Line #35 Literature/LookingForJake


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/looking_for_jake.png]]
2	First published in 2005, ''Looking for Jake and Other Stories'' as its full title states, is an anthology of stories written or co-written by famous NewWeird author Creator/ChinaMieville. These stories run the gamut from UrbanFantasy, to {{Satire}}, to Surrealist CosmicHorror and everything in between, all tied together by their setting, the city of UsefulNotes/{{London}}.
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4	The anthology consists of eleven [[ShortStory short stories]], two [[{{Novella}} novellas]] and a comic sequence illustrated by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liam_Sharp Liam Sharp]]. In order, they are;
5	* Looking for Jake
6	* Foundation
7	* The Ball Room
8	* Reports of Certain Events in London
9	* Familiar
10	* Entry Taken from a Medical Encyclopaedia
11	* Details
12	* Go Between
13	* Different Skies
14	* An End to Hunger
15	* Tis the Season
16	* Jack
17	* On The Way to the Front
18	* The Tain
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20	Of these eleven short stories, three had never been published before. One story, "Jack" is set Mieville's [[Literature/BasLagCycle Bas-Lag Cycle]]. These stories have a [[AuthorTract strong political slant]] to them, and are typical of Mieville's dark style of writing. Compare with Mieville's other anthology; ''[[Literature/ThreeMomentsOfAnExplosion Three Moments of an Explosion]]''.
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22	%%!!Tropes common to the anthology as a whole:
23	%%* AndIMustScream: In ''The Tain'' and ''Foundation''
24	%%** A possible interpretation of the end of ''Details''
25	%%* AuthorTract: ''Foundation'', ''Tis the Season'' and ''An End to Hunger'' all clearly show Mieville's leftist leanings.
26	%%* EldritchAbomination: The monster in ''Details'' and ''The Ball Room''.
27	%%** Arguably, the [[spoiler: familiar in ''Familiar'']]
28	%%** And the [[spoiler: children]] in ''Different Skies''
29	%%* NewWeird: Very much so. This is China Mieville, after all.
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31	!!''Looking For Jake'' provides examples of the following tropes:
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33	* ApocalypticLog: The story is told through a letter that the [[{{Narrator}} unnamed narrator]] is writing to the titular Jake, who vanished with the rest of London. It ends with them deciding to post the letter (Even though no one is left to pick up the post anymore, they reason that it getting to Jake makes as much sense as everything else that happened) and them surrendering to the city.
34	* ApocalypseHow: A class 0, as far as the narrator is aware. The exact type is hard to describe, something that is lampshaded in the story itself. A CosmicHorrorStory themed [[OutsideContextProblem Outside Context Problem]] is perhaps the closest term.
35	* CosmicHorrorStory: London just kind of... [[EldritchLocation stops being a place humans exist in]]. Most of the population vanishes, and from the perspective of the [[{{Narrator}} unnamed narrator]] we see that London starts trying to hurry along the last people out of it, as well as replacing human activities itself. It even begins to spontaneously generate litter.
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37	!!''Foundation'' provides examples of the following tropes:
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39	* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler: the Foundation itself, undead bodies from those killed in wars and conflicts, stacked like bricks that support the modern world. Unable to move or change, they whisper how hungry they are.]]
40	* DeathOfAChild: Three children die in the [[spoiler: accident he causes]].
41	* WrongGenreSavvy: The protagonist, who works as a building inspector, deliberately [[spoiler: lets a building collapse so that the Foundation, who complains about being full of sand, will have sacrifices and leave him alone. Only later he understands that the Foundation never wanted sacrifices and aren't ever going away, they're under everything, being made up of the dead who died to sustain the modern world.]]

Context Literature / LookingForJake