Overturned Tower

This is a very long post, because there are a lot of things I want to talk about seriously.

As you all know, when I write novels, I like to establish the theme of a story in advance. Just like the theme of "Toppled Tower", it is called "Hero".

This is not a description, but a discussion.

I must correct a misconception that may have been misunderstood - I did not first think of a story, identify a protagonist, and sum it up in the word "hero". Instead, I first thought of this keyword, and then started thinking about how to elaborate and discuss this word, and then build a complete story from it.

This creative habit came from the later period of my creation of "Mercury Blood".

At that time, I was deeply aware of the shortcomings of my abilities. It is not only a lack of creative ability, but also a lack of reading and knowledge.

Under the advice of a friend, I developed a habit since my freshman year: study for two hours every day to allow myself to acquire new knowledge.

This kind of learning continues to this day. Except when I am sick, and on the day when a new game I want to play is released - I will study for more than two hours a day. This habit has lasted for almost eight years now.

No matter what I am doing, the learning content of these two hours must have nothing to do with the work and learning tasks I am currently doing. For example, when I was in school, my "study time" might be directed at a certain movie, a certain novel, or a certain collection of poems, but no matter what I was watching, the purpose was not "entertainment" but "learning."

When reading a novel, take reading notes. Record sentences, break down outlines, and make character cards. When watching a movie, if I think the movie is good, I will try to make a beat sheet for the movie, discuss the characters in a certain scene or the specific meaning of the plot, and find the driving force of a certain character or a certain plot. rhythm and speed.

At that time, I deeply felt the lack of knowledge, so I helped my classmates study the Erya general education course for free - it was an online open course that every student had to take every semester. I learned a lot during this process, which greatly influenced my subsequent creations.

After I learned to a certain level, I started to use these two hours for writing training. The model I adopt is the "three-word training method", which is to open a book at random, turn over three pages, and construct a new story based on the three words you first see on these three pages. Keep the story as short as possible while still containing these three words, have twists and turns, and be interesting.

This kind of training lasted for about half a year and can be said to be very effective. After I wrote "Mercury Blood", the three books I wrote, with a combined content of 6 million words, all had an average subscription of more than 10,000. Four and a half million of them are original novels and have been successfully completed.

And this training model makes me particularly good at short story structure.

For example, the nightmare dungeon in "Player's Super Justice"... In fact, all the player's nightmare dungeons, including the "Gallery" dungeon, do not have any outline. It was an improvisation I made after deciding on the name and introduction to the nightmare the night before.

Including the "theme" determined in advance for each book, including the title of each volume of each book, and the name of the nightmare, these are all constraints I have set on myself. This kind of restraint can actually activate my imagination.

The motivation for creating "Toppled Tower" also came from this kind of day-to-day learning.

I saw a book at that time called "The Metamorphosis of Science Fiction: The Poetics and Literary Genre History of Science Fiction." His author, Darko Suenwen, is the founder of the cognitive alienation theory of science fiction. I think this is the group of people with the highest level among contemporary science fiction literature researchers.

He proposed a theory called "cognitive detachment." Sunven's concept of alienation is derived from the "defamiliarization" theory of Shklovsky and Brecht. Brecht's "defamiliarization" is an upgrade of Shklovsky's theory, while Sunwin's theory is Go one step further.

In this theory, the world created by science fiction novels is actually the alienation and defamiliarization of real life, and it is a roundabout way to perceive reality.

Han Song, an outstanding contemporary Chinese science fiction writer, once said that one of the meanings of science fiction works is to provide early warning of threats that humans may face in the future. Science fiction researcher Song Mingwei believes that the world created in science fiction novels is the embodiment of certain ideas and thoughts in our hearts. Through defamiliarizing cognition, we can in turn confirm what we have turned a blind eye to, and Criticize this.

From this perspective, although science fiction is different from fables, its cognitive process is achieved through fables. One of my favorite science fiction works, "Poetry Cloud" by Liu Cixin, is an extremely allegorical and romantic science fiction. The connotation it highlights also comes from this core.

Because of this, from "Dune" we can see the plunder and control of oil countries by big powers, rather than "an interstellar age full of superpowers and feudal countries"; from "King of Light" we can understand the role of religion The essence is just an absurd illusion, not just a "myth stitched with modern terms"; what "The Three-Body Problem" discusses and criticizes is human morality itself, not "aliens with advanced technology invading the earth" simple story.

The essence of science fiction is not technological fantasy, but scientific fantasy. It is fantasy literature with scientific thinking. Under the cloak of science, it still has a soft humanistic core. Ultimately, its essence is still fantasy literature.

The difference between science fiction and fantasy is that its core is human curiosity about the unknown and the scientific spirit of "if this happens, what will happen". Rather than a cold pile of elements such as steel and computers, spaceships and aliens.

Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." There is no doubt that modern technology has touched this edge.

It is becoming more and more difficult for people to understand the most cutting-edge science and technology. We need some bloggers, some UP owners, and some professionals with the ability to explain, to use less rigorous metaphors to make people understand as much as possible in a way that ordinary people can understand. What on earth are they doing. The general public's understanding of a certain cutting-edge technology is usually simply "I don't understand it, but it is very useful/it is not useful at all" after an explanation.

From this point of view, people who blindly worship technology are the ones who have the least scientific thinking.

The rapid development of science and technology in China and the popularization of Internet knowledge have allowed for breakthroughs in the types of imagination - no longer commonplace topics such as "space navigation", "discovery of new worlds", and "artificial intelligence", readers' acceptance of science fiction It is also becoming wider.

But at the same time, with the popularization of science and technology, face recognition, Skynet positioning, scanning codes and even face scanning for shopping, drone delivery, autonomous driving, smart homes, Alpha Dog... many of them only existed in imagination before. Everything has become a reality. It will also become difficult to create further science fiction within a cognitive and understandable range.

This is a challenge. It is not a challenge to contemporary science fiction authors, but a challenge to the entire science fiction category.

Readers who are familiar with the science fiction circle must be aware of the vigorous New Wave movement in the science fiction circle at that time.

In my opinion, the existence of the New Wave movement itself is a rebellion against the golden age of science fiction in 1940 - science fiction should naturally have new categories, and newer categories should continue to appear as the times develop.

Many science fiction readers believe that there is a "main line" in the science fiction genre, and what they like to read and admire is the orthodox one. But this kind of criticism is often a meaningless criticism in order to maintain its own aesthetic status.

Category differentiation is undoubtedly beneficial to the development of the industry. Science fiction literature is originally a kind of youth literature, a kind of literature full of young people's imagination. When it will be understood by young people as "an old thing", it is when its vitality begins to decline.

We cannot enclose territory for ourselves, but demand common ground while reserving differences. As teacher Liu Cixin said, we need to broaden the scope of science fiction literature.

According to strict classification, "Toppled Tower" should belong to "Kochi", which is a science fantasy work, and at the same time it has some socialist blood. The core inspiration of this book comes from the popular board game rules "Shadowrun" in the 1990s, a very classic cyber fantasy rule. Of course, the specific setting is different, it is just a source of inspiration. I have already sent the settings related to the work that can be disclosed in this book, and those who are interested can pick them up.

For example, many readers may not know that the inspiration for "Mercury Blood" is actually the Tower of Aion... When I saw the hourglass-shaped world map, I thought this is so cool. After rationalizing it, we have the prototype of the "Eggshell World" setting, and all subsequent settings are based on this.

Many people think that the inspiration for "Player Super Justice" is Black Contract, but I have not actually watched that show. Its real inspiration was a game called Soul Sacrifice.

The burden and inheritance of the curse, the curse is power, the out-of-control desire, the two-in-one relationship between the brave man who saves the world and the demon king who destroys the world, each other's exterior and interior, and the time loop that repeats but can connect the entire story. This is the core of what I want to tell in the book "The Player".

Another inspiration for this book is "Animal Rhapsody" and "Kit Kat Taxi". Some old tabletop gamers may know that although Shadowrun has a cyber theme, it is a typical Western fantasy world of trolls, elves, and orcs. In order to maintain the gameplay, many things were not discussed. Because this rule is also a cognitive alienation from classic fantasy rules-such as DND and WOD.

At this time, "Animal Rhapsody" and "Kit Kat Taxi" gave me another inspiration: if you want to dig deeper into the core of humanity, then highlighting "human nature" itself is a correct strategy. Just as you need to add some salt if you want it to be sweet, the way to highlight human nature can also be accomplished by strengthening the "animal nature".

I was still thinking about a very important issue, that is, the core of the cyberpunk genre must be tragedy.

Space opera and cyberpunk can be said to be completely opposite. It can be said that if civilian manned spaceflight is developed first, the world will enter space opera; if virtual reality is developed first, the world will enter cyberpunk. Space opera is outward, conquering, positive, expansionary, and romantic; cyberpunk is inward, introspective, and self-cancelling.

Of these two themes, one heralds “war and conquest” in geopolitics, and the other is “influence and rewriting” in ideology. This is the inevitable normal state of the world that has emerged since the Cold War era.

Therefore, it can be said that it is almost impossible for cyberpunk not to be a tragedy. Even if you complete the creation of themes within the system and get a happy ending - even if you blow up the Aban Tower, so what?

There are still so many companies. People are still the same people.

Speaking more broadly, the blown-up Abandoned Tower may be a harbinger of resistance. It may signal the possibility of change in the future...but only a possibility. Readers who have watched excellent TV series such as "Age of Awakening" may realize that this plot in Cyberpunk 2077 is closer to the "final ending of the confused" than the real "enlightened one" and "fire". "Give it a try" and "the release and satisfaction of violent desires."

Comedy always ends in tragedy. In a cyberpunk world, even if people gain consciousness and successfully rebel against the company by almost impossible means - so what?

The fuse that triggers social conflicts in cyberpunk is limited resources and population expansion.

As overall resources are further depleted, new allocation methods will still lead to new unrest.

If the ultimate problem of "resources" cannot be solved, and if humans cannot get out of the planet, then in the distant future, the extremely distant future, there will still be new tragedies that are inevitable.

But the setting of "spiritual relatives" gave me another idea. A setting that can reasonably transition from "cyberpunk" to "space opera", a plot that allows people in the cyberpunk world to truly gain "possibility" - let's not list it for now. When you finish this review, you can turn back to this section.

Of course, the tragic nature of the cyberpunk genre remains unchanged.

Because in that case, the essence of this book is actually no longer cyberpunk. So I differentiate by calling it "cyber fantasy."

The inspiration for the first volume of this book comes from a song by YOASOBI called "Ultramarine". I think the lyrics of this song are very suitable for Russell, and therefore it is also very suitable as the theme of the prologue.

And the popular science about the card "LL-Ensemble Bluebird" in Yu-Gi-Oh! - When I learned that among birds such as "Siberian Bluebird", also known as "Little Liuli" and "Liuli Songbird", only males are When it was colored glaze, I felt a considerable degree of shock.

This shock flows out into words and becomes the main story of this volume.

Because I thought to myself, I have to give you a shock. Just think of it as a popularization of useless bean knowledge.

As for the inspiration for the second volume, it is the article "Purple and Black" in the fantasy short story collection "Purple and Black" written by fantasy master K.J. Parker.

There is a passage in it, which I can roughly recount based on my impression: "Reserve purple ink exclusively for the use of the emperor and officials, so that you can tell the authenticity of the documents you receive at a glance. The idea itself is not Problem, but someone in the Logistics Department discovered that all officials can be effectively controlled in this way - just don't give enough purple ink to officials they don't like or have different political views. Talking about the quality of purple ink, Or the excuse that the ship transporting purple ink sank into the sea. In this case, they have no rights, but they can't do anything because they cannot sign a legally binding document that is recognized by others - a document written in purple ink. "

Of course, this in itself has nothing to do with the story of Volume 2. But this interesting idea gave me another inspiration...I will continue to retell it at the end of the second volume.

In the future, the end of each volume will describe the inspiration and creative ideas of this volume. As a discussion and sharing with everyone.

That’s about all the chat.

I believe there are very few readers who have the patience to read this.

But I am grateful to all readers who can read it calmly. Since you can see this, I guess there must be some resonance between us.

I sincerely say that while I am working full-time and having a mortgage, as an author with a background in fantasy, I cross-border to write such a subject, a subject that is both science fiction and unit drama, a double niche subject... If , this is not based on some ideal factors, then it means that I am out of my mind.

I don't think it's shameful to show off one's ideals, just like Zi Lu being bullied. Now that Internet literature is commercialized, I still hope that the creators of Internet literature have literary ideals.

To put it mildly...how many young people are still willing to engage in literary creation in modern times? Will they survive? Are the people engaged in this industry young people with literary ideals, or are they frustrated and corrupt scholars?

When the literary masters of the previous generation give up their writing due to aging, who should take over the country's future literature?

How can something that even the young people in this country are unwilling to watch become an international and historical classic of the times?

When I was a child, I admired Liu Wenyang and regretted his untimely death. The stories written by young creators are difficult to write by mature creators with life background, and they should be an indispensable part of the entire field of literary creation.

We should not make a sharp distinction between Internet literature and literature, but we should not do nothing to allow the vast majority of Internet literature to directly become "historical" and "classic" ancient literature. At the same time, we should not do anything to Desperately seeking to “de-entertain” online literature. This is the same stupidity as my uncle's "de-two-dimensionalization".

Compared with the works of more than ten or twenty years ago, "Lord of Mysteries", "Sword of the Dawn", "The Last Fire", "Death on Mars", "Afterglow" and other outstanding online works of the new generation , already able to take into account both literature and entertainment. Readers also prefer stories that touch people's hearts and have a complex humanistic core. This is the optimization of the market.

This must be a process of gradual change and evolution.

Its end will not lie in the hands of authors of the previous generation, nor in the hands of authors of my generation. It keeps getting better and we are in the Word.

With the development of online literature, classics such as "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" will one day emerge from online literature. And all we can do is to build such soil and wait for such flowers to bloom.

My creative ability is far from comparable to the above-mentioned outstanding authors, so I have no choice but to boldly show off my ideals - but then again, it is better to have ideals to show off than to have nothing to say or no dreams to sell. .

It will be on the shelves tomorrow, at least 10,000 words worth of updates!

I hope everyone can place an initial order and support Ah Mao.

Hope we can meet again tomorrow.

——May you always be happy.