Talk:Perdido Street Station

Cut the Jargon

I'm sure it makes sense when you read the book, but:

Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is an eccentric scientist living in the city of New Crobuzon with his Khepri girlfriend Lin. While Lin, an artist, is commissioned to create a sculpture of mob boss Mr. Motley, Isaac is offered a unique challenge. He is approached by the garuda Yagharek, who asks for the restoration of his wings which were cut off by his tribe as punishment for a crime that he claims has no human equivalent.

None of the parts in bold make any sense to someone who doesn't have context. Sure I can still figure out what the book is about, but it would be a hell of a lot clearer if it just said:

Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is an eccentric scientist living in the city of New Crobuzon with his girlfriend Lin. While Lin, an artist, is commissioned to create a sculpture of mob boss Mr. Motley, Isaac is offered a unique challenge. Yagharek is a member of a race of flying humanoids (?) whose wings have been cut off, and who asks Isaac to restore them.

Again, it's not that that version contains strictly any more information than the version we have now, or even presents it more clearly, it's just that the amount of fictional concepts and words being thrown at you, none of which are needed to understand the synopsis, is simply distracting and takes focus away from the essential information. Apart from the jargon I also think many of the details are similarly distracting. Normally I'd wait for someone who's read the book to discuss this, but this being a relatively obscure topic it may be some time before someone looks at this talk page, so I'm going to go ahead and change it. 89.226.21.15 (talk) 11:36, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Synopsis

Whoever started the synopsis of the book needs to finish it, else the whole thing needs to be re-written from the start - preferably a more general synopsis rather than a breakdown of each section of the book, as has been attempted. Tredanse 11:07, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree. I've just finished the book (oh shiny, shiny book!) and would be willing to promise to have a go at completing the synopsis in this format in the near future. But, like you, I'm not convinced that that's the best way to go about writing an article. Should I go for it, or should we come up with something else? Athenemiranda 13:37, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

The current format's okay. If you want to write a more condensed synopsis, that'd be better. The person who started this has sort of been reviewing the book, which isn't exactly encyclopedic. - Tredanse 13:51, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

I started the synopsis, feel free to trash it and start again. I don't even have a copy of the book to hand so I'm very unlikely to finish it. TRS-80 17:05, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I removed the synopsis with a more compact and spoiler-free plot introduction.-Fictitious 02:02, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

While I agree there ought to be a spoiler-free introduction, I think the article needs both this introduction and a more detailed plot summary. PSS is a vast book; readers looking for information on characters and plot who don't want to have to re-read the book would doubtless find it useful to have a better resource. A book entry in an encyclopedia should contain a decent plot summary: could you do an encyclopedia article on Gulliver's Travels that simply said "Gulliver sailed away and had travels?" No, a good article would mention the various lands he travels to and the important characters he meets. This book has won several very prestigious awards and is a notable landmark in SF/F. It's earned more than just a spoiler-free introduction entry, which reads more like a sales pitch on the back cover. This is an encyclopedia. I think we should be less worried about spoiling potential readers and more worried about providing quality information. Besides, this is why spoiler warnings were invented. - Emperial (talk) 04:18, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

We don't use spoiler warnings in plot sections. See WP:SPOILER. Geoff B (talk) 08:26, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Races of New Crobuzon

I suggest this section be moved to the New Crobuzon article. Tredanse 11:10, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Or vice-versa. I've added Perdido Street Station to the list a dystopian literature, but the New Crobuzon article discusses this, unlike this article. It's also a hell of a lot better than this article 144.132.251.40 12:56, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Cultural reference?

I have read several sources that mentions that a certain insectoid hero in DOTA draws inspiration from a character in this novel. Can anyone verify this?121.97.142.206 (talk) 13:11, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

The Nerubian Weaver? 125.212.124.59 (talk) 08:54, 7 June 2013 (UTC)