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The Perverse Utopianism of Willed Human Extinction: Writing Extinction in Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem (三体)

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Ethical Futures and Global Science Fiction

Part of the book series: Studies in Global Science Fiction ((SGSF))

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Abstract

Moran examines the perverse utopianism in Chinese author Liu Cixin’s science fiction novel 三体 (literally Three-Body, English translation The Three-Body Problem). He argues that the text’s exploration of the desire for human extinction functions as a critique of the utopian belief in scientific progress, evident in earlier Chinese science fiction and the aesthetics of socialist realism. Extinction becomes a way of mapping the decline of the idea of utopia. The threat of extinction allegorises a number of threats to the human species, particularly climate catastrophe and the future solar death of the Earth. In Three-Body, extinction pushes allegorical writing to its limit. Moran argues that in reaching the limits of allegory, the text reaches a utopia that is radically inconceivable and refuses inscription.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a discussion of the translation of the text, see Ken Liu, “Translator’s Postscript.”

  2. 2.

    Obama, “Transcript”; Feloni, “Why Mark Zuckerberg”; Mingwei Song, “Three-Body Trilogy.”

  3. 3.

    For a study of the Chinese coal mining industry, see Wright, Political Economy.

  4. 4.

    Liu Cixin, “Author’s Postscript,” 427.

  5. 5.

    Long et al., “Typhoon Nina,” 451–472.

  6. 6.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 428.

  7. 7.

    Liu Cixin, “Author’s Postscript,” 428.

  8. 8.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 3.

  9. 9.

    Rosen, Role.

  10. 10.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 24.

  11. 11.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 187.

  12. 12.

    Mittler, Continuous Revolution, 271.

  13. 13.

    Mittler, Continuous Revolution, 271.

  14. 14.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 295.

  15. 15.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 296

  16. 16.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 300.

  17. 17.

    Berlin, “Decline.”

  18. 18.

    Jameson, Archaeologies, xii.

  19. 19.

    Moylan, Scraps, 131.

  20. 20.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 344.

  21. 21.

    Liu Cixin, “Worst,” 362.

  22. 22.

    For a theorisation of the notion of post-socialism see Zhang, “Postmodernism.”

  23. 23.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 344.

  24. 24.

    Bloch, Principle of Hope.

  25. 25.

    Mingwei Song, “Representations”; Mingwei Song, “Variations.”

  26. 26.

    Manthorpe, “Cixin Liu”; Barnett, “People.”

  27. 27.

    For a discussion of the translation of Chinese science fiction, see Jang, “Translation.” For a discussion of the status of science fiction writing during the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, see Wagner, “Lobby Literature.”

  28. 28.

    Wang, Fin-de-siècle Splendor, 253.

  29. 29.

    Wang, Fin-de-siècle Splendor, 253.

  30. 30.

    Wang, Fin-de-siècle Splendor, 303.

  31. 31.

    Mingwei Song, “Variations,” 87.

  32. 32.

    Wagner, “Lobby Literature,” 19.

  33. 33.

    For a study of the utopianism of Mao’s thought, see Meisner, Marxism, Maoism and Utopianism.

  34. 34.

    Wang, Fin-de-siècle Splendor; Mingwei Song, “Representations.”

  35. 35.

    For an analysis of such works, see King, Milestones. For a collection of works written during the Maoist period, see McDougall, Popular Chinese Literature.

  36. 36.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 322.

  37. 37.

    Mingwei Song, “Representations,” 12.

  38. 38.

    Schiller, On the Aesthetic.

  39. 39.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 390.

  40. 40.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 344.

  41. 41.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 344.

  42. 42.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 344.

  43. 43.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 346.

  44. 44.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 346.

  45. 45.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 346.

  46. 46.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 344.

  47. 47.

    Jameson, “Politics of Utopia,” 36.

  48. 48.

    Hobbes, Leviathan.

  49. 49.

    Hobbes, Man and Citizen, 118.

  50. 50.

    Mozi, Mozi.

  51. 51.

    Nietzsche, Will to Power, 13. For a study of the popularity of Nietzsche’s philosophy in China in the twentieth century, see Kelly, “Highest Chinadom.”

  52. 52.

    For a study of Western theories of technology and the relevance of their application to Chinese modernity, see Hui, Question.

  53. 53.

    Barnett, “People.”

  54. 54.

    Mao Tse-tung, “On Practice,” 304.

  55. 55.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 145.

  56. 56.

    Valtonen, Three-Body.

  57. 57.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 255.

  58. 58.

    Bostrom, “Existential,” 17.

  59. 59.

    Deng, Farah and Wang, “China’s Role.” See also Ligang Song and Wing Thye Woo, China’s Dilemma.

  60. 60.

    Mao Tse-tung, “Chinese People,” 152.

  61. 61.

    Horkheimer and Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment.

  62. 62.

    For Deng Xiaoping’s 1981 denunciation of the Cultural Revolution, see Vogel, Deng Xiaoping. For the current State’s official opinion on the Cultural Revolution, see “Society Firmly Rejects.”

  63. 63.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 329.

  64. 64.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 329.

  65. 65.

    Schröder and Smith, “Distant Future.”

  66. 66.

    Brassier, Nihil Unbound, 223.

  67. 67.

    Benjamin, Origin, 166.

  68. 68.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 137.

  69. 69.

    Ghosh, Great Derangement.

  70. 70.

    Benjamin, Origin, 185.

  71. 71.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 418.

  72. 72.

    Liu Cixin, Three-Body, 272–273.

  73. 73.

    Nietzsche, Will to Power, 435.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Thomas Moran

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  1. Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    Zachary Kendal , Aisling Smith  & Andrew Milner ,  & 

  2. University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Giulia Champion

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Moran, T. (2020). The Perverse Utopianism of Willed Human Extinction: Writing Extinction in Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem (三体). In: Kendal, Z., Smith, A., Champion, G., Milner, A. (eds) Ethical Futures and Global Science Fiction. Studies in Global Science Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27893-9_6

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