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Iron Council
''Iron Council'' (2004) is a weird fantasy novel by the British writer China Miéville, his third set in the Bas-Lag universe, following ''Perdido Street Station'' (2000) and '' The Scar'' (2002). In addition to the steampunk influences shared by its predecessors, ''Iron Council'' draws several elements from the western genre. ''Iron Council'' is one of China Miéville's most overtly political novels, being strongly inspired by the anti-globalization movement, and tackling issues such as imperialism, corporatism, terrorism, racial hatred, homosexuality, culture shock, labour rights and war. The novel won the Arthur C. Clarke and Locus Awards in 2005, and was also nominated for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards the same year. Plot ''Iron Council'' follows three major narrative threads that join to form the novel's climax. Although Miéville weaves back and forth between narrative, time and space, this summary will follow each narrative individually, discussing their relatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
China Miéville
China Tom Miéville ( ; born 6 September 1972) is a British speculative fiction writer and literary critic. He often describes his work as ''weird fiction'' and is allied to the loosely associated movement of writers called '' New Weird''. Miéville has won numerous awards for his fiction, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, British Fantasy Award, BSFA Award, Hugo Award, Locus Award and World Fantasy Awards. He holds the record for the most Arthur C Clarke Award wins (three). His novel ''Perdido Street Station'' was ranked by ''Locus'' as the 6th all-time best fantasy novel published in the 20th century. During 2012–13, he was writer-in-residence at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2015. Miéville is active in anti-capitalist politics in the United Kingdom and has previously been a member of the International Socialist Organization (US) and the short-lived International Socialist Network (UK). He was formerly a mem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labour Rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influence working conditions in relations of employment. One of the most prominent is the right to freedom of association, otherwise known as the right to organize. Workers organized in trade unions exercise the right to collective bargaining to improve working conditions. Labor background Throughout history, workers claiming some sort of right have attempted to pursue their interests. During the Middle Ages, the Peasants' Revolt in England expressed demand for better wages and working conditions. One of the leaders of the revolt, John Ball famously argued that people were born equal saying, "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" Laborers often appealed to traditional rights. For instance, English peasants fought agains ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lou Anders
Lou Anders is the author of the ''Thrones & Bones'' series of middle grade fantasy novels. Anders is a Hugo Award-winning American editor, a Chesley Award-winning art director, an author and a journalist. Early life Lou Anders is originally from Birmingham, Alabama, but has lived in multiple cities in several states. In 2003, he returned to Birmingham, Alabama having moved there from Los Angeles via San Francisco. He describes his route through the science fiction and writings businesses as broadly beginning with "theatre in college lead ngto a partial scholarship to study acting in Oxford and London".Rick Kleffel interview with Lou Anders April 18, 2004. Accessed January 28, 2008 This in turn got him into directing plays in Chicago, which lead to working on sets in Los Angeles, which lead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crooked Timber
Crooked Timber is a left-of-centre political blog run by a group of (mostly) academics from and working in several different nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia and Singapore. The name alludes to an English translation of a quotation by Immanuel Kant: from his essay "Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose" (1784). History Crooked Timber was founded in July 2003 as a merger of several individual blogs, including Junius and Gallowglass, along with some new contributors. Additional members were added over subsequent months until the group reached an agreed optimum of 15 members. Crooked Timber ranked in Technorati's Top 100 blogs between 2003 and 2005 and is still widely linked to in the academic blogosphere. On March 9, 2008, it was listed as number 33 in The Guardian's list of the world's 50 most important blogs. On April 15, 2011, an article on academic blogs in The New York Times listed Crooked Timb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Dirda
Michael Dirda (born 1948) is a book critic for the ''Washington Post''. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Career Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree in 1970, Dirda took an M.A. in 1974 and Ph.D. in 1977 from Cornell University in comparative literature. In 1978 Dirda started writing for the ''Washington Post''; in 1993 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his criticism. Currently, he is a book columnist for the ''Post''. In 2002, Dirda was invested as a member of The Baker Street Irregulars. Works Two collections of Dirda's literary journalism have been published: * ''Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000) * ''Bound to Please'' (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005) He has also written: * ''An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland'' (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003) (autobiography) * ''Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life'' (New York: Henry Holt, 2005) * ''Classics for Ple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large national audience. Daily broadsheet editions are printed for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation, work continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham (Meyer's daughter and son-in-law), who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post'' 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Subsequently, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, which is also known as '' pansexuality.'' The term ''bisexuality'' is mainly used in the context of human attraction to denote romantic or sexual feelings toward both men and women, and the concept is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation along with heterosexuality and homosexuality, all of which exist on the heterosexual–homosexual continuum. A bisexual identity does not necessarily equate to equal sexual attraction to both sexes; commonly, people who have a distinct but not exclusive sexual preference for one sex over the other also identify themselves as bisexual. Scientists do not know the exact cause of sexual orientation, but they theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetic, hormonal, and env ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Poole
Steven Poole (born 1972) is a British author and journalist. He particularly concerns himself with the abuse of language and has written two books on the subject: ''Unspeak'' (2006) and ''Who Touched Base In My Thought Shower?'' (2013). Biography Poole studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and has subsequently written for publications including ''The Independent'', ''The Guardian'', ''The Times Literary Supplement'', ''The Sunday Times'', and the ''New Statesman''. He has published two books and currently writes a weekly nonfiction book-review column in the Saturday ''Guardian'' called Et Cetera, as well as regular longer book reviews, plus a monthly column in ''Edge'' magazine. Poole was invited to deliver the opening keynote address at the 2006 Sydney Writers' Festival, and also gave a keynote at the 2008 Future and Reality of Gaming conference in Vienna. Books ''Trigger Happy'' and ''Trigger Happy 2.0'' '' Trigger Happy'' was published in 2000 by 4th Estate in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Crobuzon
Bas-Lag is the fictional world in which several of English author China Miéville's novels are set. Bas-Lag is a world where both magic (referred to as "thaumaturgy") and steampunk technology exist, and is home to many intelligent races. It is influenced by the themes and tropes of multiple genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Novels So far there have been three novels set in Bas-Lag. They are: *''Perdido Street Station'' *'' The Scar'' *''Iron Council'' Additionally, the short story "Jack", featured in the 2005 collection ''Looking for Jake'', is a Bas-Lag story. Geography Bas-Lag possesses a number of continents. Two landmasses, Rohagi and Bered Kai Nev, are named in the three novels, though numerous other landmasses and unique structures play important roles. Rohagi The exact proportions and geography of Rohagi are unknown. New Crobuzon lies about ten miles (16 km) inland from its eastern coast, which borders the Swollen Ocean. Immediately south of New Crobuz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Fantasy Award
The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy literature, fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous annual convention as the central focus of the event. They were first given in 1975, at the first World Fantasy Convention, and have been awarded annually since. Over the years that the award has been given, the categories presented have changed; currently World Fantasy Awards are given in five written categories, one category for artists, and four special categories for individuals to honor their general work in the field of fantasy. The awards have been described by book critics such as ''The Guardian'' as a "prestigious fantasy prize", and one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo Award, Hugo and Nebula Awards (which cover both fantasy and science fiction). World Fantasy Award nomin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
