A widower's entertainment

Chapter 254 [Want to see him] (Subscribe)
Gansu Province, UFO Exploration Magazine.

In fact, science fiction is not something that happened after the 2021st century. Just like the movie "Space Exploration Editorial Department" released in 1981, it tells the story of the editorial department of a science fiction magazine in the s. The prototype is the "Flying Saucer Exploration" magazine founded in .

Of course, the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Tang Jun, is not as poor as the hero in the movie, nor is he obsessed with finding extraterrestrial civilizations. He believes that he has received an abnormal signal that seems to come from the depths of the universe, so he summons his fellow wanderers to embark on the unfinished journey of finding aliens.

Now Tang Jun is just discussing Lin Youcheng’s latest novel "The Unreachable Lover" with the magazine and editors.

"I didn't expect that after The Time Traveler's Wife, Lin Youcheng actually wrote another novel, The Untouchable Lover. It's really a wonderful science fiction romance novel."

"I think this novel is wonderful. Our magazine is lacking this kind of science fiction."

“It would be great if we could invite Lin Youcheng to contribute.”

"That's too difficult. After all, our magazine is not as big as People's Literature. I heard that Science Fiction and Literature Magazine asked Lin Youcheng to write for them after he published The Time Traveler's Wife, but it was obviously unsuccessful."

Tang Jun listened to the discussion of the editors and couldn't help but say: "No matter what, Lin Youcheng's science fiction romance novels have promoted the progress of our science fiction literature. It can even be said that they have opened a new door for our science fiction literature, letting us know that science fiction literature can be written in this way."

"Yes, I was really shocked after reading "The Unforgettable Lover". I didn't expect that there could be such a setting. Although the science fiction atmosphere is not strong, it is a love story that started because of science fiction. I think the reason why Lin Youcheng did not clearly give the ending of the hero and heroine of the novel is because in the parallel universe, the ending is different."

"Yes, I think it's for this reason that Lin Youcheng didn't specify it."

……

Although, in later generations, various love stories across time and space have become common literary themes, it is obviously a very novel and unique setting in 1988.

Of course, this does not mean that the imagination of science fiction in the 1978s was not rich enough. On the contrary, the publication of "Little Smart Wandering in the Future" in opened the "golden age" of science fiction. Riding on the spring breeze of reform and opening up and the slogan of "Spring of Science", science fiction ushered in a transformation on the basis of its original creation.

Ye Yonglie's "Little Lingtong Wandering in the Future" was published. The book was printed in more than 100 million copies and was a bestseller. The novel tells the story of reporter Xiao Lingtong boarding a hovercraft bound for Future City in a dream, and meeting brother and sister Xiao Huzi and Xiao Yan on the boat. The hovercraft drove directly to the dock of Future City, and Xiao Huzi's parents drove a teardrop-shaped car without wheels to pick them up. This car runs like it is floating on the ground, so it is also called a floating car. Riding a floating car is very safe, it is equipped with automatic collision avoidance and automatic emergency braking devices.

This is the design vision for cars in the 1980s, and there is already an initial model of autonomous driving.

The 1978th issue of "People's Literature" in 8 published "The Death Light on Shanhu Island", which was later regarded as "a representative work of the heavy literary genre of Chinese science fiction novels". The novel was later made into a movie in 1980, becoming the first science fiction movie in China after 1949.

Tang Jun listened to the discussion of the editors around him, and he did not expect that there would be an editor who would say that what Lin Youcheng wrote was not science fiction.

"I think that Lin Youcheng's "Unreachable Lovers" is not real science fiction literature at all." Obviously, in the eyes of some science fiction fans, the science fiction part of Lin Youcheng's "Unreachable Lovers" is too weak. It can even be said that it just borrowed a shell of science fiction and wrote a modern real love story. It is completely different from the previous science fiction setting about time travel in "The Time Traveler's Wife".

"How can it not be science fiction? That mailbox can deliver objects from two different time and space. This is the setting of science fiction."

"Yeah, this "Untouchable Lovers" is clearly a science fiction romance novel!"

"The magazine reviews all said that this was another science fiction romance novel by Lin Youcheng after The Time Traveler's Wife."

"I think this is a very wonderful science fiction romance novel. It's science fiction about two time periods communicating through a special mailbox."

Tang Jun thought for a moment and said, "We in the science fiction community shouldn't discuss whether The Untouchables is science fiction, because it is a criticism of us by the scientific community."

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of the other editors changed instantly.

Because they all know that when science fiction was booming, there was a "science vs. literature dispute." Because some science fiction works gradually began to break away from the shackles of "popular science" and focus more on "fantasy," this caused dissatisfaction in the scientific community and was criticized by scientists, popular science editors, and others. The scientific community generally believes that science fiction is just "fantasy" rather than "science."

It should be noted that between 1979 and 1983, similar controversies never stopped, and were no longer limited to discussing whether the content of science fiction novels was in line with science, but rose to the realm of spiritual culture, showing an increasingly intense trend.

After that, science fiction writers stopped writing or changed their careers. There were almost no high-quality science fiction novels in the second half of the 90s. The "golden age" of science fiction literature came to an abrupt end, and it was not until the mid-s that it gradually recovered. Science fiction magazines were also "closed down and merged", leaving only "Science and Literature", which was later "Science Fiction World" and eventually became a golden signboard of domestic science fiction literature.

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Tang Jun looked at the novel "The Untouchable Lover" in the People's Literature magazine in his hand and sighed: "Lin Youcheng's two novels really gave science fiction literature another possibility, telling us that science fiction literature can also be written in this way."

"The Time Traveler's Wife brought me a lot of manuscripts, and now this one, The Untouchables, will definitely bring me a lot of manuscripts as well."

"I really want to go to Beijing to meet Lin Youcheng now."

This is Tang Jun’s real thought. He was shocked after the publication of “The Time Traveler’s Wife”. Now, “The Unreachable Lovers” seems to be a quiet and moving novel, but it is like a thunder in the silent heart of Tang Jun.

Tang Jun really wanted to meet him and have a good chat with him about science fiction, literature, from science fiction and love to the universe and the galaxy.

(End of this chapter)