Speaking of Russian science fiction, Sergei Lukyanenko is indispensable. He is now a contemporary Russian writer with global appeal, and his masterpiece "The Night Watch" has sold 12 million copies worldwide, and his works combine the philosophy of Russian literature with a beautiful cosmology, which is unique in the world of science fiction literature.
A few months ago, the two-part "Deep Diving Game" series jointly published by Baguangfen Culture and Nova Publishing House was officially released in China. This sci-fi masterpiece created in the 90s of the 20th century has swept nine sci-fi awards and is known as "the pinnacle of Russian cyberpunk".
At the beginning of December 2023, the "Russian Science Fiction Master Sergei Lukyanenko's China Tour" came to Chengdu, Beijing and Shanghai to have face-to-face exchanges with Chinese readers. During this period, Sergei Lukyanenko gave an exclusive interview to Novostiya Weekly. According to the reporter's understanding, this is his third time in China, and the oriental culture has had a profound influence on his science fiction creation, and he always maintains an optimistic attitude in his vision of the future world.
The following is a transcript of the interview between Novostiya Weekly and Sergei Lukyanenko.
Russian science fiction writer Sergei Lukyanenko. (Photo provided by the interviewee).
Science fiction writers must believe what they write.
New Weekly: You used to be a psychiatrist, and that identity is very different from that of a science fiction writer today. Why did you become a psychiatrist in the first place? How did you start writing?
Sergey Lukyanenko: The main thing is the influence of my family, because my father was a psychiatrist, so I wanted to follow my father's path to becoming a doctor, and I studied medicine when I was in college.
When I was in my first year of college, I suddenly realized that I liked writing more, so I started experimenting with writing and found it to be a very interesting thing. After graduating, I started writing and completely lost the idea of becoming a doctor.
New Weekly: According to your observation, are there any similarities between the two ways of thinking? How did your experience as a psychiatrist influence your later science fiction writing?
Sergey Lukyanenko: Two very different kinds of work, so to speak.
First of all, the job of a psychiatrist is to help people establish a normal understanding of the world. But science fiction writing is the opposite, what science fiction writers want to do is to let readers see different worlds, see things that are beyond normal thinking.
New Weekly: It's interesting. So why do you like sci-fi? What touched you?
Sergei Lukyanenko: Actually, I was influenced by a lot of science fiction writers. First of all, in Russia, the very famous science fiction writers of the Soviet era, the Strugatsky brothers, who had a very deep influence on me. Secondly, there are many excellent science fiction writers in the United States, especially some classic science fiction writers in the 20th century.
The reason why I became interested in science fiction is that I started reading all kinds of literature when I was 5 years old, and my favorite is science fiction, but I never thought I wanted to be a writer when I was a child, and I also thought that it was not so easy to be a writer.
New Weekly: Science fiction and real life are two completely different worlds, what kind of writing state do you usually enjoy when you are creating science fiction, enjoying or leaping? What are your writing habits?
Sergei Lukyanenko: In literary writing, in fact, you have to force yourself to believe in what you write, especially when creating science fiction, all kinds of planets, all kinds of things happen, and all kinds of wonders, which you must believe when writing.
Once you put down the pen and rest, you must force yourself to get out of the fantasy world, otherwise it will make people crazy, after all, science fiction ** is a conjecture thing, and this thing can only be said to help us understand the real world, but we must make a very strict distinction.
The virtual world is full of imagination and danger.
New Weekly: You once said that your science fiction ** was influenced by oriental culture. What Eastern cultures have influenced you? What oriental elements do you incorporate into your work?
Sergei Lukyanenko: Oriental culture has indeed had an influence on my creation. First of all, because I actually grew up in Asia when I was a child, the culture and living habits of the Kazakh people have retained traces of the East to a certain extent.
On the other hand, I have read a lot of oriental literature since I was a child, and in recent years, I have actually watched Asian anime a lot, which is also a very "strong" culture.
In general, I think that Western culture has a clear distinction between "good and evil, right and wrong, black and white", while Eastern culture emphasizes more on the interactive concept of "good and evil" and "right and wrong". This philosophy provides a more complex and diverse perspective for my work.
New Weekly: In your opinion, what is the difference between European and American science fiction and Eastern science fiction?
Sergei Lukyanenko: European and American science fiction should actually be looked at separately.
The first is American science fiction, which describes a picture of civilization that is usually more interesting and entertaining, and the protagonists in its stories tend to be of the superhero genre.
European sci-fi is actually a little intertwined with oriental sci-fi, even including Russian sci-fi, they usually depict a small group working together to accomplish something, so you rarely see superheroes in European sci-fi or Russian sci-fi.
So when it comes to Russian science fiction, it will actually be more pessimistic, and there will be more discussions about realistic issues. On the contrary, in Chinese science fiction, my reading experience is that it is a very optimistic civilization.
Sergei Lukyanenko's "Deep Diving Game". (Photo provided by the interviewee).
New Weekly: Could you please talk about the original intention and creative process of "Deep Diving Game"?
Sergey Lukyanenko: This work was actually created in the 90s of the 20th century. Twenty-five years ago, the cyberpunk culture of the West was introduced to Russia. At that time, my friends and I were discussing Western cyberpunk** and I didn't like it very much, their tone was rather gray and depressing, and the people in them were hurting each other and fighting each other.
So, I wanted to try to write a different kind of cyberpunk, to see if I could write more about the better side of the world, the good side. The virtual life I wrote about in "Deep Diving Game" will show more about the "goodness" of human nature.
New Weekly: Your work "Deep Dive Game" tells the story of a genius hacker who resolutely defends the boundary between the virtual and the real, but gradually loses himself. As a science fiction writer, how do you see the development of technology?
Sergey Lukyanenko: I remember that after the publication of "Deep Diving Game", there were a lot of Russian hackers in reality. Real-life hackers became hackers because of the influence of this **, which I didn't expect. The development of the Internet has created a virtual world that is full of imagination, but at the same time full of dangers.
For example, "virtual reality technology" is still far from the state described in **. Of course, computers are now getting smarter and more powerful. One of my own big mistakes is that I didn't expect that the advent of smartphones would have such a big impact on people's lives today. We can see that no matter who it is, no matter when, no matter what time it is, everyone is looking at their phones. The impact of technological developments is difficult to predict, and the consequences are also difficult to predict.
Imagine a future in which humanity will eventually overcome all its problems.
New Weekly: In "Stars Are Cold Toys", you portray human beings as weak people in the face of alien civilizations, does this imply that if one day human beings really face alien civilizations, the outcome will be pessimistic?
Sergei Lukyanenko: First of all, I think it's entirely possible that human beings will end up tragically, as described in "Stars Are Cold Toys". Of course, human beings have not yet walked out of the "cradle" of the earth, and most people are still trapped in the food and clothing line, and it is impossible for them to live normally on any other planet, let alone contact with extraterrestrial civilizations.
I think it's more likely that in the future, extraterrestrial civilizations will come to the earth to find us, and the worst case may be all kinds of large-scale sabotage as often written in American science fiction. Of course, we can also expect some friendly civilizations to help you when they know that you are too far behind.
In general, I think that mankind should still try to develop space technology as much as possible, and if there is a day like what you said, it will not end particularly badly.
In December 2023, Sergei Lukyanenko gave an exclusive interview to the reporter of Novostiya Weekly. (Photo provided by the interviewee).
New Weekly: Science fiction is more about expressing thoughts on the dilemma of real life through the form of science fiction. What are the real-world dilemmas that you focus more on?
Sergei Lukyanenko: First of all, what makes many Russians most anxious is, of course, some conflicts and wars in the international situation. For all Russians, this is the biggest real problem.
Second, of course, there is the pandemic. We have just come out of a global epidemic, and we all have a very deep experience, and we feel that we should pay more attention to our health and protect our bodies.
Third, in fact, we need to do more about mental health. Nowadays, many people are in a state of mental tension for a long time, which may be because of difficulties in life, or because of the influence of emotions in various aspects. At this time, there is an urgent need for more psychological counseling.
New Weekly: Many science fiction writers are pessimistic about the future of mankind, what kind of worldview do you want to create in your science fiction works?
Sergei Lukyanenko: Actually, there is a clearer tendency, which is optimism. I believe that whether it is a common problem of mankind or a problem faced by each country itself, humanity will eventually overcome it and create a society where all people can develop together.
New Weekly: In the past, it may have been easier to create science fiction, but many of the previous imaginations of the future world have now become reality. Do you feel that imagining the future has become more difficult for the present?
Sergey Lukyanenko: Of course, I do have a feeling right now, that it's getting harder and harder to imagine what hasn't happened yet.
Although many of the things that science fiction writers have written in the past have actually been realized, the responsibility of science fiction writers also lies in this, that is, to have a more forward-looking perspective of the future world, to find the variables of the future world under the current reality, and then to show this rich unknown.
New Weekly: Would you consider co-creating with AI? When do you think AI creation will surpass human writers?
Sergei Lukyanenko: At present, it seems that artificial intelligence is not yet able to create very creative literary creations, but more often than not, it can only write a few words, which are actually extracted from the corpus of human beings.
Then, in the near future, perhaps right now, AI has actually become a helper for many writers, helping writers to conceive scenes, so that writers have more energy to think more creatively.
However, it is difficult to determine whether the co-creation of AI and writers will be good or bad in the future. Overall, I don't think it's going to be a threat to a writer's creativity. 