In this episode, John and Brandeis professor Pu Wang talk with the bestselling science fiction author Cixin Liu.
Mr. Liu is the author of The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, Death’s End, and other works. When he visited Brandeis to receive an honorary degree, Liu paid a visit to the RTB lair to record this interview. He spoke in Chinese and Pu translated his remarks in this English version of the interview: if you would rather listen to the original Chinese conversation, you will find it on the RTB website and in your podcast stream (see 刘慈欣访谈中文版 Episode 14c).
They discuss the evolution of Mr. Liu’s science fiction fandom, and the powerful influence of Leo Tolstoy on Mr. Liu’s work, which leads to a consideration of realism and its relationship to science fiction. Science fiction is also compared and contrasted with myth, mathematics, and technology.
Lastly, they consider translation, and the special capacity that science fiction has to emerge through the translation process relatively unscathed. This is a testament to science fiction’s taking as its subject the affairs of the whole human community–compared to the valuable but distinctly Chinese concerns of Mo Yan, or the distinctly Russian concerns of Tolstoy.
Discussed in This Episode:
Cixin Liu, The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
Stanley Kubrick (dir.), 2001: A Space Odyssey
E.M. Forster, “The Machine Stops“
Mo Yan, Red Sorghum
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In this episode, John and Brandeis professor Pu Wang talk with the bestselling science fiction author Cixin Liu. Mr. Liu is the author of The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, Death s End, and other works. When he visited Brandeis to receive an honorary degree, Liu paid a visit to the RTB lair to record Continue reading