Comments on: The Three-Body Problem https://livingchurch.org/covenant/the-three-body-problem/ Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:46:28 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 By: MJ Layton https://livingchurch.org/covenant/the-three-body-problem/#comment-17111 Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:46:28 +0000 https://livingchurch.org/?p=81591#comment-17111 Victor, I agree that there’s so much in the storyline for Christians to consider, whether it comes out in the book or the show. An additional scene in the Netflix show that was striking is where Ye confronts the woman who killed her father, who says to Ye, “No one ever repents.” It was left out of the Chinese version. I didn’t work it into my article, because then the Netflix version of Ye does repent, but I didn’t feel like they did enough character development with her in the shortened version to show why she had a change of heart.

Now I just need to go read the book.

]]> By: Victor Lee Austin https://livingchurch.org/covenant/the-three-body-problem/#comment-17030 Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:48:56 +0000 https://livingchurch.org/?p=81591#comment-17030 This is fascinating! Thank you, MJ, for writing this. We are, as it were, two puzzle-pieces here, in that I’ve read the book but not seen either series. I found the book in a hotel in Santiago de Compostela, where I was staying last May after walking the Camino. It was used, in a place for take-or-trade. I knew of the 3-body problem from college: it’s a problem of physics. I also like sci-fi, but had never heard of Liu Cixin, the author, who turns out to be hugely famous in China and elsewhere.

I took the book and read it on my flight home.

It has marvelous exchanges. Here’s one: Towards the end (page 376 in my copy), to her interrogator, the main character, Ye, says of the aliens: “A society with such advanced science must also have more advanced moral standards.” The interrogator responds: “Do you think this conclusion you drew is scientific?”

The book may simplify, but it moralistically it is not simplistic. Environmentalism is given a good voice here. As are: human imperfections; human exceptionalism; human unimportance; the value of intellectual work; the value of the wisdom of a smart street cop; and more.

In the Chinese original (pub. 2008) the brutalities of the Cultural Revolution are brought out mid-story, as flashbacks to explain motivations. In the English version (2014), it opens with those brutalities. This, I gather, was done in accord with the author’s intent and consent. I am not surprised to learn of differences between the two Netflix versions, nor of the downplaying of the violence of the Revolution, presumably to get past censors.

I hope others will see or read one or the other versions. The English book and the Chinese series (at least) both seem to offer much for Christians to ponder.

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