Delighting in "The Three-Body Problem"
Mature, public conversation about issues that matter is foundational for democratic society. I am delighted that Mark Zuckerberg's " A Year of Books " offers such an opportunity. To contribute to that dialog, I will offer commentary on each of the readings proposed by Zuckerberg. As an undergraduate, I studied in the Program of Liberal Studies , a "Great Books" curriculum that led my classmates and I to encounter the finest works of Western Civilization. Only a portion of one semester included a brief traipse through Eastern writers, specifically Confucius’s Analects , The Way of Lao Tzu, and the Bhagavad Gita . As well, I have read little by way of science fiction in recent years. So, it was an interesting offering to read Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem as the latest selection by Mark Zuckerberg. Reading any work, especially in translation, from another culture poses special challenges. A work of Chinese science fiction, then, has particular cul...