I know this book has been out since 2001, and I’ve read it before, but I just finished rereading it. I always thought of it as my least favorite of the Bas-Lag Trilogy, an opinion that I gathered was not shared by other China Mieville fans, so I gave it another go.
I feel kind of sick now. I had forgotten how unrelentingly awful the ending is for all of the characters. In fact, it borders on what I think of as character torture. Despite the last chapter, where Yagharek walks into the city a man, which is kind of upbeat, no one, including Yag, gets a happy ending.
Isaac and Derkhan saved the city, yet they are still being hunted by the corrupt Rudgutter government. That alone would be bad enough, but a realistic ending. I could more than live with that, as I was able to accept the crushingly sad ending of Iron Council without the qualms that PSS leaves with me.
I do have a problem with how Isaac finally dealt with Yagharek. That was a betrayal. I realize that Yag committed rape, and was punished for it. I do not think it was OK for Isaac to then summarily abandon his friend. How much punishment is enough? If being ReMade is considered morally wrong by Isaac (as it clearly is), then how can he reneg on an agreement he made to undo what is, essentially, someone’s ReMaking? At what point is punishment cruel and unusual? When do people get to move past their punishment or earn redemption when the justice system literally mutilates them?
Yet Yagharek did commit a heinous crime. I felt he had atoned for it and was being punished again at the end of the book. Isaac went the other way. Clearly it is a moral morass for Isaac, but the way he left Yag seemed wrong to me. Isaac had an obligation to find out what Yag’s crime was, and he did not really pursue it when he should have, hungry for gold and scientific knowledge as he was. He made a commitment and he broke it. Seemed wrong to me.
More cruel is how Lin is half an imbecile at the end. That just seemed awful and unnecessary. Kind of jarring, really. Motley walks away, intact, still king of the underground, and Lin has only suffering. Why? Was there a great plot point made by this writerly decision that is lost on me?
I guess the motif of the novel is this liminal state, this half-life. Everyone suffers from it in some way, and has to comes to terms with it. In the end, Yag decides to live entirely in the world of men, eschewing even the society of Jack Half-a-Prayer for a more whole-hearted, if diminished existence, which frees him from the judgment of garuda society at last. No such redemption for Lin, though.
The slake-moths, while very cool monsters, were nothing more than a plot device. Are they a metaphor for the consequences of science without a conscience? Kind of like the Torque embodied.
I’m not saying this novel isn’t something of a masterpiece regardless of my issues with. The world-building is extraordinary, but is at its height in The Scar. The characters are compelling, though I didn’t warm to them as much as those in Iron Council. The Weaver, the Construct Council, the Glasshouse, all very interesting ideas. Not sure if I’d read it a third time, though. It did my head in.
I’d love to discuss this book with anyone else who’s interested, on topics I’ve mentioned or any other.