The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
出版社
出版时间
2015-11-02
ISBN
9781481442541
评分
★★★★★
书籍介绍
这是一部让读者两极分化的短篇集：有人为同名之作《纸兽》泪湿衣襟，也有人嫌二代移民的挣扎写得过于直白。真正贯穿全书的，是刘宇昆对
作者简介
Ken Liu is one of the most lauded authors in the field of American literature. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, Locus Sidewise, and Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards, he has also been nominated for the Sturgeon and Locus Awards. His short story, “The Paper Menagerie,” is the first work of fiction to simultaneously win the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. He also translated the 2015 Hugo Award–winning novel The Three-Body Problem, written by Cixin Liu, which is the first novel to ever win the Hugo award in translation. The Grace of Kings, his debut novel, is the first volume in a silkpunk epic fantasy series set in a universe he and his wife, artist Lisa Tang Liu, created together. It was a finalist for a Nebula Award and the recipient of the Locus Award for Best First Novel. He lives near Boston with his family.
AI导读
核心看点
- 本书收录刘宇昆多部获奖短篇，涵盖科幻、奇幻与文学虚构。作品将中国神话、历史元素与前沿科技概念如意识上传、虚拟现实深度融合，展现独特的文化视角。作者以严谨逻辑构建叙事，探讨身份认同、伦理困境及人性本质，拒绝简单二元对立，呈现复杂多元的社会图景。
- 《折纸动物园》等篇目深刻描绘二代移民在文化夹缝中的挣扎与和解，触及亲子隔阂、语言障碍及归属感缺失等敏感议题。作者以细腻笔触刻画情感创伤与修复过程，引发广泛共鸣。同时，书中亦包含对技术异化、记忆篡改及社会控制等科幻经典命题的严肃反思与批判。
- 刘宇昆兼具程序员与律师背景，其作品逻辑严密且具人文关怀。书中探讨意识本质、现实边界及叙事伦理，如《拆字先生》利用汉字特性构建奇幻设定，展现语言与权力的关系。作者强调虚构作品的隐喻逻辑，旨在通过故事探索现实无法涵盖的道德与情感深度，而非单纯追求技术奇观。
读者共识
- 《折纸动物园》等篇目情感真挚，直击人心，引发强烈共鸣。读者普遍认可作者对亲情、文化冲突及身份认同的深刻描写，认为其具有治愈力量。尽管部分批评指出其煽情或简化文化问题，但多数读者仍被其人文关怀所打动，认为作品展现了人性脆弱与坚韧，具有普遍情感价值。
- 读者赞赏作者将中国神话、历史与科幻元素融合的创新尝试，认为其拓展了科幻文学边界。刘宇昆以独特视角重构传统文化，赋予其现代意义，获得高度评价。尽管存在争议，但多数读者认可其文学价值，认为其作品促进了跨文化理解，展现了华裔作家在西方语境下的独特贡献与创造力。
- 部分读者认为作品存在逻辑漏洞、设定简单或语言美感不足等问题，批评其煽情过度或文化表达肤浅。然而，主流观点仍肯定作者的专业素养与创作诚意，认为其作品在情感深度与社会反思上具有不可替代性。读者建议理性看待争议，关注作品整体价值，避免以偏概全，尊重多元解读空间。
精彩摘录
- "Who can say the thoughts you have in your mind as you read these words are the same thought I had in my mind as I typed them? We are different, you and I, and the quails of our consciousness are as divergent as two stars at the ends of the universe."
- "You thought you understood your soul, and you thought you knew how you needed to live your life. I thought you were wrong then, but I didn't have the right answer myself. But now I do. I think you are ready for a state change."
- "For me, all fiction is about prizing the logic of metaphors -- which is the logic of narratives in general -- over reality, which is irreducibly random and senseless."
- "There was a chill in the air around her, a fragile silence that did not want to be broken."
- "Centillion has put us in little bubbles, where all we see and hear are echoes of ourselves, and we become ever more stuck in our exisitng beliefs and exaggerated in our inclinations."
- "We long ago began to spread our minds into the electronic realm, and it is no longer possible to squeeze all of ourselves back into our brains. The electronic copies of yourselves that you wanted to destroy are, in literal sense, actually you."
- "The Chinese are like wild flowers, and they will survive and make joy wherever they go. A fire may burn away every living thing in a field, but after the rain the wildflowers will reappear as though by magic. Winter may come and kill everything with frost and snow, but when spring comes the wildflow"
- "But the real attraction of such technology has never been about capturing reality. Photography, videography, holography...the progression of such "reality-capturing" technology has been a proliferation of ways to lie about reality, to shape and distort it, to manipulate and fantasize."
目录
用户评论
同是写科幻短篇，Ted Chiang确实写得更好。
喜欢state change和the man who ended history
catalog Vs 介绍册，chink face VS 中国佬。纸鹤 VS crane。 语言的诅咒就在于语言使用起来太便捷了。如果不是一句话用两种语言说各说一遍，意涵和语言的距离。好像有点明白了为什么诗要追求语言的陌生化，也是要去显示这种距离、打破这种便捷吧。
Ken本人完成度最高的一本选集。The Regular的叙事非常不错，凌厉与温柔无缝对接，不过估计不会被翻成中文了……作为赛博格故事，比各种冷硬派更对我胃口，Good Hunting也是，不过方法论上看来更简单一些。失落历史之人不说了，中篇最佳，其它的几篇叙事比较丰富也比中文选本的好很多
整本书都透着一股淡淡的忧伤呢。
断断续续一年看完，真的是太好了！刘宇昆的文字确实细腻，每个故事其实都让人欲罢不能。读到很多时候都会不禁担心，这个东西别人可以理解吗，是不是真的只有在东西方文化里挣扎的人才能共情。
soft and subtle
Though better than Liu Cixin, no male sci-fi writers didn’t show their misogyny. I gave up many stories since he materialize females and put them in the place of being watched. Thus I did not finish many of them. The only passages do not offend me is those involve no gender. The only thing I learnt was the Yangzhou massacre during Qing dynasty.
DNF。前言开始就觉不妙，读了四篇，果然……呃呃呃。写作风格我觉得非常稚嫩，对文本的理解尚停留在一种表层的情思上（此处类比下陈春成）。这往往伴随着内在的匮乏，四个故事也确实各有各的浅薄，第一篇是卡尔维诺的高中生水平仿写。第二篇开头不错，结果做成了一碗“女主因为突然爱上一个男人决定从头做自己”的鸡汤（典型compulsory sexuality，展现一个女人要过属于自己的人生了先让她恋爱开窍）。第三篇说商业化数据监控，主题常见，展开的方式是大段说教的对话，剧情更是幼稚到可笑。title story写二代华裔移民的复杂心理，情意有，但浅白且刻意，最后升华靠妈妈写信，我以为在看24h……同样的主题，论深度和笔力，Ling Ma刻画得好太多了。总结就是，我有这个时间我为什么不去读勒古恩啊。
当年考SAT时的长篇阅读the paper menagerie，十多年后依旧念念不忘，重读还是会落泪……
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