哈喽,大家好,我是陈楸帆!借这个机会,跟各位朋友分享一下我在疫情期间的一些生活,以及出版,包括阅读、创作的一些状态。我是在一月下旬,也就是春节之前回到了广东汕头老家,和我的父母一起度过了大概两个月足不出户的生活,在这个过程中其实经历了很多,恐慌、焦虑不安、混乱的状态,慢慢地把自己更多的精力放到创作中去,每天会读书,看一些电影、听一点音乐来舒缓焦虑不安的情绪。
在这个过程中其实我写了很多东西,包括最近在做的两个项目,一个是跟李开复老师一起合作的,书名叫做《2041》,讲的是20年后AI将如何改变我们的生活,里面有非常多地把现在科研产业的第一手资料放进科幻小说的书写里面去,所以它是一个跨界的合作。现在已经授权给了兰登书屋(企鹅兰登)做全球版权(除了中文版之外)的出版。我非常期待作品能够在明年问世。另外,我个人完成了一部长篇小说,叫《迷幻史》的初稿,这部作品设置在架空的时间线上,探讨的是人类与幻觉之间的关系,其中也包括了对东西方文明本质的探讨,所以它可能跟我以往写过的一些科幻小说不太一样。现在是在进行修改的过程中,希望再花几个月的时间能够把它改出来。
在这段时间我也收到了很多出版物,包括我自己的书的各种语言的版本。比如说,这是《荒潮》的英文精装版,这是《荒潮》美国刚刚出来的平装版,这是日本早川书房出版的《荒潮》的一个版本,封面非常好看。
我最近在读的书是托马斯·品钦的《万有引力之虹》,这本书非常厚,大家也可以看到。从里面我得到非常多启示,包括品钦写作的方式、他的语言文字、他的思想,跟科幻小说、跟我自己的写作其实有很多共通之处,所以我觉得这本书是特别有帮助、特别有启迪的图书。非常感谢译者和出版社。希望大家能够继续关注中国文学,关注中国写作,希望大家都能够跟家人一起平安健康地度过这样一个特殊的时刻,希望早日恢复到正常生活,期待与大家早日相聚。
Hello, everyone! I’m Chen Qiufan. Through this video, I would like to share something about my life in the pandemic, including the condition of my reading, writing and publishing. I returned in late January before Spring Festival to my hometown, the city Shantou in Guangdong Province, and then spent about two housebound months with my parents. I experienced a lot of panic, anxiety and chaos in this process, but then I gradually started to put more energy into writing. Every day I would read some books, watch movies and listen to music to relieve the anxiety.
During the time, I’ve written a lot, two of which are in good process. One of them is a novel that I’m working on with Kai Fu Lee named 2041, which tells a story about how artificial intelligence changes our life 20 years later. We’ve integrated much first-hand information from technology industries in it, so it’s a cross-border cooperation. Random House has now been authorized the rights to publish it in all languages global except the Chinese version. I expect that this book can come out next year. Besides, I have finished the first draft of a novel by my own called The History of Phantasy, which is based on an unreal timeline and discusses the relationship between human beings and phantasy. It also includes discussion about the quintessence of western and eastern culture, so it might be different from the other books that I wrote.
I’ve received many books and various translated versions of my novels these days. For instance, this is the English version of Waste Tide with hardcover; this is the newly published paperback version in the USA; and this is the Japanese version of Waste Tide published by Hayakawa Publishing House. The cover of these books are really beautiful.
Recently I am reading Gravity’s Rainbow written by Thomas Pynchon. This book is thick, as you can see. I’ve got many inspirations from it, such as the way Pynchon writes, the style of his writing, and his thoughts. They have a lot in common with science fiction and my writing. I consider it a very helpful and beneficial book that inspires me a lot. I want to thank the writer and the publisher of it. I hope you can continue to pay attention to Chinese writing and Chinese literature. I wish all of us can go through this special time safely with our family and return to our normal life as soon as possible. I’m looking forward to meeting you again.