‘Tis the Season is a 2010 holiday story by China Miéville. You can read it online here. It begins,
Call me childish, but I love all the nonsense - the snow, the trees, the tinsel, the turkey. I love presents. I love carols and cheesy songs. I just love Christmas™.I have blog posts on these books by this author:
That's why I was so excited. And not just for me, but for Annie. Aylsa, her mum, said she didn't see the big deal and why was I a sentimentalist, but I knew Annie couldn't wait. She might have been 14, but when it came to this I was sure she was still a little girl, dreaming of stockings by the chimney. Whenever it's my turn to take Annie - me and Aylsa have alternated since the divorce - I do my best on the 25th.
I admit Aylsa made me feel bad. I was dreading Annie's disappointment. So I can hardly tell you how delighted I was when I found out that for the first time ever I was going to be able to make a proper celebration of it.
Don't get me wrong. I haven't got shares in YuleCo, and I can't afford a one-day end-user licence, so I couldn't have a legal party.
The City and the City (2009)I've read the Bas-Lag series but don't have blog posts on those.
Embassytown (2011)
Railsea (2012)
Posts
A license to celebration Christmas - perish that thought! Although all the outrage I'm reading in the paper you would think we were living were we had to have some kind of permission to celebration all things Christmas, I'll say no more.
ReplyDeleteIf the commercialization continues at this rate, can a license be far behind? lol
DeleteOne of my conservative Facebook friends wished his conservative friends Merry Christmas but added "the liberals not so much" roflol! Now, _that's_ the spirit ;)
'Tis the Season. Turkey is meh, trees are fine, we skip the tinsel so arguments don't ensue, and I can do without the snow.
ReplyDeleteI eat turkey all year, we do 2 trees, and tinsel arguments are a tradition lol We don't hafta worry about snow ;)
DeleteHow wonderful. This sounds just cheesy enough I might enjoy it. Thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteThere's an attitude here ;)
Delete...count me in, I love Christmas too.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a magical season :)
DeleteThis sounds like a nice Christmas story.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I'd call it "nice" unless a bit of snark is to your liking ;)
DeleteI don't know this author, and I had to laugh as when I clicked on this link I couldn't read it as Wikipedia is in their donation time. Smile. I will have to check back and read about him once the box over his page disappears I guess. Hugs-Erika
ReplyDeleteHere's the Wikipedia intro: China Tom Miéville FRSL (/miˈeɪvəl/ mee-AY-vəl; born 6 September 1972) is a British urban fantasy fiction author, essayist, comic book writer, socialist political activist and literary critic. He often describes his work as weird fiction and is allied to the loosely associated movement of writers called New Weird.
DeleteMiéville has won numerous awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award (thrice), the British Fantasy Award (twice), Locus Awards for Best Fantasy Novel (four times) and Best Science Fiction Novel and Best Novelette and Best Young Adult Book, as well as the Hugo, Kitschies, and World Fantasy Awards.
Miéville is active in left-wing politics in the UK, and has previously been a member of the International Socialist Organization (US), and the short-lived International Socialist Network (UK). He was formerly a member of the Socialist Workers Party, and in 2013 became a founding member of Left Unity. He stood for Regent's Park and Kensington North for the Socialist Alliance in the 2001 UK General election, gaining 1.2% of votes cast. He published his PhD thesis on Marxism and international law as a book in 2005. 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.
Now that was a weird one! Loved the ending, though. :)
ReplyDeleteMieville is worth checking out. He has a unique vision :)
DeleteI read a story years ago I can't remember the author, where they are dealing with the sales just before Christmas. Having to clear out merchandise because the Christmas shopping season for the next year starts on the day after Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThe extremes really high light our own absurdities.
It's hard when so much of our economy is driven by retail and the sales for the new stuff are happening at the same time as the sales for the old stuff. Madness!
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