Daily Meh is an edited stream of consciousness, by Simen.

What It Might Be Like to Live in Viriconium

“What would it be really like to live in the world of…?” is an inappropriate question, a category error.

Pretentiousness at its best. Who is M. John Harrison to tell me what questions I will and will not ask about fiction? He writes:

Like all books, Viriconium is just some words. There is no place, no society, no dependable furniture to “make real.”

Well, of course! That’s why it’s a hypotethical: what would it be like? The thesis Harrison puts forth is that you shouldn’t try to infer how the society a work of fiction, and especially a work of speculative fiction describes would work. Thanks for the advice, but no, I think I’ll ask exactly the questions I want to ask about a work of fiction, M. John Harrison be damned.