Some stories Liu Cixin loved to tell in those years

Jia Zhangke gave the preface to his second film book "Jia Xiang II" a very sci-fi title - "Sink to the Center of the Earth or Fly to Space", but it always reminds people of Another writer also living in Shanxi - Liu Cixin. No matter how many UFO scenes Jia Zhangke intersperses in his films, people are always willing to regard him as the most realistic film director in China. As for another writer, although his life sounds extremely realistic - he has worked as an engineer at the Niangziguan Hydropower Station for a long time, people always imagine him as an "outer spaceman" who is full of grand narratives in his mind, but also very cold. . For example, those high-dimensional civilized creatures in his works came to the earth just to tell the "bugs" on the earth that you are going to be finished!

Even if you have not read "The Three-Body Problem", everyone who regularly surfs the Internet must be familiar with it. Needless to say, "Three-Body Sociology", "Dark Forest Law" and "Three-Body Cosmology" are used in various The slogan is popular on the forum, and just a few slogans - "Eliminate human tyranny, the world belongs to the Three-Body Problem" and "Don't answer! Don't answer!! Don't answer!!!" are enough to win the carnival of netizens.

In addition to this classic novel - the majestic trilogy, when I read Liu Cixin's short stories and short stories, I was surprised to find that although the settings and directions of the stories are different, " Variations of many stories in "The Three-Body Problem" - like peaks in a huge current, have already appeared in it. These identical or similar story themes are not only what Liu has been thinking about over the years, but they are also the reason why he has become China's most important science fiction writer.

The killer in "Feeding Humanity" repeatedly repeats the rule of killer he believes in - targeting you has nothing to do with you. This undoubtedly reminds you of the famous saying in "The Three-Body Problem": Destroying you has nothing to do with you. These cold and cruel words are exactly the natural logic derived from hundreds of millions of years of cosmic evolution. In the "Devourer" series, the people on earth tried their best to explain the glory of human civilization to Daya, the "alien" devourer, but Daya just used a group of ants as an example: when humans destroy ants, they will consider the ants' safety. Ideas? Civilization is simply not worth mentioning in the face of survival. In Liu's novels, the earth is destroyed again and again without any regrets. Liu always seems to be questioning: Is the "brilliance" of human civilization just human narcissism?

And corresponding to this cruel natural logic is another human historical logic: targeting you has something to do with me. In "Once Upon a Time in the Cretaceous", ants and dinosaurs built a glorious civilization together, but eventually killed each other due to distrust. After the ants destroyed the dinosaur world, they were horrified to discover that the arms race among dinosaurs had destroyed the earth. Dragging towards the abyss. This is undoubtedly Liu's irony of the crazy arms race during the Cold War. But it was also the only solution Luo Ji could take when facing the invasion of the Trisolarans: destroy you, even at the expense of destroying me.

In "Chao Wen Tao", after the risk-evader-higher creatures stated that they could use their lives to obtain scientific truth, many scientists, mathematicians and even historians also stepped onto the altar of truth without fear. Their logic is that after solving the problem of survival, discovering the truth of the world becomes the true purpose of human existence. Mr. Hawking, who made guest appearances in both "The Way of the Morning" and "China Sun", is a typical representative of this spirit. In the former, Hawking's question left troublemakers speechless for the first time: What is the purpose of the universe? Faced with this ultimate question, even the risk solvers cannot answer it. In the latter, Hawking went to space and only wanted to stay behind the Chinese sun, because there, his eyes could always stare at the stars.

In "Poetry Cloud", "God" evolves poetry into a galaxy. It seems to be Liu's incomparable praise for poetry, but in fact it is more like Liu's infinite sigh when facing the vast starry sky: the universe Like poetry, it is full of infinite charm. In "Chinese Sun", the protagonist expresses his doubts about the present: I don't know when, we will no longer explore space, and we don't seem to need this kind of romance.

This classic quote from "Earth Fire" - "Just do it, don't think too much" is more like a man in science and engineering positioning himself.

In "Earth Cannon", the pioneers who desperately dug tunnels into the earth were regarded as devils by later generations because too many people were sacrificed during the tunnel excavation process, and the effect may not be ideal. But his father affirmed him from a different perspective - the Great Wall failed to withstand the Huns, but it will be remembered by future generations forever!

Pioneers are questioned by later generations, which is an eternal theme in Liu's novels. The questionable wandering plan in "The Wandering Earth"; the seemingly useless space exploration plan in "All Channel Jamming". Every step forward of mankind has been questioned, and the protagonists in Liu Cixin's works seem to be those who "do whatever it takes" to achieve their goals, which has become a black spot for many critics.

But the other side of being a pioneer is extreme loneliness. The navigator who is forever trapped in the center of the earth in "With Her Eyes" has become the point of tears for readers, but has also achieved the unparalleled beauty of loneliness. Loneliness is the fate of geniuses and warriors, but this extreme loneliness gives the cold science fiction another layer of poetry.

One eye looks at the stars, while the other eye looks at humans. This is the real charm of Liu Cixin's novels. In "Sustaining Humanity", Liu imagines a planet that truly realizes the principle of "inviolability of private property". In an extremely harsh and ruthless way of social machine, he finally makes that planet become one person's Exclusive Garden - After the realization of artificial intelligence, the poor are no longer needed. This idea obviously has profound historical and social core.

In "Country Teacher", which was chosen by Ning Hao and was to be adapted into a movie, Liu Cixin tells the story of a teacher who gave his life to rural education, but accidentally saved the earth from an interstellar war. Science fiction. This is not only the romance of the science and engineering man, but also his criticism of the entire society. Are those seemingly meaningless “sacrifice” really meaningless? How should society as a whole measure a person's value?

The grandeur of Liu Cixin’s novels will always exist not only in those hard-core sciences that open up the imagination, but also in those thinking about the form of human society after technological changes. "What is the purpose of mankind"? In "Time Migration", Liu Cixin demonstrated scenes of human future changes, until the last human beings were unwilling to reappear. This seems to be a huge doubt about human civilization, and this constant thinking about the form of civilization makes his novels reach an unprecedented height - examining human beings from an almost "God" perspective. This will definitely cause strong discomfort to many people, but this is exactly where his value lies.