Xinhua News Agency, Helsinki, August 15thInterview: Traditional science fiction is hard to find a way out — — Interview with China science fiction writer Liu Cixin
Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Yuzhi Natalie
Liu Cixin, a China science fiction writer, was twice nominated for Hugo Award, the highest honor of science fiction in the world, and won the Hugo Award for Best Novel once for his series of three-body works. However, he thinks that his style is out of date and the world sci-fi trend is taking on another look.
Different from the traditional science fiction represented by Liu Cixin, the series of American fantasy novel fire and ice, which has been selling well in recent years, has adopted the creative technique of "weak fantasy". "It is called ‘ Weak fantasy ’ It is because the fantasy factors in the works are not obvious, and the use of supernatural forces is very restrained. " Liu Cixin said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency in Helsinki, Finland.
Judging from the Hugo Award finalists in recent years, many sci-fi and fantasy novels in the United States are now more concerned about practical issues, such as racial discrimination, gender discrimination, the impact of artificial intelligence on society, the impact of biology on social ethics, etc., and have adopted different narrative structures and writing styles around these themes.
Of course, there are still some sci-fi novels that adhere to the traditional style, such as the American series "The Vast Sky: Leviathan Awakening". "Unfortunately, this work has neither won the nebula award nor the Hugo award. This year, it won the Hugo award for best short play, but it was not the original novel, but the adapted TV series." Liu Cixin told reporters.
Liu Cixin believes that the reason for this situation is that today, with the high development of science, science and technology have penetrated into all aspects of people’s daily life, and science is increasingly lacking in mystery in readers’ minds. "This is the most fatal blow to science fiction literature creation today, and there is almost no way out."
In order to save science fiction, Americans tried various efforts as early as the 1970s, hoping to make science fiction works far away from science and make them more literary, from describing outer space to describing people’s hearts, from describing aliens to describing the relationship between different races and sexes. For example, The Obelisk Gate won the Hugo Award for Best Novel on August 11th. Although the work is set on a mysterious planet, much of it is actually about class oppression on the earth.
"They are working hard in this direction, trying to increase the audience and influence of science fiction, but now it seems that they have not succeeded." Liu Cixin said. In his memory, the golden age of science fiction is full of vigor. Writers are all young people in their twenties, and readers are also young people. "You look at how old are the sci-fi fans at the sci-fi conference now? What hope does a literature have when all it attracts are elderly people with big bellies? "
Liu Cixin seems to be somewhat helpless about the fact that all kinds of fantasy novels at home and abroad have been adapted into movies and TV series, while traditional science fiction works are almost neglected. He said that the law of film communication is much more complicated than literature and novels, and it is more difficult to make a film than to write a novel.
At present, several works of Liu Cixin, including Three-body, have been authorized to make films, but he has not shown strong confidence in the final effect of these films. He said: "American science fiction movies and science fiction novels have developed for almost a century. We have only been three or four years, and it is not realistic to make such a good movie. Movies and novels are two different ways of expression. When shooting, there are trade-offs. It is normal for readers to be less satisfied with the film than with the original. "