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Given the subject matter of the books - I wouldn't want to touch the production of these. And that's sad.
Can you summarize what would make these books so sensitive/controversial?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>there are themes in the book which are sexist (weak willed females/effiminate men are at fault for dooming humanity...) Huh, that wasn't what I took away from it while reading, might be lack of awareness on my part but I feel like saying that is a theme of the book which is sexist seems a bit much to me. could be interpreted as maybe, if you could name examples?
The detailed commentary on the noticeably androgynous physical and “mental” characteristics of the future males in a society that has decided the trisolaran issue doesn’t exist anymore and has fully accepted defeatism (through non natural means, but still). IIRC, this society then attempts to pursue diplomacy only to get massacred before the archaic male heroically sets up a MAD situation. The archaic male then contr…
I think it's a bit early to be assuming Chinese oppression tactics (though understandable). Incidentally, this book seems to have some sort of cult critical status; I personally found it very poorly written, despite the original ideas in the plot. I hope Netflix are able to turn it into something much better in their translation to the screen.
Hence, it was poorly translated. Which is a different problem.
To be fair, I also thought that the translation was terrible. The essence of the work gets lost in translation. But the ideas inside it, were gold, and quite creative.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you summarize what would make these books so sensitive/controversial?
It's about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution . Any kind of history outside the Party in China is inevitably going to be a bit dangerous. While there are direct references to the CR in the first few chapters, the real cleverness is the indirect approach and the (traditional) use of SF to critique the present society. In the book, advanced higher-dimensional aliens have invaded earth .. with a pair…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you summarize what would make these books so sensitive/controversial?
It has a strong chinese perspective, there are themes in the book which are sexist (weak willed females/effiminate men are at fault for dooming humanity...) and you could read a lot more into it if you wanted.
Given the subject matter of the books - I wouldn't want to touch the production of these. And that's sad.
Besides, why would the Chinese government go down that route when they already have the power to censor and direct the production?
Edit: a scene where someone comes out of an obervatory or what was it.....
edit 2: why is this being downvoted.... i wrote an observation, didnt offend anybody, what??
I think it's a bit early to be assuming Chinese oppression tactics (though understandable). Incidentally, this book seems to have some sort of cult critical status; I personally found it very poorly written, despite the original ideas in the plot. I hope Netflix are able to turn it into something much better in their translation to the screen.
I also don't get the cult status. The setup in the first book is pretty engaging, the trisolarians are compelling antagonists, and i loved the power plays resulting from Dark Forest theory... But the storytelling just falls flat in books 2 and 3, with the overlong story-within-a-story and the needless romance plot. The... relativistic stuff (lets call it that to avoid spoilers) at the end didn't do anything for me at…
And I'd also argue that while the dark forest theory is a possibility it tells me more about the author and their culture than an actual plausible reality. As much as humans have been completely horrible to one another in several times of history, it was always because there was "something for us" and there was never a complete wipe out of other groups just because.
But yes, apart from that, the writing is poor, the plot holes abound. Sure, the story has several interesting plot points but it doesn't hold together. And the 2nd book is the worse in my opinion (translation probably didn't help)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>there are themes in the book which are sexist (weak willed females/effiminate men are at fault for dooming humanity...) Huh, that wasn't what I took away from it while reading, might be lack of awareness on my part but I feel like saying that is a theme of the book which is sexist seems a bit much to me. could be interpreted as maybe, if you could name examples?
The detailed commentary on the noticeably androgynous physical and “mental” characteristics of the future males in a society that has decided the trisolaran issue doesn’t exist anymore and has fully accepted defeatism (through non natural means, but still). IIRC, this society then attempts to pursue diplomacy only to get massacred before the archaic male heroically sets up a MAD situation. The archaic male then contr…
Ultimately, Earth sends the MAD signal, and ends up destroyed. The goal of the artificially installed defeatism was to make humanity flee the Earth, and it's only the those who fled the Earth who survive its destruction.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps you think the book poorly written due to the fact that a translation of the original work was read? Or did you, in fact, read it in the original Chinese? Also, I doubt very much that Netflix shall produce something worth my time . . .
The "poor translation" idea did occur to me and I nearly included it in my comment as potential, but I found it so bad it seemed unlikely as I thought the problems were more fundamental than that. Netflix has some fine series, I'm sure it's perfectly capable of doing a good job with good source material; and hopefully capable of being transformative when the source quality is more mixed.