The Scar

Date

2002

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Volume Title

Publisher

Pan Books

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Abstract

The city of Armada is a floating town built of hundreds of ships that navigates the oceans of Bas-Lag, dealing mostly in piracy. During the events of The Scar, the protagonist Bellis Coldwine is forced to become a citizen of the city, where she finds herself in the midst of a project to reach the fabled Scar, a rift in the ocean where the fabric of reality is weaker. This project gathers a number of scientists from all over the world of Bas-Lag, a team that includes marine biologists, oceanologists, mathematicians, and biologists. One of these is a naturalist, Dr. Johannes Tearfly, whose books are mentioned throughout the narrative and are indispensable to the project. Some of his titles include Predation in Iron Bay Rockpools, Sardula Anatomy, Essays on Beasts, Theories of Megafauna, and Transplane Life as a Problem for the Naturalist. The gathering of this team brings together some of the most brilliant minds in Bas-Lag. Of note in this novel is also the process that the character Tanner Sack goes through. Sack is a Remade from New Crobuzon, a former criminal whose sentence consisted of having tentacles attached to his body. He enlists the aid of a surgeon to perform more changes in himself so he can breathe underwater and contribute to the city’s project. This points, therefore, to another aspect in which science plays a key role in the main plot of the narrative.

Description

Keywords

biology , scientist , naturalist , oceanologist , surgery

Citation

Miéville, China. The Scar. Pan Books, 2002.