The Three-Body Problem Trilogy
Title: Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy (Colloquially known as The Three-Body Problem trilogy: The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End)
Author: Cixin Liu
Medium: Books (all three)
Motivation for reading: I wanted to try reading science-fiction because I’ve read very little of this genre. I requested a recommendation from a friend of mine who does read a lot of sci-fi. He suggested the first book to me, and I ended up reading the entire series. The first installment in the series, entitled The Three-Body Problem, has received the Hugo Award (which is a big deal in the sci-fi world) and is written by a Chinese author which is also new for me!
Reflections & Takeaways:
I read the first book and didn’t realize how big of a cultural reference point it was. I went on a family trip and found out that my stepmom’s brother, who isn’t a big reader, had read the trilogy and loved them. He lent me the two sequels which forced me to read the rest of the trilogy. (I also have a tendency to finish what I start as my curiosity gets the better of me.) I did find reading it to be a bit of a chore by the end.
Personally, I felt like I was pulled through galactic mud to get to the finish line (it was a struggle but I persisted), but I was soon recompensed for my efforts a few days after I had finished the third book. My roommate and I were watching an interview with Jia Tolentino (author of Trick Mirror — which is on my Want-to-Read list) at Politics & Prose (DC based bookstore), and she mentioned The Three Body Problem trilogy. Our ears perked up when we heard her make the reference!
As much as I found reading the trilogy a personal struggle (it was also slightly unsettling to read this apocalyptic trilogy during this time of COVID-19 as most of the world is in quarantine and our lives as we know it quickly changed), there were a lot of interesting ideas and concepts that I got out of it that I thought would be worth sharing. For example, I am embarrassed to admit (and quickly came to the realization) that I have very little knowledge of Chinese history. The first book references Chinese history — I was grateful for the footnotes that provided background and context — but I think not being familiar with the history and Chinese culture definitely means I missed a lot of the cultural messages and meaning. But I’m definitely interested in learning more and realize that having exposure and curiosity to learn about it and provide more context helps build appreciation for books from all different cultures. Books are a vicarious way to expose ourselves to new ideas, cultures, and adventures that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to experience, and The Three-Body Problem has made me eager to learn more about China, Chinese culture, and sci-fi.
The hard part for me to connect with the series was the lack of consistency of the characters throughout the trilogy. I’m drawn to character development, and I found that there were too many characters. Many of the characters had a fleeting, single role or purpose in the story, and the lack of development for them in the plot left me wanting more. Granted, in the process of writing this post, I ended up discussing this book with a couple friends who are sci-fi readers and who were able to educate me on common styles and techniques used in sci-fi literature in order to help me under. For example, it is common for an author to include vignettes with characters that appear in one scene. The focus of a sci-fi novel is the ideas and the author illustrates the concepts with different characters and telling the story over an extended period of time. One friend who has been reading it based on my recommendation (and because I needed someone to finish the trilogy to bounce ideas off of) assures me that the trilogy is phenomenal. I’m grateful for his insight because it has made me realize that I probably approached this book looking through the wrong set of glasses. But I’m learning and this was definitely an opportunity to widen my perspective!
One of my favorite characters that reappears is Luo Ji. His first appearance is in the second book, and I was really excited when he made cameos in the third book. He ends up embodying human emotions like love and humanity. To the rest of the world, he seems to be wasting his life away because he isn’t precipitating and focusing all his time and efforts into building a technological solution to save the world from the invading Trisolarans. Instead, he focuses on himself, takes the time to appreciate the beauty around him, and the beauty of the humanity, and ends up developing a solution that doesn’t involve any technology.
My educational background in engineering as well as my work in the tech industry gave me a unique lens through which I connected with this story and its characters. My professional and educational experiences have introduced me to people, organizations, and systems that at times seem to be losing their connection to humanity. I’ve slowly been coming back to the surface, taking a breath of fresh air and perspective, and being reminded to slow down, take a moment to smell the roses, and appreciate the beauty of humanity defined by our inefficiencies, irrationality, and emotions that make us human. We can’t lose or forget that. (The technologies that we develop are for these irrational and emotional humans!) Appreciation and acceptance of these realities opens doors to happiness.
I think my favorite concept in the book was the Dark Forest concept which made me think a little bit of the Cold War Arms Race. The Dark Forest concept is that we don’t know if there is another civilization out there somewhere outside of Earth, and we don’t know their intention if they were to discover humans living on Earth. The strategic dilemma becomes whether we make our presence known or hide in the dark. The Dark Forest analogy means we can either create a fire making others aware of us and invite them to join, or we walk through the dark forest blindly looking out for others while keeping ourselves hidden from view. The risk is that we don’t know their intention and if they may approach as a friend or attack as a foe if we do make ourselves visible by making ourselves vulnerable. It made me think of the Cold War Arms Race because countries around the world didn’t know what arms other countries had, and that fear became the ultimate enemy. Everyone was trying to guess what arms others had hidden under the stable, while everyone was hiding their own progress. No one knew the exact status of the others’ technological development. Everyone was walking around in the dark aware of each other’s presence in the forest but never really knowing exactly where they stood.
Unfortunately for me, I know I didn’t I fully appreciated this series, but I did walk away with some cool personal connections thanks to these books. For one, the author earned brownie points from me when he had one of the characters quote Gone with the Wind near the end of the final book which made it worth it! I am glad I read it and to be honest was a little blown away by the scale of the story — lots of time jumping — and it blows my mind how people can be so creative! Creativity spurs creativity in others, which makes me happy! This book reminded me of my reaction when I saw the movie The Matrix for the first time; the story blew me away but mainly it was the idea that anyone could come up with such a story. Others’ creativity inspires me, and I’m glad that I live in a world where we can share our different creative ideas and stories through books and film.
Random books that I made connections with while reading this book:
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Having grown up in the American south, I have a soft spot for southern literature, but this is also an epic novel. Another favorite of mine that I read in 2019.)
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Also recommended by same friend who recommended The Three Body Problem trilogy to me, and it’s a classic! But I swear this is the extent of my sci-fi reading list.)
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