This article from the micro-channel public number: barbecued past (ID: chashaows), Author: less fork, cover from: Vision China
In 2009, Niangziguan Power Plant, which had been in operation for more than 40 years, was about to shut down due to emission reduction policies. Liu Cixin, a 46-year-old power plant engineer, also faced diversion and left this place where he worked for 25 years.
Niangziguan is surrounded by mountains on all sides. In addition to the power plant, there is a coal plant. The black smoke billows all day, and it will be dark at four in the afternoon. The nearest city is Yangquan, which takes two hours by train.
The power plant is very busy during the day and quiet at night. Liu Cixin wrote almost all of his science fiction here. Before leaving, he remembered “Wandering Earth” written ten years ago. A group of people took the road with loneliness and fear, looking for the next home in the universe.
A year ago, his idol, the author of “2001 Space Odyssey,” Arthur Clark died, taking away the last golden age of science fiction. Facing the dark valley, Liu Cixin, who had no sense of belonging since he was a child, had no emotions in his heart, but felt that he and his science fiction had to find a home again.
But where is the home?
一
In 1964, NASA ’s Mariner-4 probe flew over Mars. This news anxious the great director Kubrick. He wanted to make a movie looking for alien life at that time, fearing that NASA would be on Mars first. He found signs of life and grabbed his own hot spots. In hindsight, Kudao was more concerned.
For the depth of the story, Kubrick invited a science fiction writer Arthur Clark who lived in Sri Lanka to write a script with the goal of writing a “history of solar system development.” Clark, who had been living in a small fishing village for almost ten years, was very excited and directly challenged the end of “where is the human being?”Extreme theme.
2001 Space Roaming Stills
At that time, some people in China were writing science fiction a thousand miles away. Zheng Wenguang, a researcher at the Beijing Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published the first science fiction “From Earth to Mars” after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Story of three teenagers stealing a spacecraft to explore Mars.
This uncomplicated short story made a long line of ancient observatory in Jianguomen, Beijing, all of them were children who came to see Mars. The observatory was shocked and happy, and set up an astronomical telescope. Zheng Wenguang was very moved, and wrote a book called “Mars Builders” by mankind who opened up wasteland on Mars.
However, the spring of Chinese science fiction ended quickly before it could sprout. Zheng Wenguang was criticized and forced to close the pen.
In 1968, Kubrick ’s subversive work “2001 A Space Odyssey” was released. Starting from 4 million years ago, an ape-throated man throws his bones up, and the next picture jumps into the universe. The spaceship, the audience was so excited, they all wanted to know what medicine the director had used to make such a crazy picture.
A year later, Apollo 11 successfully landed on the moon, and humans set foot on the moon for the first time. 600 million people watched the live broadcast in front of the TV. CBS TV invited two science fiction masters, Clark and Hein Rhein, as commentators. . The host asked, how did you feel about writing the novel about the moon landing more than 30 years ago? Clark said, “I don’t feel anything, because my heartbeat is about to pause.” Hein Rin nodded. “ I agree, but I don’t think people have realized how great this is, human childhood. It ends today. ”
Arthur Clark
A few months later, China’s first satellite, Dongfanghong-1, took off in Jiuquan. On the night of the rocket launch, 7-year-old Liu Cixin was in Luoshan County, Henan, his hometown. Men, women and children from the village came out to stare at the sky. It was the first time he imagined something outside the earth.
Many years later, he restored this scene in the novel “Chao Wen Dao”. A primitive man hundreds of thousands of years ago looked at the starry sky for too long, triggering an alarm set by an alien, and later modern I was puzzled and asked the aliens why I got this answer:
When life realizes the existence of the mystery of the universe, it is only one step away from finally unlocking the mystery.
二
In 1981, three things that changed Liu Cixin’s destiny occurred. He was admitted to college, encountered lightning, and read Clark. That summer, Liu Cixin was admitted to the Hydropower Engineering Department of North China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower. On a thunderstorm night, he witnessed a rare spherical lightning phenomenon on Zhonghua Road in Handan. “An orange-colored one drifted quietly in the air and disappeared after ten seconds.”
One night after winter, Liu Cixin rushed out of the house with a book, staring at the stars as he was 7 years old. That book was the first time in China to publish “2001: A Space Odyssey”. The translator was Tan Yunji. At the time, he worked at the Guangzhou Institute of Electronic Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.