Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
newyorker.com
Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
1–10 of 105 posts
Re: Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
#2What a timely article on HN for me as I am reading through the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy right now... certainly not the best sci-fi works I've ever read but some of the ideas are intriguing.
Re: Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
#3What a timely article on HN for me as I am reading through the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy right now... certainly not the best sci-fi works I've ever read but some of the ideas are intriguing.
Imo, the second book was exceptional and as a standalone, one of the best sci-fi books of the past decade.
Re: Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
#4What a timely article on HN for me as I am reading through the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy right now... certainly not the best sci-fi works I've ever read but some of the ideas are intriguing.
Imo, the second book was exceptional and as a standalone, one of the best sci-fi books of the past decade.
I actually just finished the trilogy on the weekend and couldn't agree with you more. Enjoyed reading all three but found the first a little slow and the third a bit all over the place. The second book in my opinion was an exceptional masterpiece. The author is truly a creative genius - only wish I could have read the original Chinese versions to see what was lost in translation.
Re: Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
#5What a timely article on HN for me as I am reading through the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy right now... certainly not the best sci-fi works I've ever read but some of the ideas are intriguing.
Imo, the second book was exceptional and as a standalone, one of the best sci-fi books of the past decade.
Same for me. 1st and 3rd were good. But the 2nd one is one of my all time favorites
Re: Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
#6"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.”"
Re: Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
#7What a timely article on HN for me as I am reading through the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy right now... certainly not the best sci-fi works I've ever read but some of the ideas are intriguing.
Imo, the second book was exceptional and as a standalone, one of the best sci-fi books of the past decade.
Not bad. The series reminded me of 1940's-50's sci-fi from the US, for a couple of reasons: A large confidence in the industrial and scientific capacity of their country. Relatively uncritical acceptance that their country is the good guys. No consequential female characters.
Re: Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imo, the second book was exceptional and as a standalone, one of the best sci-fi books of the past decade.
Not bad. The series reminded me of 1940's-50's sci-fi from the US, for a couple of reasons: A large confidence in the industrial and scientific capacity of their country. Relatively uncritical acceptance that their country is the good guys. No consequential female characters.
No consequential female characters? I don’t know what series you read, but it was not the same one. Almost half the cast is female.
Do you mean something different?
Re: Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
#9"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 an…
Devil's advocate here, but to be fair, there's a pretty decent likelihood that we in the west have indeed been "brainwashed" into believing that freedom is actually more important than these other things he's listing (health care, housing, education, etc...).
If you set aside freedom as a goal in itself for a second, then it's actually worth asking: is freedom actually the most important factor leading to those other creature comforts everyone wants?
I traveled once to Singapore, where a number of people I met made the exact same argument Liu makes. They phrased it this way: sure, we don't have a free press, and we have a benevolent tyrant running the place, but:
- I drive a nice car
- I can travel anywhere in the world
- I live in a spacious appartment
- My kids go to great schools
- My country is a very safe place
- Healthcare in S'pore is great
- I have a million bucks in the bank
Re: Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds
#10"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 an…
Devil's advocate here, but to be fair, there's a pretty decent likelihood that we in the west have indeed been "brainwashed" into believing that freedom is actually more important than these other things he's listing (health care, housing, education, etc...). If you set aside freedom as a goal in itself for a second, then it's actually worth asking: is freedom actually the most important factor leading to those other…
> try to step out of the cocoon of your culture for a second
I like to think that the cocoon of my culture values all human lives equally.
Obviously it doesn't really (I'm Australian), but it feels nice to pretend anyway.