The genre of science fiction in literature has undergone significant changes and evolution over time, with earlier influences including predictions of future technological developments.

Science fiction has been used to reflect 20th-century ideologies, explore threats, and address ecological concerns, with modern themes including climate crisis, resource depletion, transhumanism, and artificial intelligence.

The genre has expanded to include diverse perspectives, with women authors and authors of color making a significant impact, such as Nnedi Okorafor and Diana Wynne Jones, who are known for their genre-bending works.

Chinese science fiction has grown significantly over the past 40 years, with authors like Wang Jinkang combining science fiction with philosophical themes.

The genre has become more visible internationally, with artificial intelligence and space themes expected to be prominent in future science fiction.

Women authors, such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Alice Hoffman, have made an impact on the genre, and their works are now considered literature.

The internet has removed barriers to writing for non-male writers, and Chinese female science fiction writers are thriving, focusing on women's issues.

The genre has evolved from traditional forms to include unique blends of science fiction and other genres, with short fiction science fiction experiencing a golden age.

Authors from other demographics, such as Park Jui-lian, are exploring female narratives and criticizing maternal ideologies and patriarchal systems.

The science fiction genre is becoming more comprehensive and culturally diverse, with diverse authors enriching the content with new novels.

The genre of science fiction in literature has undergone significant changes and evolution over time, with earlier influences including predictions of future technological developments.

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Content: Turkish Drama from History to Science Fiction
Residents of Istanbul rush to wear headphones after the country has been hit by a pandemic that is transmitted only through language communication and speech.
These headphones protect them from the gossip of patients who have been hit by the pandemic.
Only a handful of residents have survived the disease, including Murat, a former Turkish linguist who is trying to help a young boy and is clashing with the ruthless CDC while venturing to discover his immune head in the Turkish series "Overheating Head", due to air next month on Netflix on December 2, 2022, directed by Mert Baikal.
The series is a sci-fi series and is a work of dystopia or miserable worlds in which all human beings suffer from a major collective crisis that does not belong to any individual, and is the opposite of the model of "utopia", which means "utopia" in which everything goes perfectly.
It consists of 8 parts and is taken from the novel of the Turkish writer Afshin Kom, and bears the name of the film itself.
The idea of   the series is not new in the world of art, which presented similar ideas but new in terms of television series, especially digital platforms such as Netflix and others.
In addition, the series presents the idea of   science fiction revolving in the city of Istanbul with all its oriental and Islamic culture.
It is also in the orbit of a new wave of Turkish series that adopt science fiction as the main theme, such as the series "submarine Yakamuz S-245" by the directors Tolga Karagelik and Umut Aral, which began a few months ago on Netflix, and deals with the discovery of the Turkish military base "Incirlik" of a strange phenomenon that causes a disruption in the magnetic field of the sun, resulting in the explosion and the death of all humans.
In the film "Wheat" clear metaphors and how the human first resort to the cave in search of survival in isolation represented in the experience of the story of the owners of "Surat al-Kahf" and then resort to money as in the story of the owners of the two gardens before reaching the basic station, which is the search for self from the inside and not the outside in the story of our Lord Musa peace.
Science fiction is not just a matter of entertainment, but a kind of prediction of the future of technological and scientific development in the world.
Cinema has proven its ability to predict many events, including political, social and scientific ones.
Perhaps the most striking example of this is several works of art that predicted the COVID-19 pandemic in close detail and away from what we have seen in real life, such as Steven Soderberg ’ s 2011 American film “Outbreak ”, which tells the story of a woman returning to the United States from a trip to Hong Kong carrying an infectious disease.
There is also the 2016 film “Pandemic ” by American director John Suts, about the journey of a New York City doctor who travels to Los Angeles to search for survivors after a deadly virus has claimed the lives of many people around the world.
Science Fiction with Modern Turkish Drama
The Turkish drama went through several stages before it reached the stage of science fiction.
It was the beginning of social and romantic series.
These series promoted the idea of the beauty of the place, the costumes and the feelings within a framework of tragedy.
Then I turned to historical issues, which carried all the broad political hopes that many had placed on Turkey in the context of a miserable Arab political and development reality.
History has been a common denominator with tens of millions of Turkish and Arab peoples, a universal bond that reinforces identity, rediscovers the past, builds bridges and nurtures a sense of nostalgia.
Science fiction, by contrast, leaps into the future, stimulates thinking about new science and technology, enhances self-ability, realizes the impossible, and thinks the absurd.
It is a natural progression of any ambitious production process that begins with the exhumation of memory and the past, and after most of the symbols and events of its modern history are consumed in historical series moving towards a new dramatic genre.
And the Turkish drama did well to carve this trend, because on the one hand it offers an oriental cinematic vision of science, and on the other hand it combats the spirit of frustration and despair experienced by young people by presenting a cinematic scientific narrative from an oriental Muslim country with a record of inventions and industrialization in the current era.
It is no secret that imagination as an idea is the magic word of the current generation of Turkish government, opposition and people.
The significance of this word is illustrated by a famous position between the late Prime Ministers Necmettin Erbakan and Bulent Ecevit when the latter accused the projects of the Welfare Party (Erbakan Party) as fictional, and replies that he (Ecevit) as a poet knows well the role of imagination in life and that the Welfare Party already has a wide imagination but seeks to achieve it on the ground.
The 2017 film "Wheat", directed by Semih Kaplanoglu, is one of the important attempts in the framework of science fiction stemming from Turkish culture, albeit in a cinematic rather than television setting.
He presented Arab and Islamic culture in the context of an interesting and unique science fiction.
It is an English-language film about the philosophy of the relationship between man and the modern technical nature, produced jointly by Turkish-German, French-Swedish and Qatari.
It is about the journey of Professor Errol Erin, an agronomist who lives in a futuristic city protected from the entry of multi-ethnic immigrants.
After the city is hit by a genetic engineering problem whose causes are unknown, the professor decides to look for another scientist who has written a study of the crises of genetically modified crops.
This journey of research leads him to discover what he knew about himself and life.
In the film, there are clear metaphors for the cave, and how man first resorts to the cave in search of survival in isolation represented in the experience of the story of the owners of the cave, and then resorts to money as in the story of the owners of the two gardens, before reaching the basic station, which is the search for self from the inside and not the outside in the story of Moses, as a gift to the same Koranic Sura (cave).
This last stop leads to the model of civilized urbanism based on rational construction of urbanism based on the building of the soul with the story of Dhul-Qarnain.
The film here is an application of the theory of "Quranic cinema", which we mentioned in another article last Ramadan, about the inspiration of the Quranic stories cinematically in terms of meaning and symbolism other than the direct and known stories.

Science fiction has been used to reflect 20th-century ideologies, explore threats, and address ecological concerns, with modern themes including climate crisis, resource depletion, transhumanism, and artificial intelligence.

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Content: Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts (Symposium, Toulouse)

Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts

The aim of this symposium run by the LLA-Créatis laboratory at the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès is to develop open thinking about “political” questions, in the broad sense of the term, that science fiction narratives allow. Different types of stories can be considered, in different literary genres or in cinema, video series and comics. It can be studied and interrogated from a historical, political and social perspective by involving, where appropriate, the possible contributions of different analyzes (anthropology, semiotics, feminist studies, postcolonial studies, etc.) Diversity of perspectives and questions raised by gender.

The entire twentieth-century period produced works in San Francisco that were marked by ideologies such as capitalism and its “communist” counterpart, but also by threats associated with civilian and/or military nuclear power, religious-related abuses, racism, minority liberation struggles, and pollution. , etc. These perceptions persisted, but in the period from the last 20 years of the 20th century to the first 20 years of the 21st century, other concerns were voiced: ecological pesticides, the climate crisis, demographic crises, resource depletion, or the danger. The scientific and technical potential (transhumanism, “artificial intelligence”, etc.) is being carried away.

The link to the realities of the times (as in the collection “Le Passager Clandestin / Dyschroniques”) can of course depend on one or more authors, take into account a work or compare several (especially in the case of short stories and short films). The broader perspective will consist in considering the basic ideologies, either in relation to the literary prizes awarded, or in relation to the works themselves, the semantics of these presenting themselves from the outset sometimes as criticism, sometimes as propaganda, the two being able to be combined according to modalities that tend to be ironic, Satirical, disruptive, etc.

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In any case, it would be a matter of highlighting the “exploratory potential” in these works, of identifying the “problematic tools” and of making the ideas put forward in fictional form productive from the point of view of political theory. (Y Rambhala).

Of course, it is advisable to include works belonging to different geographical and linguistic fields so that the panorama of this search is sufficiently realistic.

Provisional schedule of courses (date adjustments possible)

Oct 20, 2-4 PM / Nov 17, 2-4 PM / Dec 15, 2-4 PM / Jan 19, 2-4 PM / Feb 9, 2-4 PM / Mar 15, 2-4 PM / May 31 , 2-4 p.m

Contribution proposals must be sent Before October 1, 2023 To the following addresses: frederics[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

What concepts does Ishiguro's literary science fiction novel bring up?

What time period produced science fiction works that included idealogies such as capitalism, and communism, and also threats of nuclear power, racism, pollution, and more?

The genre has expanded to include diverse perspectives, with women authors and authors of color making a significant impact, such as Nnedi Okorafor and Diana Wynne Jones, who are known for their genre-bending works.

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Content: Swords & Spaceships

8 Excellent Genre-Bending Sci-Fi Tales To Take You to the Next Frontier

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Lyndsie Manusos

Senior Contributor

Lyndsie Manusos’s fiction has appeared in PANK, SmokeLong Quarterly, and other publications. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has worked in web production and content management. When she’s not nesting among her books and rough drafts, she’s chasing the baby while the dog watches in confused amusement. She lives with her family in a suburb of Indianapolis.

Prophet by Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald, published by Grove Atlantic

The must-read queer sci-fi thriller of the summer! In a world just one perilous step from our own, an unlikely pair sets out on the most dangerous and otherwordly mission of their lives. When a diner suddenly appears in a remote field, Adam and Rao are confronted with the most devastating weapon they have ever seen: Prophet. No one knows who created it, or why, but this spooky substance is bringing happy memories to life, then stifling people with their own joy. Despite their troubled past, the two are drawn closer than ever to defend what they hold most dear.

As I said in my 2022 science fiction subgenre primer, the genre of science fiction is expanding. Like our universe, it is expanding quickly, redefined with every story, be it short or long-form. And beneath the large umbrella of science fiction, subgenres are added and redefined. All in all, there are endless ways to tell a science fiction story (don’t let any old guard tell you different).

And then — subgenres aside — there is genre-bending science fiction. There is science fiction that centers horror and science fiction that is fabulist and weird. There’s science fantasy, as well as science fiction romance. There’s science fiction that is nearly unclassifiable, a mixture of so many things, or even all the things. I’ve mentioned in my Book Riot oeuvre that genre-bending of any shape or size is my kind of work. When writers are bold and brave in their genre weaving, that’s when the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. That’s when I rub my hands together and think, “oh, this is going to be good.”

Genre-bending science fiction doesn’t have to be confined to the novel form, either. Short fiction science fiction is in a golden age right now. Check out the latest finalists and winners for the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards, and I promise you will find mindblowing, genre-bending, exceptional work.

Below I will showcase eight tremendous genre-bending science fiction tales, ranging from short stories to novels, and everything in between. I believe I’ve mentioned at least one in a previous post from last year, but you’ll notice the genre coverage is different. Ergo, these stories are genre-bending.

In any case, I hope you’ll enjoy these stories as much as I do.

Genre-Bending Science Fiction: Novels & Novellas

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

Fatima had a past before she became known as Sankofa. Before those around her called her the adopted daughter of the Angel of Death. With a mere glance, an entire town could fall. But before that, the world was different.

So much of what Okorafor writes is genre-bending science fiction (the Binti trilogy!). This novella begins in an almost fantasy-horror like fashion: Sankofa walking, leaving fear and horror in her wake. But as the story unfolds, it becomes this all-encompassing tale of African futurism, how the world shapes us, and then how we might reshape the world.

Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones

One of the things I love about including this book is seeing this title on Goodreads and reading all the genres it’s described as. Hint: it’s like all the genres. Fantasy, science fiction, time travel, magic, dragons, robots, portals, you name it, Hexwood probably has it. And clearly, none of this should surprise you coming from the legendary Diana Wynne Jones.

The tale follows Ann Stavely as she watches people disappear through the farm’s gate. She meets a sorcerer, and time begins to move differently in the woods nearby. Little does she know that far beyond Earth, Controller Borasus receives word that an ancient machine has been awakened.

I mean, clearly, genre-bending at its finest.

Escape Velocity by Victor Manibo

I love how Victor Manibo is always able to craft the perfect mystery within his brilliant science fiction worlds. Manibo is a master at showing Earth just around corner, especially if we keep on our current trajectory. Picture a world of hyper-capitalism, a luxury liner — Space Habitat Altaire —and a ruthless world of amassing “points” in order for the chance to start a new life on Mars.

Now, add a decadent mystery of whodunit with a sprinkle of who’s willing to do anything to get what they want: Ava wants to find out who murdered her brother; Laz wants to win Ava’s heart; Sloane wants to collect secrets as his family’s wealth declines; Henry will do whatever it takes to get to Mars.

And all this is set during a class reunion on a luxury space liner, with twists and turns you won’t see coming. Get your science fiction Knives Out fix with this one.

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

I still think about this book. I still think about Borne and that giant bear, Mord. This book is solidly science fiction, but it’s also just fucking weird. That’s honestly the best way to describe it, too, which is why I love it so much. It’s post-apocalyptic, and it manages to be both epic and extremely intimate.

Rachel is trying to survive in a world that wants to kill her at every turn. Then she finds Borne, an amorphous creature, in the fur of a Godzilla-sized bear named Mord. Rachel cannot bring herself, nor allow her lover Wick, to destroy Borne. Borne reminds her of better times and better places, and an attachment grows between them. This book is personal as well as out of this world. It’s weird fiction at its finest. It’s science fiction at its most profound.

Genre-Bending Science Fiction: Short Form

This list includes short fiction, though that ranges in word count. Below you’ll find tales that are short stories or novelettes.

Foxfire, Foxfire” by Yoon Ha Lee from Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Let me begin by saying that the publication of this story is in a highly respected (and one of my personal favorites) genre magazine called Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Its mission: to publish the very best in “literary adventure fantasy.” And yet, this story also has beautifully crafted science fiction elements.

This novelette follows Baekdo, a magical, shapeshifting fox who is able to speak to gods. Baekdo is set on becoming human, which requires him to kill — and devour the liver of — 100 humans. Baekdo has no qualms about coming to his 100th kill, but things don’t go as planned. Baekdo’s 100th victim is the pilot of a Cataphract, a giant battle mech. Baekdo swears on the tiger-sages that he will keep his oath with the pilot, Jong, and finish her mission. It’s an intimate, magical tale while also being epic in scope. Truly, a genre-bending masterpiece.

The Gondoliers” by Karen Russell from Orange World and Other Stories

Karen Russell is a masterful genre-bending writer. I fell in love with Russell’s work over ten years ago, with her first collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Like Kelly Link, Russell was vital in redefining, for me at least, what fiction, especially literary fiction, can do. “The Gondoliers” is a wonderful example of this.

It follows Janelle Picarro, a.k.a Blister, in a post-apocalyptic world where parts of Florida have fully submerged underwater and is now called New Florida. Blister is a gondolier, ferrying people across the waters. Blister and her sisters use echolocation to communicate and steer. There is a little bit of everything in this story, and you won’t be the same when you reach the end.

Memories of Memories Lost” by Mahmud El Sayed from khōréō

khōréō is one of my favorite speculative fiction magazines. “In Memories of Memories Lost,” El Sayed crafts a devastatingly personal short story of memory, loss, and sacrifice.

After aliens take over Earth, humans must pay a “memory tax” to their cosmic invaders. The story follows Ahmed, who chooses, for his tax, to give a large family memory in the form of a heirloom. In doing so, he can assure the comfort of his father, who suffers from dementia. It’s a story of complex relationships and love. It’s a story that begs hard questions of ourselves, our souls, and our loved ones: What if we could give traumatic memories away? Would we regret the loss?

The Dizzy Room” by Kristina Ten from Nightmare Magazine

Look, I know I’ve mentioned this story before, and it’s because the story is that good. Published in the renowned horror magazine Nightmare, this story is about a video game, but it’s also a horror story about memory and language. There are images and a multitude of sensory details that will haunt me forever.

This is science fiction horror at its best, with a mounting dread that will have you tempted to lean back while also leaning forward, closer to the page, admittedly desperate to hear the sounds of the game itself beckoning you. I am not at all surprised that this story is a finalist for the 2023 Shirley Jackson Awards.

Find Genre-Bending Stories Everywhere

Every genre has trailblazers, writers who take a genre and build upon it, question and criticize it, and remold it into something new. These are the writers I seek out again and again to dissect and study these genres, rediscovering them and also falling in love with them all over again. They are out there now, and their stories are waiting.

If you’re interested in more genre-bending work, check out these other Book Riot gems:

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

Who wrote "Binti," a Hugo-award-winning African futuristic science fiction horror story?

Chinese science fiction has grown significantly over the past 40 years, with authors like Wang Jinkang combining science fiction with philosophical themes.

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Content: Interview with Wang Jinkang, 2024 Hugo Finalist

INTRODUCTION: Eight Light Minutes(8LM) Culture of Chengdu has given permission for File 770 to reprint the series of interviews with Chinese science fiction writers which they have been running this week on Facebook. The first one is a question and answer session with Wang Jinkang, whose novella Seeds of Mercury is a 2024 Hugo Award finalist.

SUPPORTING CHINESE WRITERS SERIES (1): 2024 HUGO AWARD NOMINATION INTERVIEW WITH WANG JINKANG

Translated by Joseph Brant.

Wang Jinkang(王晋康) was born in Nanyang, Henan Province in 1948. He is a senior engineer, and a member of the Chinese Writer’s Association (CWA), The China Popular Science Writing Association (CPSWA), The Committee of Scientific Literature and Art, and the Henan Writers’ Association. Since the publication of his first story, The Return of Adam, in 1993, he has published over 90 short works, and 20 full novels, including Cross, We Together, Escape from The Mother Universe, Parents of Heaven and Earth, and Cosmic Crystal Eggs, totaling over six million words. He has won China’s Galaxy Award 16 times, as well as The Chinese Science Fiction Nebula’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He is considered one of Chinese science fiction’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’, and his emblematic work Seeds of Mercury was shortlisted for the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

Hello Mr. Wang! Before we start, I would like to congratulate you on Seeds of Mercury’s shortlisting for 2024’s “Best Novella” Hugo Award. This is news that has excited countless Chinese science fiction fans. Ever since the publication of Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History, readers have commented that your contributions have particularly appealed to them and would like to know more about your life and work. Hopefully, this long-awaited interview will provide some of the insights the sci-fi community has longed for.

Q1Mr. Wang, despite having produced many great works, this is the first time you’ve been shortlisted for the Hugo. How did you feel when you learned that you’d been shortlisted?

Wang Jinkang: Of course I was elated. Although I’ve won many awards in China, in fact the most Galaxy Awards in history, this is the first time I’ve been shortlisted for a Hugo. It felt like 31 years ago, when I first saw The Return of Adam in print, and when I won my First Galaxy Award. I think every author experiences these moments of excitement. It’s excellent that Chinese science fiction has reached a certain level, after years of growth, it’s now more and more visible internationally, which is fantastic. Of course, what we value even more, is these works transcending their era, and surviving the tides of time to reach future generations.

Religion and Science are enemies who love each other.

Q2Mr. Wang, as one of the ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ of Chinese science fiction, you’re already very well known in China, with a creative career spanning over thirty years, with works such as Leopard Man, Ant Life and Survival Experiment and so on. This shortlisted work is such a quintessential piece. However, this interview is not just intended for the Chinese sci-fi fans, but for readers around the world, who may not be familiar with Seeds of Mercury. Could I ask you to introduce it for the benefit of the overseas sci-fi fans?

Wang Jinkang: Seeds of Mercury is a two-threaded story. The first one follows a female scientist named Shawu, who discovers a new formula for life, and creates a fluid metal nano life form. When she dies, she entrusts that formula to Chen Yizhe, a businessman with a pure heart, along with the message “real life cannot be bred in pens. In the Solar System, there happens to be a suitable place for it to breed freely – Mercury”. Chen Yizhe accepts this monumental legacy enthusiastically, using his personal wealth to maintain the laboratory. In order take the next step, of “seeding Mercury”, he must turn to the society around him. Mr Hong, a multi-billionaire with a disagreeable personality but a benevolent soul, decides to liquidate his empire to facilitate the spaceship’s construction. Furthermore, Hong makes another astonishing decision: to relocate to Mercury, have his body frozen in the millennia-old ice caves of the planet’s north pole, to be awakened every 10 million years, to assist the evolution of these micro-lifeforms. In just 15 years, Chen Yizhe sends Hong to Mercury to seed the nano-life into the liquid metal lakes of Mercury, after which Hong settles down in its polar caves. Meanwhile, Hong’s lawyer, and soulmate named Yin, bids her painful farewells from the distant Earth.

The second storyline is set 100 million years later, when the Suola race have evolved on Mercury, their metal bodies adapted to the hundred-degree temperatures of the planet. They are sustained by light (drawing energy directly by photosynthesis). With no sense of hearing, they rely on the flashing of light through two orifices in their abdomen to communicate in binary. The entire Suola race are devout followers of Shawu, venerate the Star Father, the great god Shawu and her earthly incarnation. They have been initiated in science, and after studying their Holy Book, scientist Tu Lala discovers that much scientific knowledge has been disguised and hidden within. From this he deduces that life on Mercury originates from The Blue Planet. He implores the high priest to send an expedition to search for the Holy Site in the depths of the ice, with the excuse of reviving the incarnation of Shawu, as the Book prophesied. The high priest consents, sending a chaplain to supervise the mission. Tu Lala actually locates the Holy Site, and discovers the incarnation of Shawu (Mr Hong), frozen in the ice, along the sacred rites of “how to revive the incarnation of Shawu”.

However, unexpected occurrences, mainly due to the ignorance and blind devotion of the believers, result in Tulala’s unfortunate violent death (as metallic organisms, the Suola can easily resurrect after a sudden death, but those who do are considered an untouchable caste). In order to protect Mr Hong’s body, Tu lala risks the humiliation, but tragically, his student Qi Qiaqia denounces him, exposing his untouchable status, and inciting the crowd to him, During which time, Mr Hong’s body is destroyed in the scorching sunlight. To avoid blame, Qi Qiaqia suddenly declares that the incarnation of Shawu was a false god, which is why the Father Star could destroy it. This narrative is accepted by the devotees, who hail him as their new high priest. In the thousands of years that follow, Suola society descends into darkness, religious cruelly suppressing science, but from among the population comes a new “Sect of Repentance”, apparently founded by an untouchable. Silently they preserve everything related to science, awaiting the next rebirth of Shawu in future millennia.

Q3Seeds of Mercury was first published in 2002, and its appeal still endures, even after all this time. What inspired you to write this story?

Wang Jinkang: The initial inspiration probably came from a sad epiphany I had as a teenager. The human body is too fragile. Our proteins start to coagulate above 80°C, our brain suffers irreversible damage if we don’t breathe for five minutes, our body can’t withstand radiation, and we can die from disease, hunger, dehydration, drowning and freezing… It’s admirable that such a fragile life form has been propagated on for billions of years, but it also makes me apprehensive that humanity would not survive a disaster. Human civilisation is a great achievement, which is why we are proud of it; but it also makes me anxious, worrying that humanity may not survive the next cataclysm. I couldn’t help but imagine, what if a creator, or god of evolution, created a metallic life, invulnerable to fire and flood? Many years later, I combined these youthful imaginings with my subsequent concept of “Templates for Life” and turned it into this novella.

Q4Seeds of Mercury is a piece about the sublime act of Creation, and a reflection on the transitory nature of life. Did you write it with the intention of exploring the contradiction between Science and Religion? Or did that grow naturally out of the creative process? Also, do the sentient beings you write about reflect your own views and positions?

Wang Jinkang: I didn’t intend to construct that dichotomy between Science and Religion, but it’s exactly what happened on Earth, so when I created a history for Mercury’s civilisation, those episodes just appeared naturally. Religion and Science are enemies who love each other. European Papacy cruelly persecuted Galileo, Bruno, and other ‘heretics’, and strictly forbade the theory of evolution, but medieval Europe became the birthplace of modern science. When we look back at the history of Civilisation over millennia, you can’t help but sigh that history is full of paradoxes, and that The Creator is always full of mischief, making fun of the theories of Cause and Effect. As to whether this new life carries some of my own views or positions? Of course. Tu Lala is the heir to the human spirit, with his scientific rationality, adventurous spirit, sense of responsibility, fortitude, and self-sacrifice. In the story, when Tu Lala meets the holy body of Shawu Incarnate, and he figures out that the great god was a scientist. Thus, demonstrating that the intellectual spirits of all scientists are inter-relatable, even if they are alien. That is what I believe in my heart.

Today’s AI isn’t quite up to the standard of “Return of Adam”

Q5Mr. Wang, the world has moved on 22 years since the first publication of Seeds of Mercury. What changes do you think have occurred in science fiction writing in the present day, compared to the early years both in terms of the environment, and the core themes?

Wang Jinkang: These 22 years have brought great changes, and it could be said that civilisation has reached a critical point, that we’re on the cusp of drastic changes. However, for the science fiction writer, who is used to seeing the world from a god-like point of view (through the eyes of science) we think in millennia, so 22 years is too short a period to affect the themes of my work. For example, my debut story Return of Adam showed a society where AI had overcome natural humanity, though it had taken on a parasitic approach, augmenting the processing power (IQ) of the human mind to far outstrip the basic brain, and in fact, became the core of human consciousness. The rapid development of AI today, especially the LLM systems, is amazing, even frightening, but in general, today’s AI isn’t quite up to the standards of Return of Adam. Still, I’m saddened that some things I wrote about, which I assumed would be far in the future have come to pass in my lifetime. For example, in 1997, when many Chinese people asserted that AI could never triumph in the field of Weiqi (Go), I was convinced it eventually would, and wrote a scene of an ‘AI beating a human chess master’ in one of my stories, before it actually happened. I just never expected to see it in my lifetime.

Q6Before Liu Cixin appeared, you “held up half the sky” in Chinese Sci-fi. When you first appeared in China’s science fiction circles, you were relatively older, and more experienced. Do you think that maturity allowed your work to appear more rounded?

Wang Jinkang: My life and experiences have been quite unique. I’ve lived through a very special time in China’s history, worked as a rusticated youth, a miner and model maker. I went to university at 30, became a mechanical engineer, wrote literary novels, and only broke into the science fiction world by chance at 45, publishing my first sci-fi story. If anything, my near-fanatical reading of literature at university paved the way for my future writing. At that time, the reforms were already happening in China, and it was opening up to the world. A huge amount of foreign literature was pouring into the country, dazzling readers like me. There may be another special factor, which is, because I was studying engineering, I was standing atop this wall of science and watching this river of literature racing by, I had a sense of detachment. Add to that I only started writing SF decades after experiencing the rise, fall and distilling of the wave of literature. I suppose that’s why my writing style has a poised, bleak, and sombre character.

Q7What sort of stories do you think are expected from the current literary ecosystem? Which sci-fi genres do you expect to take off in the future?

Wang Jinkang: I have always felt that science fiction is unlike any other form of literature. The richness of mainstream literature does not necessarily coincide with the strength of a country. As the aphorisms go, “classics are born from chaos”, and “poets are fortunate when the country is not”. However, the success of science fiction is reliant on enough readers and authors being educated to a certain threshold, and so depends on the country’s economic, scientific, and technological development, which can be proven by the movement of science fiction’s centre from Britain and France to the United States over the last century. Over the past 40 years, China’s overall economic development has been good, and as one of the oldest sci-fi writers in the country, I’ve experienced this first-hand. I feel that as China continues to modernise and converge with the rest of the world, the creative environment of Chinese sci-fi will continue to improve. As for which themes, I feel will start to emerge? It’s expected that artificial intelligence and space themes, with more emphasis on exploring the human condition, are going to be the stories of importance, but other themes will also develop immensely.

Science fiction writers are used to seeing the world from a god-like viewpoint.

Q8 Mr. Wang, science fiction has taken root in China now for around a century, and you have played a pivotal role in the history of science fiction in the country. Irrespective of whether or not you win this Hugo Award, you have influenced a generation of sci-fi fans and creators. How do you view your own Creative Achievements?

Wang Jinkang: I’m flattered, but I only really played a leading and inductive role in the early stages of the so-called “New Generation” of Chinese sci-fi back in the 1990s. I’m content with the two aspects of my writing career, firstly, in forming the genre of Philosophical Science Fiction, which is based on the latest technological advances, and digs deep into the influence it has on alienation, civilisation, and so forth, to discover this genre’s philosophical uniqueness. This genre did not originate in my work, foreign writers including Mr. Arthur C. Clarke have long created excellent works of philosophical sci-fi, but these elements in my work are more concentrated. Furthermore, with regards science fiction as “the most cosmopolitan form of literature”, I consider my work, whilst still cosmopolitan, to be imbued heavily with Chinese styles and themes, which adds a certain flavour to the genre.

Q9Do you feel that science fiction writing is shifting from short-form to long form, and what difficulties do you feel are associated with that?

Wang Jinkang: In my experience there are three main issues faced when moving into the long-form. Firstly, there must be enough knowledge, from the accumulation of experience and information. Secondly, there must be a more mature view of Nature and human society, in their entirety. These are not necessarily the dominant trait of the novel but will play important roles in the story’s development. Thirdly, the ability to comprehend the entirety of the larger story. This ability to grasp the complete story is equally important to mainstream literary writers, but in science fiction, concepts always play a driving role in the whole work and should be logically consistent in themselves.

Q10In your eyes, what is the role of Morality and Ethics in Science Fiction?

Wang Jinkang: Science fiction authors often look at the world from a godlike point of view, and in the eyes of a creator, survival comes first, and morality and ethics are just auxiliary codes established by humans once they reached a certain level of civilisation. They are also conducive to the overall survival of the human race. As Humanity develops, and “co-operation” becomes more central to society, the role of morality and ethics becomes more and more important, but they certainly won’t stay the same, and the rules will certainly have additions and deletions. For example, once technology becomes suitably advance, the ethics of “strict prohibition regarding editing the genes of a human being” are very likely to change.

Q11Throughout your career, which of your stories are you most satisfied with?

Wang Jinkang: Of my short and medium length works, I like Seeds of Mercury’, Bee Keepers and The Song of Life, and of my longer works, I’m most satisfied with Ant’s Life and the Alive Trilogy (Escape From The Mother Universe, Parents of Heaven And Earth, and Cosmic Crystal Eggs).

Thank you, reader, for giving meaning to my life.

Q12Mr. Wang, some sci-fi fans have pointed out you are ‘the oldest non-American writer shortlisted for the Hugo Award’, which is an impressive feat. What are your hopes for the Hugo Awards?

Wang Jinkang: There’s a bit of a special circumstance here, where a story I wrote 22 years ago, was only translated into English last year, and shortlisted according to the translation’s publication date, even though, I’m very happy to hold this “World Record”. I hope it will go further than just being a finalist, but even if it doesn’t, I still consider it a great honour to be shortlisted.

Q13What would you like to say to the readers regarding the inclusion of Seeds of Mercury in the Hugo Awards shortlist, which was voted for by individual sci-fi fans one after another?

Wang Jinkang: I’ve always had a reverence for my readers. The two most common inscriptions I write to fans at signings are “The reader is the god of authors”, and “Thank you reader, for giving meaning to my life”. Out of the millions of publications each year, in a sea of stories, to have any number of people read your work, enjoy it, and keep it in their memory after that relentless tide of time, is a rare blessing. One might even call it a great gift from the readers to the author.

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The genre has become more visible internationally, with artificial intelligence and space themes expected to be prominent in future science fiction.

Women authors, such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Alice Hoffman, have made an impact on the genre, and their works are now considered literature.

Title:

Content: INTERVIEW

"I want to believe": Alice Hoffman is always seeking magic, practical and otherwise

The author on her time travel novel "The Invisible Hour," thoughts on Nathaniel Hawthorne and "Practical Magic"

By Alison Stine

Staff Writer

Published August 20, 2023 8:00AM (EDT)

1998 Sandra Bullock and Nichole Kidman stars in the new movie "Practical Magic." (Getty Images/Warner Bros./Hulton Archive)

Alice Hoffman still believes.

The New York Times bestselling author of more than 40 works of fiction published her first, "Property Of," when she was just 21. That novel was swiftly followed by beloved collections of short fiction, works for teens and children, and novels like 1995's "Practical Magic," best known for its big-screen adaptation.

"It's a bad idea to write for the moment because the moment passes so quickly."

It's not the only one of her books to be turned into a film. She also wrote "Aquamarine," "The River King," and penned the screenplay for the 1993 indie film "Independence Day." But the 1998 movie adaptation of "Practical Magic," starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Stockard Channing, has acquired a massive following over the years.

Hoffman returned to the family of witches introduced in "Practical Magic" with several other books, including 2021's "The Book of Magic." And she returns to magic often, with witchy characters, rambling houses lush with flourishing plants (I always keep rosemary by my garden gate because of Hoffman), inherited curses, women telling their own truths — and a strong belief in what we cannot always see.

Her new novel, "The Invisible Hour" twists time. Lonely and ostracized Mia has been raised in the cloistered Community, a cult in western Massachusetts. Though books are outlawed by the Community, she finds secret solace in them. Specifically, one book: "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. And in the second half of Hoffman's novel, she finds herself going back in time to encounter the writer whose words she feels showed her a way to survive.

Hoffman talked with Salon about Hawthorne, writing during a time of COVID and finding magic in the real world still.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Your first novel was published when you were very young. Did you always know that you wanted to tell stories?

I think I was always a reader. That was what was important to me. I think I wanted to be a writer. I remember sending a short story someplace when I was in high school, so I must have had thoughts about that, but really I was mostly a reader. Then I took a creative writing class, and the professor was shockingly supportive. I just never expected it. I certainly didn't think you could do it for a living or it would be a profession.

I remember that I didn't know that until I read "Anne of Green Gables" by L. M. Montgomery. The main character was a writer, and I realized, oh, people actually do this.

I know, it's kind of a shock. I think nowadays people think about doing this, I don't know, but I certainly didn't think about getting published. That wasn't my thought.

You've written in a lot of formats. You've written novels for adults, YA novels, middle grade, short stories, a screenplay. Do you have a favorite form that you love to write in?

Honestly, I think I like connecting short stories, a novel-in-stories because you get to move around. There's so much freedom, and the way things connect can be so interesting.

That seems like a hard format to me.

Really? I think it's so much fun. And you just can create a whole gigantic world and move around so freely.

Well, that makes sense because you've returned to your worlds a few times. You've returned to the characters, so it makes sense that you would be drawn to it.

And this new book ["The Invisible Hour"] actually takes place in a town where I wrote a book of connecting stories about called "The Red Garden," so it's the same place. It's just a novel that takes place in that town.

Oh, that's so interesting. It's like there's something left over that you have to return to.

For me, it was very healing to go back to that town. I felt really comfortable there. It made it easier for me in a way to write the novel. It was so weird writing during COVID and so escapist for me. I think some people couldn't write, but for me I wrote more because where were we going to go? And I think the idea of time travel — I've always loved time travel books, but the idea that you could change things or go back, it's really interesting to me.

It makes sense that you would be thinking about time travel during COVID, too. I was going to ask you about time, and if that was important to your work.

It really is all about time. I thought a lot about time while I was writing this book and before this book because it was such a lousy time. I mean, there were good things that came out of it. I think some friendships became closer, but I just felt so sad for the people who were at certain phases of their life, were young, becoming young adults or were kids. And I just didn't really want to be in this time. I still don't want to be in this time, to tell you the truth.

Yeah, I understand that. How do you keep a sense of wonder in your writing, even when you're writing for adults?

I think it's because of the books that I read. I'm sure as a fiction writer you feel this too. The books that I read when I was younger are the books that wound up affecting me more than any others. They form who you are as a reader, as a person. And I read a lot of magic and a lot of Ray Bradbury.

I loved books that took place in the here and now, but also included magic so that it wasn't so far away. Back then, everything was genre-ized . . . Now that's changed, and [science fiction and fantasy] are more acceptable as literature, but it didn't used to be. I always feel like you should just write what you want to write no matter what's current because it doesn't really matter. It changes.

That's a good point. And I feel like that changed not too long ago. Even when I was in school, there was a lot of criticism from professors for genre writing. To write genre work was somehow bad. And I feel like that's been a recent kind of shift, thank goodness.

Really recent, I think. I remember I read Ursula K. Le Guin when I was a kid and loved her books, but they were definitely science fiction and fantasy. And then all of a sudden they became literature. Someone decided. But they were always literature. It's just they were put into these categories.

"Fiction is more believable than life in a way because when you're writing a book, you have to have it make sense."

I think it's a bad idea to write for the moment because the moment passes so quickly. The other thing about time is that what's right and what's good and what's accepted suddenly becomes not. I thought about that with the way women were treated in "The Scarlet Letter," the way that the Puritans blamed women, and they believed in original sin and that women were responsible for that because of Eve. It all changed, but then it changes back. And then it changes again. A lot of the things that women are coping with right now are not that different, really. The judgment against women.

That's very true. Why do you feel called to tell stories that have magic in them? I mean, you talked a little bit about your childhood reading. Is that why, or do you think there's something else that makes you feel like these are the stories you need to tell?

It's about my childhood and what I read, but I think it's also I want to believe. I want to believe that there's — not magic per se necessarily, but wonder and beauty and goodness and a moral universe and all those sorts of things . . . I feel like fiction is more believable than life in a way because when you're writing a book, you have to have it make sense. You can't just have random things happen for no reason, but that's not like life at all. I almost feel that's part of the comfort of reading fiction. Even with time travel, it has to make some kind of sense — and life really doesn't make any sense. I feel like I'm constantly trying to make it make sense.

And there's no closure in life.

No.

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There can be closure in books and you can also return to them, as you have. You can return to the world and get that healing that we really can't get in life. You have a new book out, "The Invisible Hour." How would you describe it?

It's about magic and women and time and loss. Sometimes I think you don't really know what a book is about until you finish it. I always feel like there's the inside story; there's the outside story. You don't necessarily know the inside story.

For me, I think it was a lot about my relationship with my mother and how difficult mother and daughter relationships are, how important they are, and how they change as people get older, as you more understand who your mother was and what she went through.

I always feel like you can't really know older people or your mother because you didn't know her when she was young. And even though I think people basically stay the same unless they're extremely traumatized, you're so different when you're young. So I feel like we can't really know our mothers.

"Better not to meet your heroes, your living heroes. Better to fall in love with a dead writer."

Again, there's so much about time and history in this book. Was Nathaniel Hawthorne an influence on you?

I've been thinking about writing about him for a long time. He's interesting because in some ways some of the things that he wrote were a little bit misogynistic, but "The Scarlet Letter" is such a feminist book. It's kind of shocking. His wife came from a family that was kind of a feminist family in a way for the time. He had two sisters and a mother that he was very close to.

He also had a lot of issues about writing and life — and hiding from life in writing. I think he was an extremely interesting person and writer. Sometimes, for people now "The Scarlet Letter" can be off-putting because the language is old-fashioned, but the heart of it really is about a woman trying to make decisions about her own life and society not wanting to allow that to happen.

Is there a book that helped you feel less lonely, as "The Scarlet Letter" helps Mia in "The Invisible Hour"?

There were a couple of books. One of those books was "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank when I was young . . . You know, sometimes you read a book and you feel known. I felt like I'm her or she's me . . .  I think that's why "Catcher in the Rye" was popular and meaningful for a lot of people because there was this sense that the character was talking directly to you. And so I have a couple of books. I think books in general make me feel that.

Is there a writer from history that you believe you could fall in love with, similar to what kind of happens in "The Invisible Hour?"

Well, I think a lot of people fell in love with Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was so incredibly handsome. So, maybe him.

When I interviewed the musician Amanda Shires, I knew that she loved Leonard Cohen, and she said that she sometimes felt she might have been born in the wrong time, that she and Cohen could have been together and made music together.

Yeah, and she would've been very miserable. I love Leonard Cohen, but –

She would've written some other great songs, but they might've been sad songs.

I think sometimes it's better not to meet your heroes, your living heroes. Better to fall in love with a dead writer.

We talked a bit about the pandemic, and I'm with you: at the start, I definitely found comfort in my fiction writing, but I also found community in it. I could kind of make up my own community when I couldn't leave the house. That's something that I see in a lot of your books: a small town or this found family. Is community or the idea of a village important to your writing?

I think I write about a lot of things that I don't have. I don't have a sister, I don't have a daughter. I'm close to one of my aunts and I'm very close to my nephews, but I don't have that kind of community. I don't live in a small town. I really long for that, and I think most people do have a need for it. I just think we live in such a fractured society. People move all over the country and you see them maybe once a year.

COVID really pointed that out to me because a lot of people kind of went into retreat with their families. If you didn't have a family, there were really not that many people to go into retreat with. I think a lot of my books are about longing for community.

Growing up my mother was very bohemian, and we were outcasts in our community. I think that made me long for it even more, and yet distrust it.

How do you create your characters? How do you make engaging people come to life?

That's a really scary question because I don't think I have the answers for it. I used to do things with my characters. I'd write down everything about them, where they went to school, what they dressed in and what music they listened to. But I don't really do that anymore.

Now, it's like they walk in through the door, and I just let them be. I have to rewrite them a lot, but basically, that definitely happened with "Practical Magic" where I remember writing it in this little shed on a marsh. I just felt like they walked through the door. It happened when I wrote "The Rules of Magic" too and Vincent appeared. I didn't expect him to be in the book. I didn't know anything about him, and he just kind of revealed himself. I really didn't have to do it. It just happened.

I guess the trick is you have to leave that door open. They might just walk in, but you can't close it.

You can't shut the door in their face. It's opening the door.

Are you surprised at how much cultural impact your books have had, like "Practical Magic?" That has such staying power. It's in memes; it just shows up all the time. Has that surprised you, that people have loved your story for so long?

I don't know. I wasn't thinking like that. I think some of that — maybe a lot of that — has to do with the movie, which was weirdly, extremely unpopular. Nobody went to see it when it came out. And every year it becomes more popular, which is so interesting to me. I almost feel it wasn't the right time for it. It was one of the first movies that had basically a cast of women. The men are there, but they're not as important as the relationships between the women.

Now there are more, movies like "Bridesmaids." But then, it didn't really exist. There was a very negative critical response to ["Practical Magic"], I think probably because it was very female and very much about sisterhood. And that's changed, so that's a good thing.

That goes back to what you were speaking about, how you can't write for the moment because the moment is going to move on. Maybe the moment will get you in a few years, but not right now.

That's right. It's like what are you writing for? Sometimes I'm afraid now: will there even be books? Or, will it be like one of my favorite books, "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, where books are too dangerous. They're not just banning books, they're burning books because books — it goes two ways. The writer opens the door for the characters, but the book opens the door for the reader.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

It's a scary time in the world right now with book banning and AI.

I don't feel like: oh, my books will last. Because I don't know if books are lasting. I just feel like they're here. But I want them to have this feeling of timelessness because that's how I felt when I read the books that I loved. Even when they were happening at a certain time, they didn't seem caught in time.

How does magic show up in your life now?

I am kind of still looking for it. I think I'm constantly looking for it. My connection with magic is about writing. This idea that characters walk through the door and this idea of creating something beautiful out of something terrible sometimes, or out of loss, or out of death. You can put letters on a page, and it becomes a world. And it means something so different to the writer and to the reader. The reader creates that whole world in their mind. For me, that's magic.

By Alison Stine

Alison Stine is a former staff writer at Salon. She is the author of the novels "Trashlands" and "Road Out of Winter," winner of the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award. A recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), she has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and others.

MORE FROM Alison Stine

Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Alice Hoffman Books Interview Magic Nathaniel Hawthorne Practical Magic The Scarlet Letter

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

The internet has removed barriers to writing for non-male writers, and Chinese female science fiction writers are thriving, focusing on women's issues.

Title:

Content: Science Fiction: Chinese Female Writers | Culture | DW | 21.10.2023
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Cultural warp and weft
Science fiction: the rise of Chinese women writers
While the space for feminist expression in China has shrunk further over the past decade, there ’ s good news from this week ’ s World Science Fiction Conference in Chengdu: Chinese female writers are thriving in the science fiction world, making them one of the most striking trends in the genre.
The rise of Chinese female writers in science fiction has become one of the most striking trends in the genre, according to participants at this week's World Science Fiction Conference in Chengdu.
The World Science Fiction Conference, the world ’ s oldest and most influential science fiction event, was held in China for the first time this year and attracted a large number of local fans, both male and female.
China remains a relatively socially conservative country, and under President Xi Jinping, the space for feminist expression has narrowed further over the past decade.
But author and editor Regina Kanyu Wang, who was nominated for two prestigious Hugo Awards at the World Science Fiction Conference this year, said the number of women writers in science fiction has soared in recent years.
She said more and more women are now realizing that "it's not just nerdy, nerdy science-fiction novels like Liu Cixin [author of the three-body series] that can be published, or can be considered science fiction." Liu Cixin is great, and we all like him.
But there's a lot more to it than Liu Cixin's style. "
The good news, says Wang, is that once women start to become writers, they don ’ t feel they ’ re being treated unequally.
The market and readers need a new perspective, she said.
The 81st World Science Fiction Conference will be held in Chengdu from October 18 to 22.
"Now, many Chinese female science fiction writers focus on issues that women face that men may not feel," Zhou Danxue, a literary scholar at XJCC Liverpool University, told AFP. "These writers can reflect unique female experiences in their own way."
Wang said that in the past two years, four anthologies of Chinese fantasy novels written only by female or non-binary authors have been published, which is a major breakthrough.
There wasn ’ t even an all-female science fiction writer ’ s portfolio before that.
Before the 1990s, there were very few female science fiction writers.
An article in the collection "The Way Spring Comes", which Wang Kanyu participated in compiling, pointed out that the Internet is a training base for women and queer talents.
Author Ni Xueting explained that the widespread use of the Internet “not only brought a new sense of community to people, but also … removed many barriers to writing based on industry and social stereotypes, especially for non-male writers. ”
Chen Qiufan, one of China ’ s leading science fiction writers, told AFP that the genre had traditionally not received special attention and was seen as “written and read by boys. ”
He said there was now a "wider and more diverse audience", estimating that his readers were split equally between men and women.
Chinese women writers begin to make their mark in science fiction
Monet, a 21-year-old woman who visited the science fiction convention on Friday, said she sometimes felt isolated among her own fan base.
“It ’ s hard to share my interests with people who don ’ t understand me.
They ask, "Why does a girl like science fiction?"
She is optimistic about these changes in attitude, pointing out that there are a lot of interested primary and secondary school students at the conference site.
“I think interest in Chinese science fiction has to be nurtured from an early age, ” she says.“ We didn ’ t have that opportunity when we were young … I really envy them, to be honest. ”
(AFP)
© 2023 Deutsche Welle Copyright Notice: All content in this article is protected by copyright law and may not be used without special permission from Deutsche Welle.
Any misconduct will lead to recovery and criminal prosecution.

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

The genre has evolved from traditional forms to include unique blends of science fiction and other genres, with short fiction science fiction experiencing a golden age.

Authors from other demographics, such as Park Jui-lian, are exploring female narratives and criticizing maternal ideologies and patriarchal systems.

Title:

Content: Go to contents
Ordinary women, strong guardians of daily life
Posted February.
05, 2022 07: 15
Updated February.
05, 2022 07: 15
한국어
The protagonists of the seven short stories in the book are biologically female.
A mother who plays an agency game for her son, a wife who is used to having an affair with a pastor ’ s husband, and an unmarried middle-aged woman who takes care of an elderly mother with dementia alone.
It tells the story of women who are intertwined with the particularity of each person ’ s life and the universality of women ’ s experiences and face similar contradictions in their different situations.
In the novel, as always, there are chronic remarks about mastering the life of women.
Maternal ideologies, patriarchal systems, misogyny, sexual objectification, care labor … show specifically how the sexist systems and perceptions that women have become entrenched through accumulation have been bruised and broken.
But that doesn ’ t mean that women can only be victims.
Although their feet are unreasonable in real life, they will not give in mentally.
Although the body has made a compromise, but the heart is very firm, from the countless things that attack themselves to protect themselves.
The women in these novels are both realistic and ideal, pathetic and beautiful.
The central male in most of the narratives can only be portrayed as peripheral characters here.
Men appear as husbands, sons, lovers, and friends, wielding weapons in ways such as forced chastity or motherhood, which puts women in trouble.
But they can ’ t bring their spirit to their knees.
Writers also know that the unhealthy winds that women face are hard to address.
Just frankly expressed the feelings and ideas generated in the course of the unabashed struggle.
Thanks to the style of writing that is both resolute and humorous, the women who convey it to the readers are not heavy in heart.
Park Jui-lian, who entered the literary world in 2015, is a writer who constantly explores female narratives.
In her book, labor activists, victims of sexual violence, etc. are both women and minorities who have always maintained their freedom and conscience in the face of the world.
This is her first collection of novels published in seven years, in order not to forget the feeling that she is a minority and a loser.
She won last year ’ s Young Writer ’ s Award for her title, “The Game Your Mom Is Better Than You. ”
Easyhoon Lee @ donga.com

The science fiction genre is becoming more comprehensive and culturally diverse, with diverse authors enriching the content with new novels.

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Content: Science Fiction Conference Concludes at Jeddah Book Fair with "Anime" and "One Thousand and One Nights"
Specialists, writers and experts discussed the most important issues during 8 sessions and workshops
Part of the sessions of the Science Fiction Conference in Jeddah
The Commission for Literature, Publishing and Translation concluded yesterday the Science Fiction Conference, which is being held for the first time in the Kingdom, coinciding with the Jeddah Book Fair, held in (Super Dome).
Through eight sessions and a workshop, specialists, writers and experts discussed a number of issues related to science fiction, fantasy and anime, in addition to global trends in the manufacture of science fiction and sound fiction books, books and novels in film and television, and a number of related topics and themes.
In the first session of the second day of the conference, entitled "Pioneers of science fiction, fantasy and anime", the participants discussed the challenges of women in writing about science fiction and the worlds of fantasy and anime, reviewing some of the difficulties they faced during writing in this art, and how they overcome them to reach what they are today. The last three.
During the second session, which was entitled "Global Trends in the Science Fiction and Audio Fiction Industry", it discussed the most important challenges facing the audiobook market, as well as ways to turn science fiction fiction into attractive audiobooks, a statistical review on the rise in the Arab world towards audio books, the presence of 8,000 Arabic audiobooks available through audio content applications, pointing to the growth of audiobooks and listeners following the Coronavirus epidemic to 400%. I have the podcast; the number of listeners in 2015, 200 million listeners; while this number increased in 2022 to reach one billion listeners of various podcast materials.
On their most prominent experiences in this field, a number of Saudi writers and authors, who enriched the content of science fiction with a number of novels that appeared on the shelves of libraries and publishing houses, talked about a number of issues and topics related to science fiction and fantasy, and explained the difference between science fiction and fantasy and the change of concepts and culture of the new generation, which has become more comprehensive.
In the fourth session, entitled "One Thousand and One Nights: The Fantasies of the Old World", intellectuals agreed on the validity and merit of keeping the novel (One Thousand and One Nights) under consideration, as it has a progressive vision of history for each creator, and that it suffers from an old and new crisis "old as texts that carry in the eyes of some, and a new crisis after being honored externally", and referring to its pivotal role in music, Video and many literary and cultural fields.
The fifth session is entitled "Books in Film and Television".
Licensing, Copyright and Production ", which deals with intellectual rights that take place between the author and the production company and are subject to contracts agreed by the parties and are not subject to certain terms.
Noting that the literary agent represents the lawyer for the author or writer of the novel, and that the Arab world is very late in appointing a literary agent; but it began to spread in the present time, and facilitate the writer to devote himself to writing without thinking about the stages of publication and others.
In a session entitled (Beyond the series "Stranger Things"), she stressed that the confident director faces all obstacles and challenges, and that imagination helps to get out of the traditional roles, but it needs a lot of training, especially in scenes of fighting, and sometimes taking risks if there is no alternative.
The session reviewed the series (Altered Carbon) and the most prominent stations and scenes that the work went through to turn it on TV, in a session entitled "Soul, Body and Memory in Science Fiction", and talk about the construction of plot, scenes and sites, fantasy works that are seen from different perspectives and locations and different images on paper, and the difference in reality in changing some events and characters, and talk about innovation in technology and moving between bodies in a quarter. A century, and the emphasis on creative things in the content until it becomes a film, and the importance of the creative crew of directors, designers and artistic vision, to put the content better; where things start small and then grow to come out to the viewer with a beautiful fantasy plot.
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