Novel with author China Miéville thrills everyone from ardent followers to big publishers
China Miéville (L) and Keanu Reeves ‘will wear the Weird Novel crown, conceivably forever’. Composite: Barney Cokeliss/Brian Bowen SmithPenguin is cock-a-hoop, and Waterstones, tweeting the latest literary news, uncovered multiple gifs on a theme I’d never encountered before: “Take my money”. Please, begged the fan army, take my money and make the book arrive faster.
They were all reacting to the news that Keanu Reeves has announced he is writing his first novel, The Book of Elsewhere, in collaboration with the award-winning British author China Miéville.
“I just nerd-flailed so hard I put my back out,” was one typical response to the announcement on Twitter, and when I say “typical”, I mean, like snowflakes (real ones, not culture warriors), no two Keanu Reeves fans are alike, and every one is beautiful.
“Ridiculously excited about this,” tweeted another fan. “Even more excited about the idea of China Miéville and Keanu Reeves being friends.” Sangeeta Waldron called it the “dream writing partnership”.
The independent bookshop Book-ish, in Crickhowell, Wales, didn’t hold back either, tweeting: “You could have knocked us over with a feather when we heard the incredible news of an upcoming novel written by the legendary Keanu Reeves and inimitable writer China Miéville.”
How to unpack this reaction? Put it this way: remember when Eleanor of Portugal married Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, and they weren’t an obvious fit, but created an empire that held the throne continuously for the next 400 years? It’s that order of magnitude. Reeves and Miéville will wear the Weird Novel crown, conceivably forever.
For which of them, if either, does this represent a more unlikely pairing? Why the excitement? What will it be about? We can make a start on that one: it’s set in the BRZRKR comic book universe Reeves created three years ago, about an immortal warrior looking for the key to his longevity, and whose first publication became the top-selling single-issue comic since Star Wars No 1 in 2015.
The rest all tugs at the threads of what, exactly, Reeves embodies for us, what we project on to his beguiling blankness. His cultural interventions arrive like precious, indecipherable message-matter from space, or the past. So intricate! There’s obviously intention here. What does it mean? Can you eat it?
The puzzle has generated its own cultural spin-offs, such as James King’s 2020 book, Be More Keanu, and the forthcoming Keanu Is Not in Love With You. They are probably as different as two books could get: the first is a cute little toilet book, patch-working together wisdom to live by from lines in his classic films. The second is a chatty investigative book about romantic scammers, many of whom, apparently, pretend to be Reeves.
Nonetheless, both books zone in on the same quality: what King calls “that famously blank expression”. Reeves’ image would be the ultimate romantic scam, having no niche, appealing equally to everyone. King elaborates on the blankness, “a face as stony as Michelangelo yet also really absorbed in the moment”. You know the way babies can look so infinitely wise? While I would never be reckless enough to call him a baby (oh my God, his fanbase), Reeves has that nullity. He is a green screen upon whom whole worlds can be projected.
And people have done: in the “manosphere” his Matrix character, Neo, spawned the red pill/blue pill trope, which has, for years, stood in for alt-right enlightenment: have you taken the right pill to slough off the “libtards” and inhabit your mastery (it’s the red one, remember)? Or there’s the “Sad Keanu” meme of 2010 – an image of Reeves sitting on a bench, eating a sandwich, looking sad, comically repurposed countless times (in my favourite, he has a cat army). Rumoured to have started on 4chan (ground zero of the manosphere), its sensibility is in fact the opposite of that, a ragtag band of the mischievous, the misfits, to whom Reeves represents the poignant melancholy of the human condition.
He never chose to be the mascot, let alone the leader, of any of this, yet the mythology is always miles ahead of him, out of his control. “Do I wish that I didn’t get my picture taken, eating a sandwich? Yeah,” he told the BBC in 2011. Yet the same year, he released the apparently referential poetry book, Ode to Happiness, in collaboration with the artist Alexandra Grant. It was scarce even then (rumours were rife that his local bookshop had more copies than Amazon); now, a second-hand hardback costs nearly $2,000 (£1,700).
That manoeuvre, of taking his apparently uncontrollable image and wrestling it in a weird direction, is repeated with the BRZRKR universe. Its high concept – tough, superhuman hero with a sensitive soul, wracked by the mystery of that contradiction and its origin – is both an echo and a reclamation of the Keanu myth itself. Whatever his motivations, they aren’t money: he is the highest paid actor of all time.
The Book of Elsewhere is a two-man tango. What’s in it for Miéville? It fits his profile, as one of the pillars of the “new weird” genre, germinated in the late 90s, to blur boundaries. I think his long-held leftwing politics may come into it, a determined Marxist rejection of the distinctions between mass v elite culture. As Alexander Cochran, of the C&W literary agency, says: “I can’t think of a better pairing than a genuine genre fan like Keanu Reeves and the literary genius China Miéville, and I can’t wait to read what they create.”
News
Reacher Season 3 Gives Us First Look At The Dutch Giant, Olivier Richters, On Set And He’s Already Messing With Alan Ritchson
Clash of the (literal) titans! (Image credit: Marvel Studios) Paulie is a character that Reacher fans have been curious about ever since it was confirmed that Reacher Season 3 – the hit show available with an Amazon Prime Video subscription – would be adapting the…
Gerard Butler’s Den of Thieves Sequel Finally Sets Theatrical Release Date
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera has finally gotten its theatrical release date. A date has finally been put on the board for Gerard Butler’s upcoming action sequel Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. A sequel to 2018’s Den of Thieves, the new film has been…
Gerard Butler is in Talks To Star in The Action-Thriller Comedy EMPIRE STATE
Gerard Butler is in talks to star in an upcoming comedic action-thriller titled Empire State, which is about the Empire State Building being attacked. Butler will re-team with Den Of Thieves director Christian Gudegast on the project, which will involve two first responders who don’t…
Gerard Butler’s ‘Den of Thieves 2’ Finally Sets a Release Date After 6 Years
Butler will star opposite O’Shea Jackson Jr. for the sequel to the hit heist film. Image via STXfilms THE BIG PICTURE Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is set to release on January 10, 2025 with the original cast returning for another heist…
Kriti Sanon Reveals Her Fangirl Moment With Gerard Butler, Calls Him Humble: ‘I Was Like Oh My God’
The Crew actress mentioned that the incident took place when she was shooting for her Telugu film with Mahesh Babu in London. Kriti Sanon is gearing up for her next release Do Patti with Kajol. Well, recently the teaser was…
The Top 10 Films Featuring Gerard Butler, According to Critical Acclaim
Known for his commanding screen presence, Gerard Butler has secured his place among the luminaries of the film industry. From his early beginnings with a background in law to becoming a standout performer in film and television, the 54-year-old Scottish veteran has…
End of content
No more pages to load