Translation is an act of recreation. Ken Liu More Quotes by Ken Liu More Quotes From Ken Liu We are defined by the places we hold in the web of others’ lives. Ken Liu defined The truth is not delicate and it does not suffer from denial—the truth only dies when true stories are untold. Ken Liu sufferingstoriesdoe The Singaporean speculative tradition is different. Singapore doesn't conceive itself as the centre of the world or the one country that's going to save the world, so there's a different tone that comes out in the way speculative fiction is done. That's refreshing to read. Ken Liu traditioncountrywayworld In every revolution, there are winners and losers. Every dystopia is a utopia for somebody else. It just depends where you are. Are you in the class that benefits, or are you in the class that's not? Ken Liu winnersyourevolutionclass The problems faced by writers of color are analogous to the problems face by women writers. Ken Liu faceproblemswomencolor Real history is far more complex and interesting than the simplistic summaries presented in Wikipedia articles. Knowing this allows you to question received wisdom, to challenge 'facts' 'everybody' knows to be true, and to imagine worlds and characters worthy of our rich historical heritage and our complex selves. Ken Liu challengeyouwisdomhistory Trying to predict the future is a loser's game. Ken Liu gamefuturelosertrying My wife, Lisa, and I both grew up on wuxia - Chinese historical romances. They're kind of analogous to Western epics. They're based on history, just like 'the Iliad' and 'the Odyssey' are based on history, but they're romanticized, and a lot of fantasy elements have been added. Ken Liu likefantasywifehistory My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform it, really, in a different medium. Part of that is about interpretation and what you think the author's voice really is. Ken Liu thinkyouvoiceart My fiction occupies, actually, the very heart of American culture: this eternal question and struggle of what it means to be an American. Ken Liu questionstruggleheartculture I've been writing long enough to know that fiction, as a rhetorical mode, works very differently from expository writing. If an author has a specific critique about contemporary society in mind, fiction tends not to be the best means to deliver that critique. Ken Liu bestsocietymindlong What tends to happen when people talk about Chinese sci-fi in the West is that there's a lot of projection. We prefer to think of China as a dystopian world that is challenging American hegemony, so we would like to think that Chinese sci-fi is all either militaristic or dystopian. But that's just not the reality of it. Ken Liu thinkrealitypeopleworld I think that what's unique about sci-fi - at least from the view of a lot of Chinese writers - is that sci-fi is least-rooted in the particular culture that they're writing from. Ken Liu viewthinkuniqueculture The idea that somehow the way forward is to abandon the past, to me, is preposterous and both undesirable and unrealistic. Ken Liu forwardmewaypast It is not possible to completely eliminate mediation between you as an observer and the history you are trying to understand. Ken Liu understandyoutryinghistory The 'silk' in silkpunk refers not to a source of power, but to an entirely different, expressive technology language. Ken Liu technologydifferentlanguagepower The evolution of technology is, like the evolution of literature, heavily path-dependent. Culture plays a far more important role in the acceptance, adoption, and spread of technology than many of us are willing to acknowledge. Ken Liu liketechnologyacceptanceculture It's true that misunderstanding and lack of understanding are often themes in my fiction, but I am grateful for the moments when true understanding is achieved, especially between writer and reader. It's miraculous. Ken Liu i-amgratefulunderstandingmoments Labels like 'Chinese Science Fiction' or 'Western Science Fiction' summarize a vast field of work, all of which are diverse and driven by individual authors, with individual concerns. Ken Liu likeindividualworkscience Most of us do not, in fact, read another language, and so when we read a translation, we have no way of knowing what has been changed or added. Ken Liu uslanguageknowingway
