Invisible Planets; A Review of Existing Literature
Liu Cixin of Three Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth's Past) fame should not be the only Chinese sci-fi writer you know.
Thank god for Ken Liu, because I would have been blind to this other world of sci-fi, my mother tongue being what it is. Ken Liu is a sci-fi author himself and had also worked on the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy and I've mentioned him a couple of times before in my post.
Had I known I would be reading sci-fi in Chinese, I would have paid more attention in class.
Anyway, back to the book.
It's an anthology of short sci-fi stories by various Chinese authors. As Ken Liu notes in his introduction, it is not easy to define what exactly is Chinese sci-fi, though I must say when reading their works, there seems to a distinct voice. There are many references to their history.
A few stories that resonated with me:
Oh by the way, spoiler alert. Duh.
Year of the Rat and The City of Silence
They read more like political satire/ social commentary.
The former made reference to the Cultural Revolution, university students sent to the rural areas to combat genetically modified rats who have escaped from a lab. Initially alluded to as a boon , the rats quickly become an embarrassment, much like the nature of political favours. Citizens used a pawns in a game of geopolitical chess.
The latter is about censorship, a typical dystopian. Did not think the story was very remarkable, except that I encountered it a time when Singapore was proposing a new bill that would allow the government to determine what was true or false and take down articles deemed to be fake news. It also sparked debate of offensive and hate speech, with Hosier's Take Me to Church and Ariana Grande's God is a Woman taken as examples of offensive speech.
This was a tale of censorship in a bid for firm state control until finally all words were forbidden, hence a city of silence. I felt the story could have done more rather then recite the same tired cliched tropes.
It would be fascinating if an author writes about such censorship stemming from a benign intention to stop fake news and hate speech; that could have been manipulated by various interest groups; a la Fahrenheit 451 :
"Don't step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did."
Grave of the Fireflies
This was a fantasy tale of forbidden love and entropy. The stars are dying and the world trudges on to the last remaining sun.
"He spent a thousand years to extinguish each and every star; she spent a thousand years to escape to the last star that remained lit."
Brilliantly written, wonderful plot.
Invisible planets
I loved this the most. Written as a conversation, the protagonist tells of the myriad worlds he has seen. Wildly imaginative! Reminded me of Lafferty's narratives about the planet Camiroi.
The last two stories I'm highlighting are spiritual journeys of melancholic prose. Not really my kind of thing when reading sci-fi, but still a goodread.
Spiritual journey Night journey of the Dragon-Horse
A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight
Oh and here's a bonus link to Ken Liu's The Book Making Habits of Select Species
Thank god for Ken Liu, because I would have been blind to this other world of sci-fi, my mother tongue being what it is. Ken Liu is a sci-fi author himself and had also worked on the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy and I've mentioned him a couple of times before in my post.
Had I known I would be reading sci-fi in Chinese, I would have paid more attention in class.
Anyway, back to the book.
It's an anthology of short sci-fi stories by various Chinese authors. As Ken Liu notes in his introduction, it is not easy to define what exactly is Chinese sci-fi, though I must say when reading their works, there seems to a distinct voice. There are many references to their history.
A few stories that resonated with me:
Oh by the way, spoiler alert. Duh.
Year of the Rat and The City of Silence
They read more like political satire/ social commentary.
The former made reference to the Cultural Revolution, university students sent to the rural areas to combat genetically modified rats who have escaped from a lab. Initially alluded to as a boon , the rats quickly become an embarrassment, much like the nature of political favours. Citizens used a pawns in a game of geopolitical chess.
The latter is about censorship, a typical dystopian. Did not think the story was very remarkable, except that I encountered it a time when Singapore was proposing a new bill that would allow the government to determine what was true or false and take down articles deemed to be fake news. It also sparked debate of offensive and hate speech, with Hosier's Take Me to Church and Ariana Grande's God is a Woman taken as examples of offensive speech.
This was a tale of censorship in a bid for firm state control until finally all words were forbidden, hence a city of silence. I felt the story could have done more rather then recite the same tired cliched tropes.
It would be fascinating if an author writes about such censorship stemming from a benign intention to stop fake news and hate speech; that could have been manipulated by various interest groups; a la Fahrenheit 451 :
"Don't step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did."
Grave of the Fireflies
This was a fantasy tale of forbidden love and entropy. The stars are dying and the world trudges on to the last remaining sun.
"He spent a thousand years to extinguish each and every star; she spent a thousand years to escape to the last star that remained lit."
Brilliantly written, wonderful plot.
Invisible planets
I loved this the most. Written as a conversation, the protagonist tells of the myriad worlds he has seen. Wildly imaginative! Reminded me of Lafferty's narratives about the planet Camiroi.
The last two stories I'm highlighting are spiritual journeys of melancholic prose. Not really my kind of thing when reading sci-fi, but still a goodread.
Spiritual journey Night journey of the Dragon-Horse
A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight
Oh and here's a bonus link to Ken Liu's The Book Making Habits of Select Species
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