotic by Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › quixotic
... the world by tilting at windmills, but he did leave a linguistic legacy in English. ... the author would have us fear contaminates too much American humor lately, ...



#anemomenophobia hashtag on Twitter
https://twitter.com › hashtag › anemomenophobia

Quijote attacks the windmill, hurting both spear and self. Sancho tells Quixote it's idiocy to fight windmills. Quixote maintains the evil magician Freston changed ...


TRUMP'S PHOBIA RANTS 

Trump Says Wind Turbine Noise Causes Cancer. (It Does Not.)
h
ttps://nymag.com › intelligencer › 2019/04 › trump-says-wind-turbine-nois...

Apr 2, 2019 - At a speech to the NRCC, President Trump claimed of wind turbines, ... It was a valid fear, given that reporters were in the room and C-SPAN ..


Certified Moron Donald Trump Thinks Wind Turbines “Cause ...
https://www.vanityfair.com › donald-trump-wind-power-causes-cancer

Apr 3, 2019 - Donald Trump has a long history of attacking wind energy, which he views as a threat to coal and his campaign to transform the planet into a ...


Internet Compares Donald Trump to Don Quixote's Fear of ...
https://www.newsweek.com › ... › Wind energy › Birds › Deaths

Dec 23, 2019 - President Donald Trump's latest comments about wind power are being compared to Don Quixote's famous fear of windmills.

Trump's windmill hatred is a worry for booming industry
https://www.nbcnews.com › politics › politics-news › trump-s-windmill-hat...

Sep 30, 2019 - The winds are blowing fair for America's wind power industry, making it one of ... Now, wind industry leaders and supporters fear that the federal ...


Trump's Turning Point rant about wind energy and “fumes ...
https://www.vox.com › trump-wind-turbines-turning-point-usa-speech

Dec 23, 2019 - Future generations will look back on Trump's wind turbines rant in awe and horror.


WHAT IS TURBINE WIND SYNDROME? 

A PSYCHOSOMATIC RESPONSE BY WHITE FOLKS WHO HAVE VACATION HOMES AT THE LAKE WHERE THE WIND TURBINE WILL BE BUILT BRINGING DOWN THEIR PROPERTY VALUES BECAUSE OF THE LOSS OF A VIEW. 

Rachel Maddow Warns: Scotland Could Use Trump's Fear Of ...
https://www.realclearpolitics.com › video › 2016/12/22 › rachel_maddow_w...

▶ 3:19
Dec 22, 2016 - Uploaded by Late Night with Seth MeyersOn Wednesday's edition of Late Night with Seth Meyers, MSNBC Rachel Maddow warned Scotland could use ...

Rachel Maddow Has Laughing Fit Over Trump's Irrational ...
https://www.alternet.org › Culture

Dec 22, 2016 - ... Maddow Has Laughing Fit Over Trump's Irrational Fear of Windmills ... Trump tweeted over 100 times about his hatred of windmills before ...


AND A NEW STUDY IDENTIFIES TRUMP AS A SCAREMONGER
New study: wind turbine syndrome is spread by scaremongers
theconversation.com › new-study-wind-turbine-syndrome-is-spread-by-sca...

Mar 14, 2013 - The study provided powerful evidence for the nocebo hypothesis: the idea that anxiety and fear about wind turbines being spread about by ...

THIS FAKE SYNDROME APPEARS CONTAGIOUS

How to catch 'wind turbine syndrome': by hearing about it and ...
https://www.theguardian.com › commentisfree › nov › how-to-catch-wind-t...

Nov 28, 2017 - My new book with Fiona Crichton, Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Communicated Disease, ... Few now fear television sets and microwave ovens.


The Dubious Science of Wind-Turbine Syndrome - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com › science › archive › 2017/06 › wind-turbine-...

Jun 19, 2017 - Anxiety over “wind-turbine syndrome” stems from a decades-old ... In a manner similar to infrasound, the fear stemmed from exposure to 

Wind turbines may trigger danger response in brain - Telegraph
https://www.telegraph.co.uk › news › science › science-news › Wind-turbine...

Jul 13, 2015 - Living near a wind turbine could harm emotional wellbeing after scientists discovered that low frequency sounds generated by rotor blades ...

 A- fear b- worry c-fiction a- windswept b- windsurfing c- wind turbines d- ...

Wind turbines: Are they truly terrible or an unfounded fear ...
https://www.wind-watch.org › news › 2019/05/01 › wind-turbines-are-the...

May 1, 2019 - Saturday, the middle of the Easter weekend, was a mild day in comparison to most this spring. Kathy Parent says she and her husband — they ...


WHAT DOES THE SCIENCE SAY
[PDF]
Wind turbine syndrome - The Sydney eScholarship Repository
h
ttps://ses.library.usyd.edu.au › bitstream › 9781743324998_repository

by S Chapman - ‎2017 - ‎Cited by 6 - ‎Related articlesMarch 2017. Figure 2.1b Google Trend Australian data for 'wind turbine syndrome', 8 ... that modelling 'suggested a wind farm at Bald Hills alone would result.

(PDF) Wind Turbine Syndrome: a communicated disease
h
ttps://www.researchgate.net › publication › 326476550_Wind_Turbine_Sy...

Jul 23, 2018 - Wind Turbine Syndrome: a communicated disease. Simon Chapman AO. Emeritus professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney ... program “Myth Busters” may find that an ... Regular slander on an anonymous web- ... University of Sydney eScholarship ... and Health Study: Summary of Results.

The Pattern of Complaints about Australian Wind Farms Does ...
h
ttps://journals.plos.org › plosone › article › journal.pone.0076584

By S Chapman - ‎2013 - ‎Cited by 63 - ‎Related articlesOct 16, 2013 - Results There are large historical and geographical variations in ... to subjects was sourced from anti wind farm internet sites which the ... Google Trends data of web-based searches for “Wind turbine noise”, “Wind Turbine Syndrome” and ... University of Sydney's e-scholarship repository on March 15 2013.


[PDF]
Wind Turbine Syndrome: a communicated disease - The ...
https://www.royalsoc.org.au › images › pdf › journal › 151-1-Chapman

39. Wind Turbine Syndrome: a communicated disease. Simon Chapman AO. Emeritus professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney.

Fomenting Sickness: Nocebo Priming of Residents about ...
h
ttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pmc › articles › PMC4264329
]
by S Chapman - ‎2014 - ‎Cited by 16 - ‎Related articlesDec 12, 2014 - Sporadic reports of opposition to some of these wind farms began appearing from ... by the wind farm opponents and negative information from the internet, ... We then weighted the results by the click-through data shown in Ref. ... on wind farms and health, ranked by click volume of Google search position.

Wind turbines and health: reviews of the science
https://ramblingsdc.net › windreview

hat does the scientific research literature tell us about wind turbines and health? ... of Health, Victoria (Australia); search for "Wind farms sound and health". ... http://www.canwea.ca/pdf/CanWEA - Addressing concerns with wind turbines and ... a number of environmental stressors that result in an annoyed/stressed state in ...


[PDF]
Spatio-temporal differences in the history of health and noise ...
w
ww.tuulivoimayhdistys.fi › filebank › 212-Complaints_about_australian_...

by S Chapman - ‎2013 - ‎Cited by 18 - ‎Related articles2006 Australia. Address for correspondence: simon.chapman@sydney.edu.au ... Results There are large spatio-temporal variations in wind farm noise and health complaints. 33/51 ... Google Trends data of web-based searches for “Wind Turbine Syndrome” and the ... scholarship repository on March 15 2013. In the next 12 ...


[PDF]
Is there anything not caused by wind farms?

www.aph.gov.au › DocumentStore

Nov 2, 2012 - Chapman S, The sickening truth about wind turbine syndrome. ... Chapman S, St George A. "A disease in search of a cause: a study of self-citation and press ... University of Sydney e-Scholarship Repository [under peer review] ... AKT5757C7CO026-BGI54ED19RO026.pdf. 3. “Air quality ... findings/892014.


[PDF]
The Woolcock Wind Farm Trials

https://www.slhd.nsw.gov.au › sydneyresearch › pdf › news43

Sydneysiders to silent sound waves from wind turbines while they sleep to find out if ... collectively as wind turbine syndrome (WTS), which they link to infrasound, the ... “We hope to find out whether wind turbine syndrome is real or whether the symptoms people experience are the result of so-called 'nocebo effect', where a.
Missing: Web ‎eScholarship ‎Repository

The effect of infrasound and negative expectations to adverse ...
https://journals.sagepub.com › doi › abs

by R Tonin - ‎2016 - ‎Cited by 21 - ‎Related articlesFeb 24, 2016 - Menus. SAGE Journals. Profile logged-in. Search ... Download PDF [PDF] ... Keywords Wind turbine noise, infrasound, nocebo effect, pathological ... Pierpont, N . Wind turbine syndrome – a report on a natural ... University of Sydney e-scholarship repository, 8 January 2015. ... Online ISSN: 2048-4046.


MEGALOPHOBIA
Understanding Megalophobia or the Fear of Large Objects
https://www.verywellmind.com › Psychology › Phobias › Types

Oct 24, 2018 - Megalophobia is the fear of large objects. Learn the myths and realities of this phobia which can be specific to large animals, ships, or other ...


Meet the woman who's afraid of wind turbines - The Sunday Post
https://www.sundaypost.com › chat › meet-woman-whos-afraid-wind-turbi...
Jul 24, 2016 - Alison Prior suffers from an irrational fear of the whirling electricity generators, which she says was started in her childhood by the sight of a large pink, mechanical gorilla. The condition – the medical name is Anemomenophobia – sees sufferers overcome by crippling panic at the sight of a turbine.

I am afraid of the huge wind turbines you see in fields. Is this a .
https://www.quora.com › I-am-afraid-of-the-huge-wind-turbines-you-see-in-...

2 answersIf you are concerned about one of these… …then you needn't be concerned. Until, they become one of these… …at which time, you should become very ...


Hairdresser left crippled with fear as she seeks treatment for ...
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk › News › Scottish News › Aberdeen

Jul 25, 2016 - ALISON Prior suffers from anemomenophobia and almost crashed her car on holiday after driving past wind turbines by the side of the road.

Why am I scared of wind turbines?! | Mumsnet

https://www.mumsnet.com › Talk › Chat

Jul 13, 2019 - I hate wind turbines too, no physical reaction just the sheer size - and the ... I am scared of windmills. ... I have a proper phobia of big ship hulls.



Is it normal that i'm scared of wind turbines? | Is It Normal ...
https://www.isitnormal.com › post › is-it-normal-that-i-m-scared-of-wind-t..

Absolutely crazy that this many folks too have fears of wind turbines. I was so ... My fear extends to many large metal structures but windmills are the worst.



ANTI WIND TURBINE PROPAGANDA 
Wind turbine disintegrates near a road: fear among the car ...
https://www.youtube.com › watch
▶ 1:21
Feb 7, 2017 - Uploaded by Friends Against Wind (TURBINES, OVER PROPERTY VALUES)
On February 5, 2017 in Aquilonia, town in the province of Avellino in the Campania region of Southern ...

THE RESIDENTS FROM MARS 

Fear of a Windmill - Syed Mohammed - Medium
https://medium.com › fear-of-a-windmill-50b48ffc5652

Nov 1, 2017 - 'Monstrous tripods'. That's what H G Wells called them in his story The War of the Worlds. Only these, along NH 50, near Bijapur, had just one ...

Image result for WAR OPF THE WORLDS HG WELLS ILLUSTRATIONS
Image result for WAR OPF THE WORLDS HG WELLS ILLUSTRATIONS

Image result for WAR OPF THE WORLDS HG WELLS ILLUSTRATIONS




Image result for WAR OPF THE WORLDS HG WELLS ILLUSTRATIONS

Platform Capitalism (Theory Redux) 

1st Edition, Kindle Edition

What unites Google and Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, Siemens and GE, Uber and Airbnb? Across a wide range of sectors, these firms are transforming themselves into platforms: businesses that provide the hardware and software foundation for others to operate on. This transformation signals a major shift in how capitalist firms operate and how they interact with the rest of the economy: the emergence of 'platform capitalism'.
This book critically examines these new business forms, tracing their genesis from the long downturn of the 1970s to the boom and bust of the 1990s and the aftershocks of the 2008 crisis. It shows how the fundamental foundations of the economy are rapidly being carved up among a small number of monopolistic platforms, and how the platform introduces new tendencies within capitalism that pose significant challenges to any vision of a post-capitalist future. This book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the most powerful tech companies of our time are transforming the global economy."

Platform Capitalism (Theory Redux) by [Srnicek, Nick]

Product description

Review

Platform Capitalism is a high definition snapshot of the current political economic situation than manages to get a lot of detail into a tight frame. It offers a convincing image of the current stage of capitalist development as a series of variations on the theme of the platform as a means of consolidating or seizing a kind of monopoly leverage over not only distribution but also production. Srnicek gives good reasons for thinking the platform moment in capital accumulation might be less all-conquering than it looks.’
McKenzie Wark, author of Telethesia: Communication, Culture and Class"Probe the slithering, creeping collusion between public and private, work and exhaustion, capitalism and death. As cars transform into terrorist devices and public housing explodes into flame through neglectful policies, planning and practices, we require books to understand the loss of agency, the loss of choice and the permanent revolution of fear, confusion and ignorance."
Times Higher Education Supplement
"…Srnicek builds an illuminating 120-page dissertation on where the platform came from, and where it might take us."
Literary Review of Canada


Product Description

What unites Google and Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, Siemens and GE, Uber and Airbnb? Across a wide range of sectors, these firms are transforming themselves into platforms: businesses that provide the hardware and software foundation for others to operate on. This transformation signals a major shift in how capitalist firms operate and how they interact with the rest of the economy: the emergence of 'platform capitalism'.
This book critically examines these new business forms, tracing their genesis from the long downturn of the 1970s to the boom and bust of the 1990s and the aftershocks of the 2008 crisis. It shows how the fundamental foundations of the economy are rapidly being carved up among a small number of monopolistic platforms, and how the platform introduces new tendencies within capitalism that pose significant challenges to any vision of a post-capitalist future. This book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the most powerful tech companies of our time are transforming the global economy."

About the Author

Nick Srnicek (born 1982) is an American writer and academic. He is currently a lecturer in Digital Economy at King's College London. Born in 1982, Srnicek took a double major in Psychology and Philosophy before completing an MA at the University of Western Ontario in 2007. He proceeded to a PhD at the London School of Economics, completing his thesis in 2013 on "Representing complexity: the material construction of world politics". He has worked as a Visiting Lecturer at City University and the University of Westminster. Srnicek is associated with the political theory of accelerationism and a post-scarcity economy.

The Hidden History of Burma cover art

Publisher's Summary


Precariously positioned between China and India, Burma's population has suffered dictatorship, natural disaster, and the dark legacies of colonial rule. But when decades of military dictatorship finally ended and internationally beloved Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi emerged from long years of house arrest, hopes soared. World leaders such as Barack Obama ushered in waves of international support. Progress seemed inevitable. 


As historian, former diplomat, and presidential advisor, Thant Myint-U saw the cracks forming. In this insider's diagnosis of a country at a breaking point, he dissects how a singularly predatory economic system, fast-rising inequality, disintegrating state institutions, the impact of new social media, the rise of China next door, climate change, and deep-seated feelings around race, religion, and national identity all came together to challenge the incipient democracy. Interracial violence soared and a horrific exodus of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fixed international attention. Myint-U explains how and why this happened, and details an unsettling prognosis for the future. 
Are democracy and an economy that genuinely serves all its people possible in Burma? In clear and urgent prose, Myint-U explores this question - a concern not just for the Burmese but for the rest of the world.

©2020 Thant Myint-U (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Thinking Weirdly with China Miéville


JANUARY 13, 2018

No matter how commodified and domesticated the fantastic in its various forms might be, we need fantasy to think the world, and to change it.

— China Miéville



Art and Idea in the Novels of China Miéville 
Published 09.07.2015
Gylphi Limited
194 Pages   


¤

CHINA MIÉVILLE IS one of the most inventive writers of contemporary science fiction and fantasy literature. Since the publication of King Rat in 1998, Miéville has consistently produced imaginatively complex and narratively rich worlds that eschew literary trends and generic traditions. Anyone familiar with his work knows that much of the pleasure of reading Miéville’s novels stems from the ways that he continually evokes and then rapidly departs from the genres from which he draws. Miéville doesn’t follow generic traditions as much as he unravels them, playfully remixing and remaking the possibilities of the fantastic by combining it with elements from science fiction, Gothic, urban fantasy, detective stories, and Lovecraftian horror. Refusing to simply follow established trends, Miéville’s fiction combines and repurposes genres and tropes in order to find new ways of representing and imagining the world.

Miéville’s generic boundary-crossing is more than simply a stylistic approach; it is also a political commitment “to think the world, and to change it.” What distinguishes Miéville as a writer is the way that his novels utilize the imaginative potential of fantastic fiction to engage with social and political reality. In interviews, Miéville has situated his novels as post-Seattle literature, and his writing responds to what the late Mark Fisher has termed capitalist realism, “the widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible to even imagine a coherent alternative to it.” For Miéville, the radical potential of the fantastic lies in its ability to conceptualize a world beyond reality as presently constructed. Miéville uses fantasy in a way that makes the familiar appear strange and that challenges the stability of the present. By constructing fantastical worlds that continually thwart established rules and expectations, Miéville’s novels unmask the limitations of social imagination and hold open the utopian possibilities of imagining the world otherwise — of conceptualizing “the not-this-ness of this” (as he puts it in Iron Council).

The recent publication of two books on Miéville testifies not only to his relevance to modern fiction, but also to the political importance of fantastic literature to contemporary culture. Carl Freedman’s Art and Idea in the Novels of China Miéville and Caroline Edwards and Tony Venezia’s edited collection China Miéville: Critical Essays both draw attention to Miéville as an important contemporary literary figure and as a critical thinker whose novels engage with wider concerns of genre, politics, and the imagination. Choosing to write about a figure like Miéville is no easy task. As Edwards and Venezia note in their introduction, given Miéville’s rapid rate of productivity (since the publication of these books, Miéville has released two novellas, a short story collection, and a nonfiction account of the Russian Revolution), as well as his own theorization of the genre, Miéville “always seems to be two steps ahead of his critics.” However, through their exploration of the literary and political significance of Miéville’s fiction, both Art and Idea and China Miéville: Critical Essays provide fascinating and engaging analyses of Miéville’s novels that remarkably integrate their textual and theoretical elements. Together, both works point to the ways that fantastic literature can help to imagine alternatives to the enclosing realities of contemporary capitalism.

Freedman’s Art and Idea is the first full-length investigation of Miéville’s fiction, and Freedman truly takes advantage of the extended room to discuss the interconnections across his work. To do this, Freedman provides close-readings of Miéville’s first six adult novels (excluding Kraken), along with a final chapter that explores Miéville’s academic work on international law and its relation to genre. Readers familiar with Freedman’s earlier work, including his influential Critical Theory and Science Fiction, will not be surprised that Freedman is drawn specifically to Miéville’s Marxist connections. For Freedman, Miéville is preeminently a “Marxist novelist — with equal emphasis on the adjective and the noun.” Adopting this approach, Freedman provides thorough readings of Miéville’s novels that expertly weave together their political and literary antecedents. In addition to detailing the common tropes that appear throughout his novels, Freedman draws attention to Miéville’s generic hybridity as a radical form of dialectical thinking that demonstrates the power of fantastic fiction to critique late capitalism.

Throughout Art and Idea, Freedman exhibits a nearly inexhaustible grasp of Miéville’s literary allusions and generic connections, which assists him in making some rather astute observations. In the first chapter, Freedman discusses Miéville’s first novel, King Rat, as a Marxist urban sublime. By this, Freedman refers to the tradition of London urban narratives established by writers such as Wordsworth, Blake, and Dickens, who conceptualized 19th-century industrial London as an estranging, inhuman metropolis. However, whereas these earlier writers’ use of the sublime was associated with the rural and realism, Miéville combines realism with elements of the fantastic to present London as “a place of epistemological nontransparency and hybridity.” Reading the novel within the context of Thatcherite Britain, Freedman highlights the ways that Miéville’s novel comments on late capitalist enclosure. Treating the novel’s half-human, half-rat main character Saul as a symbol of dialectical hybridity, Freedman argues that the novel ultimately provides a “celebration of heterogeneity and complexity, of overdetermined dialectical combination, and correlatively, an attack on the totalitarian and (in the end) genocidal ideal of purity.”

Freedman expands this discussion through compelling readings of each book of Miéville’s New Crobuzon trilogy (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council), which form an interconnected narrative of anti-capitalist, anti-fascist revolution. When it comes to praising the series, Freedman is not one to mince words. The New Crobuzon series is “the most convincingly detailed and full realized alternative world yet created in modern fiction” — even more so than J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series, which is “nugatory,” “impoverished,” and “a mile wide but only an inch deep.” Such claims are not merely evaluative, however, but rather a statement on the scale and complexity of Miéville’s world-building. In the first book of the series, Perdido Street Station, Miéville provides an allegorical tale of capitalist overthrow. The novel’s slake-moths represent what Steven Shaviro terms capitalist monsters, horrific figures that mirror capitalism’s incessant need to drain the labor and potentiality of its victims. However, once again drawing inspiration from Miéville’s political figurations, Freedman examines how Miéville’s main narrative of romantic love imagines a utopian portrait of “distinctness without domination” that reverses capitalism’s erasure of difference. Similar ideas underlie his discussion of The Scar, which pictures an egalitarian community that contrasts the capitalist imperialism of the city of New Crobuzon. Analyzing the novel alongside the sea stories of Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad, Freedman reads The Scar’s pirate colony as a partial utopia that provides the most democratic social formation possible at the time.

Freedman’s skilled readings of Perdido Street Station and The Scar set up his discussion of the trilogy’s final novel, Iron Council. Whereas the previous novels fell short of genuine political revolution, Iron Council provides Miéville’s most complete image of anti-capitalist uprising. In this chapter, Freedman truly shines as a critic as he skillfully connects the narrative to real-world socialist and anti-capitalist movements while simultaneously locating the novel within the conditions of late capitalism. In Freedman’s reading, Miéville uses speculative figures that preserve the possibilities of utopian revolution in a world increasingly hostile to socialist resistance. As he writes:

The setting of this revolutionary novel in a fantastic world implicitly recognizes, in its generic structure, the unavailability of socialist revolution in the immediate empirical world; and the use, in Iron Council, of magical devices […] as a series of utopian signs — or figures, or placeholders — for social forces whose precise nature cannot yet be identified but which must in some way be posited if the ultimate ideal of revolutionary social justice is to be maintained. The basic project of Iron Council, in other words, is to keep hope alive, to insist upon the horizon of socialist revolution even in the current absence of entirely specific particulars that could define the latter.

According to Freedman, Miéville’s novels provide fantastical figures that hold open the possibilities of anti-capitalist resistance. For example, by concluding with the image of a “frozen train” headed back to the city of New Crobuzon, Iron Council’s ending preserves the utopian impulse that narrative resolution typically forecloses. By refusing to follow the common fantasy trope of returning the fictive world to its “original,” pure state — by concluding the novel before the revolution has taken place — Miéville draws attention to the real-world social and political resistance necessary to bring a utopian world into existence.

Freedman continues his analysis through discussions of nationalism and ideology in The City & the City and language in Embassytown. In the final chapter, Freedman develops a theoretical approach to Miéville’s fiction that links it to Darko Suvin’s categorization of science fiction as a genre of “cognitive estrangement.” The chapter reviews Suvin’s criticisms of fantasy as a reactionary genre, then highlights how Miéville undermines fantasy’s regressive tendencies by constructing fantastical worlds that explore social and political reality. According to Freedman, literature provides knowledge of the “lived experience” of everyday existence by offering images that help to understand what it is like to live within a specific time and place. By using signs and placeholders that mirror real-world situations, Miéville’s novels provide allegorical and speculative figures that illuminate the felt realities of late capitalism. What distinguishes Miéville from writers such as Tolkien is that Miéville “incorporates so many of the forces — from the most public forms of imperialist violence to the most ‘private’ of sexual desires — that drive actual history.” Rather than nostalgically receding from reality like Tolkien, Miéville’s fantastical figurations establish historical concreteness by identifying the social and political structures that shape our experiences of life under late capital.

Through these complex readings of Miéville’s novels, Freedman’s Art and Idea provides a substantial contribution to critical studies of Miéville’s fiction — a mighty task given the large amount of research his work has already received. Freedman works best when he is elucidating the Marxist elements of Miéville’s novels; however, when he abandons this, such as his discussion of language in Embassytown, his analysis slightly falters. As well, although I understand the need to set limits on any collection — especially on such a prolific writer as Miéville — it is disappointing not to see Freedman tackle a novel like Kraken, which could truly benefit from Freedman’s touch. However, as a whole, Freedman’s thorough readings of Miéville’s generic and theoretical influences sets a high bar for critical explorations of Miéville’s fiction and is sure to become essential reading to all future discussions of his work.

In many ways, Edwards and Venezia’s China Miéville: Selected Essays picks up where Art and Idea leaves off by considering Miéville’s novels within the realm of Marxist literary criticism, while also opening up alternate approaches to reading his fiction. The collection begins with a preface by Miéville that ruminates on disavowed literature. This is followed by an introduction by Edwards and Venezia — or what they call an “unintroduction” — which provides a magisterial overview of Miéville’s works. Their lengthy and comprehensive essay begins with a discussion of Miéville’s connections to Marxism and the New Weird, then reads his work in line with post-genre theory, the grotesque, actor-network-theory, Surrealism, and the “psychogeography” of the Situationists. Their introduction is also notable for discussing several of Miéville’s lesser-known works, including his short stories and his nonfiction booklet London’s Overthrow. As one of the most complete and thorough introductions to Miéville’s work, I believe that it will provide valuable insights to both new and longtime fans.

Not surprisingly, several of the collection’s articles focus on the political significance of Miéville’s fiction. In her standout essay “Fractal Language and Social Change,” Sherryl Vint examines Miéville’s novels through the lens of ab-realism — that is, “a narrative logic that simultaneously captures the absurdities of ‘real’ life under capitalism and points to the power of narrative to activate the utopian traces of another world that is possible and coexists with this one.” Building on Miéville’s claims that fantasy and science fiction mirror the estranging experiences of life under capitalism, Vint skillfully reads the use of metaphors across Miéville’s texts to examine how they create tension between realist and fantastic figuration, which enables them to refer to — and transcend — concrete historical reality. Though not explicitly engaging with Freedman’s ideas, Vint’s analysis provides a counterpoint to his readings by highlighting the imaginative potential of Miéville’s work. In Vint’s analysis, the dual meaning of Miéville’s figures enable them to point to present reality while simultaneously alluding to a utopian world outside of the capitalist present. Vint’s superb analysis of the complexity of Miéville’s work offers a remarkable contribution to the collection and establishes a firm foundation for grasping the social and political significance of Miéville’s use of the fantastic.

Vint’s conception of ab-realism closely connects with essays by Dougal McNeill and Mark P. Williams, which similarly explore the political significance of Miéville’s novels. In “Failing Better: Iron Council, Benjamin, Revolution,” McNeill considers Iron Council in relation to the anti-capitalist and anti-globalization movements. McNeill argues that Miéville’s novel constructs a portrait of the revolutionary impulse within a historical present where radical upheaval is almost impossible. For McNeill, the most valuable element of Miéville’s fiction is his portrait of a heterodox revolution that highlights the unified aspects of revolutionary struggle. In doing so, Miéville draws attention to the possibilities of global, interconnected resistance. Similarly, in “Abnatural Resources: Collective Experience, Community and Commonality from Embassytown to New Crobuzon,” Williams considers the ways that communal forms of creativity are represented within Miéville’s novels. Williams terms this abnatural resources, “fantastic extensions of actual cultural practices which reveal shared or communal resources which are not instrumental to capitalism.” Williams nicely reads this theme within several of Miéville’s novels to demonstrate how communal forms of activity, such as art, music, and labor, can contribute to wider social and political transformations.

Several essays also consider Miéville’s revision of common fantasy tropes and conventions. In “‘Blatantly Coming Back’: the Arbitrary Line Between Here and There, Child and Adult, Fantasy and Real, London and UnLondon,” Joe Sutliff Sanders discusses how Miéville’s youth novel Un Lun Dun reworks the “return-to-reality” trope common to adolescent fiction. Beginning with an exploration of this motif in C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, Sanders highlights how this trope relies on a binaristic opposition between fantasy and mimesis, which privileges the socially constructed “real.” In breaking down this division, Sanders points to the ways that Miéville’s novel, as well as his entire oeuvre, help to undermine the ideologically-laden tropes of genre fiction. Raphael Zähringer’s essay “‘Strange Tricks of Cartography’: The Map(s) of Perdido Street Station” provides a much-needed exploration of maps in Miéville’s novels. In much fantasy fiction, the map serves as a way for readers to navigate space; however, in his insightful reading, Zähringer demonstrates how Miéville problematizes the use of maps by treating them as sites of imperial power that both “inform and misinform” characters’ and readers’ grasp of physical space. Paul March-Russell provides an in-depth exploration of the trope of invisibility in The City & the City and Christopher Priest’s The Glamour. March-Russell’s detailed discussion shows how invisibility in The City & the City functions as a way to examine the political process of disavowal that shapes discourses of nationalism.

Additional essays take Miéville into less-explored directions with somewhat mixed results. Matthew Sangster nicely highlights the ways that generic conventions impact readers’ appreciation of Miéville’s novels. Sangster examines this through Goodreads reviews of the New Crobuzon trilogy to show how the series’s loosely connected and stylistically distinct narratives shape readers’ opinions of the novels. Contrasting New Crobuzon with Jeff VanderMeer’s Ambergris series and Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, Sangster notes how the generic hybridity of Miéville’s trilogy, particularly Iron Council, upset readers’ reception of the text. As Sangster notes, “Ironically, having enjoyed the [generic] subversions in the previous two books can make readers less open to the rather different subversions offered by Iron Council, which, as a novel, fails to settle into the comfortable pattern but instead radically expands on the possibilities of the world of Bas-Lag.”

Some other entries, however, seem a bit disconnected from the collection’s overall focus. Ben de Bruyn’s intriguing, though slightly underdeveloped, essay examines the way that creative writing functions within Miéville’s novels, and highlights how Miéville’s novels inherently critique the institutionalization of academic creative writing programs. De Bruyn’s essay draws attention to a key unexplored area of Miéville’s novels; however, his essay lacks the theoretical and political approach established in the rest of the collection. Anthony F. Lang Jr. examines the interconnections between Miéville’s academic work on international law (published as Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law) and representations of state power in The City & the City and Embassytown. While Lang provides an informative discussion of Miéville’s legal theory, at times the connections to his novels feel a little programmatic. Finally, in the book’s afterweird, Roger Luckhurst provides a satirical take on the weird that concludes with a insightful exploration of the difference between the old weird and new weird.

Although some of the essays are a bit uneven, China Miéville: Critical Essays’s attention to the diversity of Miéville’s fiction, as well as its insistence on the political significance of his work, makes this collection vital to the growing body of critical research on Miéville. As a whole, it provides many noteworthy essays that establish a firm base for understanding the complexity of Miéville’s fiction and highlights the wealth of ideas Miéville’s novels inspire. Like Art and Idea, Edwards and Venezia’s China Miéville: Critical Essays is a thorough exploration of Miéville as both a novelist and a critical thinker whose works highlight the imaginative dimensions of fantastic fiction. Taken together, both books lay the groundwork for understanding the radical possibilities of fantastic fiction and highlight the genre’s potential to inspire the social and political movements needed to conceptualize ways out of the dead end of capitalist realism.