New Crobuzon

Last updated April 27, 2019

New Crobuzon is a fictional city-state created by China Miéville and located in his fictional world of Bas-Lag. It is prominently featured in both Perdido Street Station and Iron Council , and serves as a plot device and background for The Scar .

A city-state is a sovereign state, also described as a type of small independent country, that usually consists of a single city and its dependent territories. Historically, this included cities such as Rome, Athens, Carthage, and the Italian city-states during the Renaissance. As of 2019, only a handful of sovereign city-states exist, with some disagreement as to which are city-states. A great deal of consensus exists that the term properly applies currently to Monaco, Singapore, and Vatican City. City states are also sometimes called microstates which however also includes other configurations of very small countries, not to be confused with micronations.

China Tom Miéville 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 allied to the loosely associated movement of writers sometimes called New Weird.

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 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.

Inspiration and creation

Miéville has discussed the inspiration behind New Crobuzon:

I still find myself riffing off books from my past constantly, sometimes without remembering what I’m basing my writing on. New Crobuzon is highly influenced by Brian Aldiss's The Malacia Tapestry [1976] and Tim Powers's The Anubis Gates [1983], but they’d permeated me so deeply I was initially less conscious of them than of other influences.^[1]
Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE was an English writer and anthologies editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for occasional pseudonyms during the mid-1960s.
The Malacia Tapestry is a novel by Brian Aldiss published in 1976.
Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare. His 1987 novel On Stranger Tides served as inspiration for the Monkey Island franchise of video games and was optioned for adaptation into the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film.

Several commentators have noted that New Crobuzon is reminiscent of Victorian London,^[2]^[3]^[4] but sometimes note other possible influences such as modern Cairo and the Vieux Carre of New Orleans.^[2]

Cairo is the capital of Egypt. The city's metropolitan area is one of the largest in Africa, the largest in the Middle East, and the 15th-largest in the world, and is associated with ancient Egypt, as the famous Giza pyramid complex and the ancient city of Memphis are located in its geographical area. Located near the Nile Delta, modern Cairo was founded in 969 CE by the Fatimid dynasty, but the land composing the present-day city was the site of ancient national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life, and is titled "the city of a thousand minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture. Cairo is considered a World City with a "Beta +" classification according to GaWC.

The French Quarter, also known as the Vieux Carré or Vieux Carré Historic District, is the oldest section of the City of New Orleans. Founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, New Orleans developed around the Vieux Carré, the city's central square. Today, the district is commonly known as the French Quarter, or simply "the Quarter," a reflection of the diminished French influence after the Louisiana Purchase.

New Orleans is a consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of Louisiana. With an estimated population of 393,292 in 2017, it is the most populous city in Louisiana. A major port, New Orleans is considered an economic and commercial hub for the broader Gulf Coast region of the United States.

Geography, environs and climate

New Crobuzon claims dominion over a watershed along the eastern seaboard of the Rohagi continent, on the world of Bas-Lag. The city itself is situated around the Rivers Tar and Canker, whose confluence forms the wider and more navigable Gross Tar. It is the Gross Tar that connects New Crobuzon to the Iron Bay, ten miles east of the city. The mountains that separate New Crobuzon from the rest of Rohagi are called the Dancing Shoe Mountains.

A drainage basin is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. The drainage basin includes all the surface water from rain runoff, snowmelt, and nearby streams that run downslope towards the shared outlet, as well as the groundwater underneath the earth's surface. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at lower elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins, which in turn drain into another common outlet.

A continent is one of several very large landmasses of the world. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

The basin occupied by New Crobuzon is vast, and its terrain varies greatly. Northwest of the city is described in The Scar as an uninhabited "expanse of scrub and marsh", ending eventually at the feet of the Bezhek Mountains. Immediately to the south lies a substantial forest called the Rudewood, beyond which is found an area called the Wetlands. Eventually, the Wetlands give way to the Mendican Hills. Beyond this is the Grain Spiral: an agricultural region that supplies New Crobuzon with much of its food.

Various tributary settlements dot the lands surrounding New Crobuzon. Most are little more than agrarian hamlets, though one, Tarmuth at the mouth of the Gross Tar River, is notable enough to earn mention in The Scar.

A tribute (/ˈtrɪbjuːt/) is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conquered or otherwise threatened to conquer. In case of alliances, lesser parties may pay tribute to more powerful parties as a sign of allegiance and often in order to finance projects that would benefit both parties. To be called "tribute" a recognition by the payer of political submission to the payee is normally required; the large sums, essentially protection money, paid by the later Roman and Byzantine Empires to barbarian peoples to prevent them attacking imperial territory, would not usually be termed "tribute" as the Empire accepted no inferior political position. Payments by a superior political entity to an inferior one, made for various purposes, are described by terms including "subsidy".

Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs, sheep and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture into the twenty-first.

A hamlet is a small human settlement. In different jurisdictions and geographies, hamlets may be the size of a town, village or parish, be considered a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. The word and concept of a hamlet have roots in the Anglo-Norman settlement of England, where the old French hamlet came to apply to small human settlements. In British geography, a hamlet is considered smaller than a village and distinctly without a church.

In terms of climate, New Crobuzon occupies a temperate zone with regular seasonal changes: autumn and winter seasons are colder than the spring and summer. New Crobuzon was capable of controlling, or at least greatly influencing, local weather earlier in its history through the use of an "aeromorphic engine." This device has not functioned for over five centuries, however.

Calendar

New Crobuzon operates on a standard day, week, month calendar. Years are denoted as Anno Urbis, and are presumably counted forward from the city-state's founding—i.e., 1,779 years after the establishment of the city is listed as "Anno Urbis 1779", or simply "1779".

Details regarding the New Crobuzon calendar are murky. The novels name seven days—Dustday, Blueday, Fishday, Dockday, Chainday, Skullday and Shunday—which loosely imply a seven-day week. The year has twelve months, but only eleven are mentioned: Lunuary, Soluary, Swiven, Chet, Melluary, Tathis, Sinn, Octuary, Rinden, Arora and Dust. Lunuary is the first month of the year (it follows New Year Eve) Chet and Melluary seem to constitute some of New Crobuzon's spring, Tathis, Sinn and Octuary are summer months, and Rinden and Arora are implied as falling within the bounds of late autumn.

History and timeline

History

The history of New Crobuzon prior to about 1500 is obscure and sparsely-detailed, but some further details were disclosed by the author in an interview with Dragon magazine.^[5] Though none of the novels account for the city's origins, the author revealed that Crobuzon was a small village in the estuary of river Gross Tar (it is mentioned by a character in Perdido Street Station as "just plain Crobuzon"). About year 100 Anno Urbis it was completely razed by a pirate raid and the survivors moved upriver to the place where Brock Marsh is now located, founding new town called New Crobuzon. Its inhabitants kept the old timeline beginning with founding of "old" Crobuzon.^[5]

The books do not give an account of the first millennium of the city's existence, or the specific relationship or transition between New Crobuzon and the former city. The oldest documented event of New Crobuzon's past is the arrival of individual khepri traders between the years 1000 and 1100, perhaps resultant of a merchant–explorer named Seemly making contact with their homeland on the continent of Bered Kai Nev. Two centuries later, an unnatural meteorological phenomenon battered the city, prompting the construction of the weather-controlling aeromorphic engine. This event, called a "Torque storm", was presumably followed by the "Full Years"—an era of indeterminate length which a character in The Scar suggests was New Crobuzon's golden age.

New Crobuzon's fortunes waned during the final decades of the 15th century, and it is from this point that the city-state's history becomes more detailed. The Full Years ended around 1500 with the construction of Bas-Lag's most magnificent and ineffectual warship, the Grand Easterly. Shortly thereafter, New Crobuzon found itself embroiled in an epic military campaign referred to as the Pirate Wars, during which the Grand Easterly was captured by the pirate-city called Armada. New Crobuzon emerged from the Pirate Wars victorious in 1544, after obliterating the rival city-state of Suroch with "Torque bombs." It was around this time that the Weaver assumed residency beneath the city and the aeromorphic engine ceased working properly.

A hundred years after emerging from the Pirate Wars, New Crobuzon's government dispatched a small scientific expedition to the ruins of Suroch. Many of the expedition died, in horrible and bizarre fashion, as a result of the still-prevalent fallout. The scene was so horrific that one of the expedition's men felt the public should know of the damage wrought by Torque weaponry. He published his reports and heliotypes, against the wishes of the mayor and Parliament, and thus sparked the Sacramundi Riots of 1689, which a protagonist in Perdido Street Station claims "damn-near brought the government down."

More-or-less concurrent with this event was the khepri forced-migration to New Crobuzon. Their homeland had been devastated years before by a mysterious disaster referred to as the "Ravening", prompting an exodus to continents unknown. For over two decades, khepri arrived in New Crobuzon's ports, eventually settling into ghettos where they were relatively safe from persecution.

Perdido Street Station begins and ends in the summer of 1779. The Scar opens some five or six months later, and concludes in 1780. New Crobuzon is plagued with troubles throughout the span of those two years: labor strikes, civil unrest, an epidemic of nightmares spawned by exotic moth-creatures, and an abortive war with Armada, to name but a few.

The events of The Scar and Iron Council are separated by a span of almost thirty years—the latter opens in 1805 and closes the following year. During the elapsed decades, New Crobuzon's problems grow exponentially. An effort by one of the city's private corporations to build a railway across the width of Rohagi fails, the city violently purges itself of its previously-clandestine population of sentient machines, economic depression sets in, and hostility towards the government increases. At some point between 1780 and 1804, New Crobuzon entered into a war against the nation of Tesh; war ended in 1806 with unclear outcome. By the end of Iron Council, civil unrest had grown to the point that martial law was necessary to keep the reigning government in power.

Timeline

0 AU (anno urbis; lat. for year of the town): Founding of the original village of Crobuzon at the junction of the river Gross Tar, an area that would much later be known as Brock Marsh.^[5]

c. 100: Crobuzon is razed by the pirates; survivors abandoned ruins, moved upriver and founded New Crobuzon.^[5]

c. 1000–1100: The merchant-explorer Seemly makes contact with the khepri of Bered Kai Nev. Khepri traders begin to arrive in New Crobuzon.

c. 1300: New Crobuzon is battered by a Torque storm; the aeromorphic engine is constructed.

c. 1300–1500: The "Full Years." New Crobuzon is at the height of its militaristic, economic, and technological might.

c. 1500: The completion of the Grand Easterly marks the official end of the Full Years.

c. 1500–1544: The Pirate Wars. The Grand Easterly is captured by Armada.

1544: New Crobuzon obliterates the rival city-state of Suroch with "Torque bombs", thereby ending the Pirate Wars. The Weaver assumes residency beneath New Crobuzon.

c. 1644: The New Crobuzon government sponsors a scientific expedition to the ruins of Suroch.

1689: One of the Suroch-expedition's survivors, named Sacramundi, publishes his photographs and notes without government approval. The public is so horrified that riots break out throughout New Crobuzon.

c. 1689–1709: The khepri migrate to New Crobuzon from their home continent in the wake of the Ravening.

1779–1780: The events of Perdido Street Station take place during the summer. Between six and eight months later, the events of The Scar take place.

c. 1780–1804: New Crobuzon goes to war with the rival city-state of Tesh.

1793: The Construct Wars. New Crobuzon purges itself of its automaton population.

1805–1806: The events of the Iron Council take place.

Government and politics

The New Crobuzon government styles itself a parliamentary republic, but in actuality it is a "ruthlessly mercantilistic" and "corrupt"^[6] authoritarian oligarchy with colonialist ambitions.

Executive branch

At the helm of the New Crobuzon's political machine is the mayor. In Perdido Street Station and Iron Council, the mayor is depicted as possessing powers bordering on the dictatorial. In Perdido Street Station, for example, Mayor Bentham Rudgutter orders the abduction and torture of suspected dissidents without restriction, and entirely on his own initiative.

Known mayors

Bentham Rudgutter is the mayor of New Crobuzon in Perdido Street Station and The Scar. He is a somewhat two-dimensional embodiment of corrupt government authority, emotionally bankrupt and stoic under pressure, with little personality or motivation beyond his desire to maintain the status quo. Perdido Street Station apparently grants only a snapshot of his rather lengthy administration; in Iron Council he is described as having been mayor "forever". He has a problem with his eyes which requires them to be repeatedly replaced.
Collod, whose mayoralty is called "ghastly" in Perdido Street Station. It is implied that he had Cactacae farms, which were used to enslave or imprison members of that race.
Dagman Beyn, whose mayoralty is two centuries gone by the time of Perdido Street Station, and lasted through part or all of the Pirate Wars. He is notable for having been mayor when the Weaver assumed residency beneath the city.
Eliza Stem-Fulcher served Rudgutter as his calculating, cold and unflappable Home Secretary in Perdido Street Station. By the time Iron Council opens, she has become mayor in her own right, having succeeded Rudgutter upon his death: she is assassinated during the course of the story. The admittedly biased protagonists of Iron Council attribute all manner of atrocities to her and her administration, and she is portrayed in that novel as racist, reactionary and venal.
Mantagony was briefly mentioned in Perdido Street Station and was noted only for being mayor at the time the bio-philosopher Calligine successfully had himself Remade with mechanical wings. His or her tenure was during the late 17th century.
Tremulo the Reformer, who earned his sobriquet by building low-income and veterans' housing in and among the neighborhoods of the city's rich. In Iron Council, his mayoralty is said to have occurred "two centuries past", shortly after Dagman Beyn's.
Triesti, about whom nothing is known beyond the name. He or she assumed the mayoralty upon the assassination of Stem-Fulcher.
Turgisadi was mayor about a century prior to the events of Perdido Street Station. He is mentioned only in passing by one of that novel's protagonists.

Legislative branch

New Crobuzon's elected Parliament ostensibly holds legislative authority, though it is characterized as stagnant and feckless in Perdido Street Station, much like the Roman Senate after the rise of the Empire. Parliament is divided among a handful of political parties, which the protagonists in both Perdido Street Station and Iron Council consider nothing more than an old boy network.

Known political parties

Four political parties are mentioned in Perdido Street Station, with another, the New Quill Party, appearing in Iron Council.

Diverse Tendency: Characters in Perdido Street Station imply that the Diverse Tendency Party represents New Crobuzon's non-human ("xenian") population. One protagonist in that novel refers to them as "comprador scum." Diverse Tendency's pro-xenian preachings are generally regarded by seditionist eyes as a ploy to capture liberalist votes.
Fat Sun: The majority party in Parliament during Perdido Street Station and Iron Council, and presumably in The Scar. During the events of "Perdido Street Station", the city is ruled by Mayor Rudgutter. By the time of "Iron Council", Rudgutter's Home Secretary, Eliza Stem-Fulcher, has taken over as mayor.
Finally We Can See: Seems to be an idealist pseudo-liberal party though none of their actual policies are described in the books
New Quill: Founded on hatred for all non-human races, the New Quill Party may be a splinter group of the Three Quills Party. In Iron Council, its adherents are described as wearing bowler hats with steel linings, ill-fitting blazers and iron-toed boots.
Three Quills: It is implied in Perdido Street Station and Iron Council that the Three Quills is a party formed on a racist platform. Its members seem opposed to all non-human races (called "xenians").

Judicial branch

As in the real world, New Crobuzon's judiciary concerns itself primarily with hearing disputes and passing sentence upon transgressors. The judges of New Crobuzon are referred to as "Magisters", and all operate under false names to protect themselves from possible retribution. It is implied that they wear masks while holding court.

Punishment at the hands of the New Crobuzon justice system is a harsh and terrifying affair. Crimes ranging from petty theft to murder are almost invariably punished with lengthy prison sentences and Remaking—a grotesque, painful process whereby a person's body is intentionally mutilated.

Suffrage and elections

Suffrage in New Crobuzon is not universal. Those who pay sufficient tax (this is not a Poll tax, rather an automatic qualification) gain suffrage automatically. Anyone else seeking the vote must enter their name into a "Suffrage Lottery", the winners of which are permitted to cast their ballot. Left-wing groups and seditionist cells believe this system is highly corrupt.

Armed forces

The Militia acts not only as New Crobuzon's police force, but also as its standing army and an intelligence-gathering operation. In Perdido Street Station, the Militia resembles "secret police", maintaining order not through uniformed enforcers but rather through double agents, paid informants, blackmail and above all fear. Thirty years later, in Iron Council, they patrol the streets of New Crobuzon openly and are employed as soldiers against the rival nation of Tesh, the City of the Crawling Liquid. At all times, the Militia is hooded or masked.

The Militia has several specialized branches. One division known as the Clypean Guard is responsible for protecting the Mayor. When the Mayor leaves the security of Parliament on Strack Island and visits a location within the city proper, the Clypeans accompany him or her and temporarily take over for the regular Militia posted at that area. The oath the Clypeans are required to swear is "I see and hear only what the Mayor and my charges allow me to." Members have a reputation for being utterly incorruptible, although during Iron Council this is shown to be not entirely true. Another division of the Militia is the Perdidae, which provides dedicated security for Perdido Street Station.

New Crobuzon also maintains a navy, which in times of peace serves to protect the city-state's shipping interests. In The Scar, about half of the New Crobuzon Merchant Navy is deployed against Armada, and though it loses the engagement it is nevertheless described as a fairly intimidating force that inflicts substantial damages on the pirate-nation.

Seditious groups

An illegal newspaper entitled Runagate Rampant is portrayed as New Crobuzon's primary source of opposition and dissent in Perdido Street Station. The staff of the Double-R, as it is colloquially known, operates through a cell structure, so as to best evade government infiltration.

Dissatisfaction with the existing government is so widespread by the time of Iron Council that numerous other seditionist groups have formed. Though factious and disparate, these groups attempt to coordinate their activities through a loose alliance called the Caucus. The staff of Runagate Rampant, meanwhile, is portrayed as having devolved into an ineffective gaggle of leftist intellectuals, content to spend their nights complaining about New Crobuzon's government but never actually taking action.

Other notable anti-government forces include:

The Flexible Puppeteers: A subversive group of performance artists, named in memory of a previous editor of the Runagate Rampant, Benjamin Flex who was captured, tortured and executed by Rudgutter's government during the novel Perdido Street Station.
The fReemade: Nominally led by Jack Half-A-Prayer during the 1770s—and perhaps earlier—the fReemade are Remade who refuse to accept their fate as slaves to the state. They operate in small groups, or individually, both within the city and without. Many become brigands, bandits and urban terrorists.
Toro's Gang: A small band of urban terrorists, they fight against the tyranny of Parliament in a more literal sense. They were led by a Remade who wore a giant metal helmet shaped in the head of a bull—hence the group's name.

City districts

Abrogate Green: Named in part due to its abundance of greenery, this area of the city has a large percentage of Cactacae inhabitants.
Aspic: A run-down area of the city known for its low-income housing and the Aspic Bazaar.
Badside: Slum.
Barrackham: A well-off district that has, nonetheless, seen better days. Its inhabitants are said to be "well-off," although there is also mention of "faded estates" and "crumbling factories."
Bonetown: A poor district, known for its random, maze-like streets and named for the Ribs—its prominent landmark feature of a gargantuan, partially buried skeleton. The origin of the bones is unknown, but they have mystical emanations, seemingly causing increased misfortunes and accidents during construction attempts in the area. Widely considered as "thieves quarter".
Brock Marsh: A scientific district. Because followers of Bas-Lagian science include a broad mix of physicists; chymists; necrochymists; mathematicians; karcists thaumaturgists and more, the combined waste products of the inhabitants of Brock Marsh can be both dangerous and random. Badgers make popular messenger animals because of their natural immunity to these factors.
Canker Wedge: Rich district, location of aeromorphic engine.
Chimer: Slum.
Chnum: Rich district.
Creekside: Khepri slum, does not make the displays of khepri history as its more affluent cousin Kinken does. Some residents of Creekside feel that Kinken has no real claim on true khepri culture and simply flaunts a recycled version of what little was preserved when the khepri made their exodus to New Crobuzon.
Dog Fenn: The city's most infamous slum.
Dryside: Dryside is never described in detail in the books, but it is a district in and among the richer portions of the city.
Echomire: Docks and industry.
Flag Hill: The elite district, full of bankers, officials, wealthy artists, and captains of industry. It is described in Iron Council as a place of "wide-open ways and sumptuous houses sheer onto the streets, backing on to shared gardens". Small part of Flag Hill was built up with cheap houses for veterans of Pirate Wars (located in rich district in accordance with "social merging" policy of Mayor Tremulo the Reformer), quickly become a slum, and then was gentrified and converted into some kind of slum-museum for wealthy people.
Flyside: Poor district, crowded and cheap but not particularly dangerous.
Gallmarch: Middle-class suburb.
Gidd (consists of East Gidd and West Gidd): old noble district with wide streets and elegant baroque buildings.
Glasshouse: A cactacae ghetto, this suburb is literally a giant greenhouse that preserves the temperature and humidity levels that the desert-dwelling cactacae prefer. However, it can contain only one third of cactacae population, so many of them inhabit northern Riverskin around Glasshouse. Only cactacae are allowed inside, and Glasshouse authorities are to some degree independent of the rest of New Crobuzon.
Griss Fell: A poor and industrial area characterized by industrial pollution, narrow streets, and the needy.
Griss Twist: Formerly industrial area, now huge industrial junkyard and waste storage area. By the time of Perdido Street Station, it had become the dwelling of Construct Council.
Gross Coil: Docks and industry.
Howl Barrow: This small slum is known mainly for its homosexual, transvestite, and theater community.
Kelltree: Some of the biggest and busiest docks in the city are in Kelltree.
Ketch Heath: A lower/middle class community whose distinguishing feature is a series of very large high-rise apartments.
Kinken: A khepri ghetto, although most of the buildings are originally of the same construct as the rest of the city, they have been extensively remodeled by home beetles. A relatively prosperous neighborhood,^[7] Kinken is essentially the center of khepri culture on Bas-Lag, as it is inhabited by the descendants of the last survivors of the khepri civilization, who fled an unspecified catastrophe on a distant continent.
Lichford: A high percentage of this district's population are lower income vodyanoi.
Ludmead: Elegant architecture, old money, and the prestigious University of New Crobuzon characterize Ludmead.
Mafaton: Wealthy, but otherwise uninteresting. Arrowhead mansion is located here, the fortress headquarters of the Arrowhead corporation.
Mog Hill: Wealthy, but otherwise uninteresting.
Murkside: A poor district characterized as "mean and poor," "gang-riddled," and "a backwater."
Nigh Sump: quite old and prosperous quarter with wide streets and well-kept old buildings. The famous Glasheim, a facade of stained glass, located near Piazza della Settimana di Polvere (Place of Week of Dust), is mentioned in Iron Council as "one of city's prettiest places".
Pelorus Fields: A middle-class neighborhood of "respectable citizens."
Petty Coil: part of Old Town. Previously elite district, with wide streets and great mansions, it was abandoned by rich inhabitants disturbed by smog and noise from industry of Griss Twist across the river. Many mansions were rebuilt and became homes for craftsmen. Some houses in Petty Coil are almost thousand years old; Cockscomb Bridge in Petty Coil is mentioned in Perdido Street Station as one of oldest city's buildings.
Pincod: A poor district of buildings typically in a state of noticeable disrepair.
Raven's Gate: A "brutalized warren" of "rotting buildings."
Rim: Part of Old Town.
Riverskin: Location of Glasshouse, this district is built-up with old tall timber-frame houses. Its southern part is much like Flyside it adjoined. Northern part of Riverskin is the location of Glasshouse and dwelling of lower-class cactacae.
Salacus Fields: A bohemian district, popular amongst the left-wing inhabitants of New Crobuzon. Many artists either live or work in this district and it is notably more socially progressive and liberal than other districts. By the time of Iron Council it is considered by protagonists to have become something of a Bourgeois bohemian district, largely abandoned by the more radical artists.
Saltbur: Saltbur is known to contain tall buildings and cathedrals.
Sangwine: Little is mentioned of Sangwine, aside from a canal-side market.
Serpolet: Middle-class suburb.
Sheck: Part of Old Town. Lower-to-middle class and well-paid specialist workers live here. Crowded district, irregularly built up with old brick houses.
Skulkford: An area of sweatshops which, due to the soggy terrain, has been built over again and over again throughout history.
Smog Bend: Industry, also known as Didacai Village.
Sobek Croix: Has large gardens with monastery ruins amid rather poor district.
Spatters: Lawless slum built around an abandoned railroad extension into Rudewood, garuda ghetto.
Spit Hearth: Part of Old Town. Triangular district, built up with old stone houses. Notorious for its punishment factories near the river; they supply city with Remade.
St. Jabber's Mound: A poor area of slums, this area have some historical and/or mythological connection to St. Jabber, an individual from New Crobuzon's past who has been deified.
Strack Island: A small islet encircled by the river Gross Tar, near Brock Marsh. The islet is dominated by the New Crobuzon Parliament building, the seat of the city's government and home of the Mayor. It is connected to the rest of the city by the Militia skyrail transport network that also links to the Spike and other Militia towers. Just southeast is an uninhabited and undeveloped smaller islet known as Little Strack.
Sunter: Industry.
The Crow (city centre): Home to Perdido Street Station, the city's transportation hub and embassy building, and the Spike, the headquarters of the Militia.
Syriac: This district has a large population of Cactacae.
Syriac Well: Contains a large hospital.
Tar Wedge: Contains towers, and the now-defunct weather-controlling Cloudtower.
Vaudois Hill: A long, narrow hill which separates Lichford from the large slum of Spatters.

Science, technology and magic

New Crobuzon's technological capabilities are decidedly steampunk/clockpunk: difference engines, advanced clockwork "constructs", helium-balloon airships, firearms, primitive photography and coal-powered trains and ships all abound in the three Bas-Lag novels. Yet despite all this, the citizens of New Crobuzon seem, by the 18th century, to merely be utilizing the inventions left to them by their ancestors. They apparently do not have the knowledge necessary to repair the city's aeromorphic engine, for example, and widespread fear of artificially-intelligent machines prompts the New Crobuzon government to destroy its population of constructs between 1780 and 1805. New Crobuzon seems to be limping along in terms of scientific and technological achievement, having devolved significantly since its heyday hundreds of years prior. Occasionally, a new technology may be rediscovered, and it is suggested in Iron Council that the phonograph and neon lighting may be examples of this.

Where science fails, however, magic steps in. New Crobuzon harbors a large population of magic-users—broadly referred to as "thaumaturges"—who are capable of earning a substantial living from their craft. The Militia utilizes thaumaturges, as does organized crime and private industry. Bio-thaumaturges often find work as ReMakers; their skills allow them to do virtually any transplant or alteration without causing lethal trauma to the victim, potentially making them master surgeons. Such a practitioner is yet to be seen, however, and the post seems to attract sadistic psychopaths who relish the opportunity to inflict a fate worse than death on sentenced criminals. In the pirate city of Armada, though, there exist Remakers whose craft is not used for punishment but for bodily augmentation. The arcane is treated like a science, with courses available on the subject at New Crobuzon's eponymous university; senior members of the faculty are often tied to the higher level of government.

Following the purge of constructs, golemetrists—thaumaturges specialising in the construction of golems—have risen in demand. Golems in New Crobuzon and Bas-Lag can be made of any substance or abstract concept. In Iron Council there are golems made of (among other things) water, light, sound, corpses, railway tracks, stone and even time. A somewhat similar brand of magic is the ability to summon and control elementals, performed by thaumaturges called elementarii. Some of the more bizarre types seen in Bas-Lag include moonlight and flesh elementals.

References

↑ Gordon, Joan (November 2003). "Reveling in Genre: An Interview with China Miéville". Science Fiction Studies . 30 (3). Retrieved November 17, 2010.
1 2 Carl Freedman (2008). "To the Perdido Street Station: The Representation of Revolution in China Mieville's Iron Council". In Donald M. Hassler; Clyde Wilcox. New boundaries in political science fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 259. ISBN 1-57003-736-1.
↑ Henry Farrell (2008). "Socialist surrealism: China Mieville's New Crobuzon novels". In Donald M. Hassler; Clyde Wilcox. New boundaries in political science fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 275. ISBN 1-57003-736-1.
↑ Mark Bould (2009). Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction. Taylor & Francis. p. 158. ISBN 0-203-87470-6.
1 2 3 4 Dragon issue #352 (February 2007), "Guide to Perdido Street Station & The World Beyond"
↑ Henry Farrell (2008). "Socialist surrealism: China Mieville's New Crobuzon novels". In Donald M. Hassler; Clyde Wilcox. New boundaries in political science fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 275. ISBN 1-57003-736-1.
↑ Henry Farrell (2008). "Socialist surrealism: China Mieville's New Crobuzon novels". In Donald M. Hassler; Clyde Wilcox. New boundaries in political science fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 278. ISBN 1-57003-736-1.

Carl Freedman (2008). "To the Perdido Street Station: The Representation of Revolution in China Mieville's Iron Council". In Donald M. Hassler; Clyde Wilcox. New boundaries in political science fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. pp. 259–271. ISBN 1-57003-736-1.
Henry Farrell (2008). "Socialist surrealism: China Mieville's New Crobuzon novels". In Donald M. Hassler; Clyde Wilcox. New boundaries in political science fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. pp. 272–289. ISBN 1-57003-736-1.
Farah Mendlesohn (2008). Rhetorics of fantasy. Wesleyan University Press. pp. 55–56, 79–80. ISBN 0-8195-6868-6.
Norman Spinrad. A Critic at Large in the Multiverse. Norman Spinrad. pp. 13–16, 33–35.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Gordon, Joan (November 2003). "Reveling in Genre: An Interview with China Miéville". Science Fiction Studies . 30 (3). Retrieved November 17, 2010.

[Carl_Freedman_2008_259-2] 1 2 Carl Freedman (2008). "To the Perdido Street Station: The Representation of Revolution in China Mieville's Iron Council". In Donald M. Hassler; Clyde Wilcox. New boundaries in political science fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 259. ISBN 1-57003-736-1.

[3] Henry Farrell (2008). "Socialist surrealism: China Mieville's New Crobuzon novels". In Donald M. Hassler; Clyde Wilcox. New boundaries in political science fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 275. ISBN 1-57003-736-1.

[4] Mark Bould (2009). Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction. Taylor & Francis. p. 158. ISBN 0-203-87470-6.

[Dragon__2007-5] 1 2 3 4 Dragon issue #352 (February 2007), "Guide to Perdido Street Station & The World Beyond"

[6] Henry Farrell (2008). "Socialist surrealism: China Mieville's New Crobuzon novels". In Donald M. Hassler; Clyde Wilcox. New boundaries in political science fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 275. ISBN 1-57003-736-1.

[7] Henry Farrell (2008). "Socialist surrealism: China Mieville's New Crobuzon novels". In Donald M. Hassler; Clyde Wilcox. New boundaries in political science fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 278. ISBN 1-57003-736-1.