From the June 2019 interview with Liu Cixin in The New Yorker.
“When I brought up the mass internment of Muslim Uighurs—around a million are now in reëducation camps in the northwestern province of Xinjiang—he trotted out the familiar arguments of government-controlled media: “Would you rather that they be hacking away at bodies at train stations and schools in terrorist attacks? If anything, the government is helping their economy and trying to lift them out of poverty.” The answer duplicated government propaganda so exactly that I couldn’t help asking Liu if he ever thought he might have been brainwashed. “I know what you are thinking,” he told me with weary clarity. “What about individual liberty and freedom of governance?” He sighed, as if exhausted by a debate going on in his head. “But that’s not what Chinese people care about. For ordinary folks, it’s the cost of health care, real-estate prices, their children’s education. Not democracy.”
It’s a sad truth that books get voted awards even when – or in some cases specifically because – few people have read them. I have no way to know how many voters for the Hugo awards actually read The Three Body Problem before giving it their support, but I remember being a little bemused by the book’s win. Not because it’s a badly written book – many badly written books have won Hugos – but because the win was widely claimed as a win for “diversity”, while the book itself is somewhat diametrically opposed to the values that might lead to a more diverse world.
2015 was the peak of the Sad Puppies counter-revolutionary campaign against diversity in science fiction. The science fiction writing & publishing community has been going through a culture war in recent years, with the very diverse fandom for sci-fi demanding more recognition in its awards. I’ve supported a more diverse science fiction field at every chance I have had for a simple reasons – science fiction is our modern mythology. For it to have real value, it must include all voices and cultures in our world.
The Three Body Problem is a representation of contemporary Chinese culture, in much the way works of Golden Age science fiction by authors like Robert Heinlein represented the culture of the United States. Which is to say that as a work of science fiction, The Three Body Problem is something of a throwback. It’s a story that sees the universe as fundamentally hostile, life as brutal and short, that demands survival at all costs. As the New Yorker interview says:
“Chinese tech entrepreneurs discuss the Hobbesian vision of the trilogy as a metaphor for cutthroat competition in the corporate world.”
So I wasn’t entirely surprised to see Liu Cixin quoted in support of the Uighur internment in China, recently posted in the Scifi & Fantasy Facebook group. That said, I am also aware that quotes like this often appear out of context and later prove to be only partially true. It’s also possible that Liu Cixin is simply unable to voice any other opinion. However, I would be really interested to know if it does correctly represent the author’s position.
This isn’t – I should add – a call for “cancellation”. I STRONGLY disagree with the trend to cancelling writers we disagree with. The answer to art we find repugnant is to make better art and let audiences choose. But to that end, it is valid for audiences to be interested in the opinions of creators, so they can understand the work they’re engaging with better.
Netflix’s adaptation of The Three Body Problem already struck me as misjudged – the book doesn’t have the depth of character and relationships that “HBO style” shows like Game of Thrones demand. As I’ve written before, the rush to adapt sci-fi / fantasy novels to screen that followed GoT is going to lead to dozens of failed shows, much like the recent cancellation of the dire Altered Carbon.
There are however a few real gems in the canon of science fiction that I would love to see brought to the screen. Octavia Butler’s Mind of My Mind is a story that would perfectly reflect our moment in 2020. We need to look beyond bestsellers and award winners, and instead read deeply and widely, for the real value in science fiction.
Advanced SciFi & Fantasy
Writing the 21st century myth
Damien Walter, writer on sci-fi and geek culture for The Guardian, BBC, WIRED and graduate of the Clarion writers workshop, leads a journey into scifi and fantasy storytelling.
Write better sci-fi stories with this simple idea
When high-falutin people talk about sci-fi you’ll often hear them use words like novum and the like. Critic and academic Darko Suvin came up with novum to describe the…thing…at the heart of every sci-fi story that makes it sci-fi. Androids hiding as humans! A world populated by talking apes! A portal that leads to everyContinue reading “Write better sci-fi stories with this simple idea”
Science fiction sold out. Let’s take it back.
Corporations love to take cool things and turn them to trash to make money. In the early 80s black artists took DJ music loops, rapped radical political lyrics over them, and invented hip-hop. Corporations took hip-hop and degraded it into “gangsta rap”, perpetuating stereotypes of black male violence to sell hip-hop to the masses. CorporationsContinue reading “Science fiction sold out. Let’s take it back.”
How Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey rewrote science fiction
“Stanley wanted to create a myth. And I think he succeeded. He wanted to make the proverbial “good science fiction movie”, implying there hadn’t been any good ones before then. I didn’t agree.” Arthur C Clarke 2001 : A Space Odyssey is widely considered the greatest science fiction story ever told. It’s creator, auteur movieContinue reading “How Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey rewrote science fiction”
Genre fiction is the worst thing that ever happened to science fiction
When did the science fiction community start using “genre” as a proper noun? “It’s a common thing in Genre.” As though “Genre” is a city you can visit. Or a distinct community unified by being “Genre”. It’s one of those linguistic ticks that arise on the internet. But for science fiction it’s also symbolic ofContinue reading “Genre fiction is the worst thing that ever happened to science fiction”
How does M John Harrison enter a story?
M John Harrison is one of the all time greats, a “science fiction writer’s science fiction writer”, a creator of weird tales in the horror tradition, and a powerful weaver of fantasy. The Viriconium stories defined political fantasy in the 80’s, as the Light trilogy redefined literary SF in the 00s. As editor of NewContinue reading “How does M John Harrison enter a story?”
Neuromancer…still the best science fiction novel ever written
When life takes an unexpected left turn I do four things – tidy my room, go running, take 72 hours away from anything stressful…and read a good book. This time around I landed on Neuromancer by William Gibson. I first read this book when I was 14, I suspect I read it at least sevenContinue reading “Neuromancer…still the best science fiction novel ever written”
How Philip K Dick’s 1960’s masterpiece nailed politics in the 2020’s
Is Europe welcoming desperate refugees, or being invaded by economic migrants? Is Donald Trump a serious President, or a clownish attention seeker? The Man In The High Castle reveals the most basic truths about our era of competing narratives. * In 1947 the forces of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan swept to victory over Europe andContinue reading “How Philip K Dick’s 1960’s masterpiece nailed politics in the 2020’s”
The remarkable Neal Stephenson interview
Neal Stephenson – legendary author of speculative fiction – on Elon Musk and geek culture, the NSA revelations of Edward Snowden, how negative cultural narratives are killing big science – and the upbringing that made him the writer he is. IN LATE 2013 I had the opportunity to interview the author Neal Stephenson. Some Remarks,Continue reading “The remarkable Neal Stephenson interview”
