The Voice of CCNU On the afternoon of April 22, the theme lecture "Science Fiction: As a kind of Contemporary Culture" and the award ceremony of the Third Science Fiction Essay Contest of CCNU were held in the lecture hall on the first floor of the School of Chinese Language and Literature. The event was organized by the Science Fiction Association of Cradle Literature Club of CCNU, guided by the Communist Youth League Committee of the School of Chinese Language and Literature of CCNU, supported by the World of Science Fiction Magazine, and the editor-in-chief of World of Science Fiction Magazine, Laz as the main speaker. The event was hosted by Tao Xinyi of the CCNU host team.
In this event, many science fiction lovers gathered to delve into the wonderful world of science fiction under the guidance of Raz. Raz has been working in the field of fancy literature for more than ten years. He was the deputy editor of Fly-Fantasy World, and has studied fancy literature and mythology in depth, and once won the best science fiction editor in the 26th Galaxy Awards. As a magazine editor-in-chief, he often receives many interesting letters from young people, which included some little pranks sometimes. He laughs and says, "Spending time with young people often keeps the mind young, and having fun is what keeps the journal alive."
After a light-hearted and entertaining warm-up, the lecture began in earnest. Raz began by introducing the common definition of science fiction——a bold imagination of the unknown based on reality and speculation, distinguished from pseudo-science fiction cloaked in sci-fi romance. However, there are still loopholes in the definition, and he argued that the term "reasonable imagination" is often confusing to creators and readers. That's why the public is often at a loss when it comes to determining whether a work is pseudoscience. How to solve this problem? Raz said, how about a reverse definition? That is, "based on existing science" is defined as "not go against existing scientific knowledge", and "not go against" is not equal to "in accord with ".
After that, Raz introduced from the elementary to the profound that the role of science fiction is to popularize science, promote innovation and creativity, predict new technology and eliminate anxiety. Taking some films as examples, he laid special stress on analyzing the underlying function of "eliminating anxiety": "Literature deals with anxiety. Lu Yao's Ordinary World deals with the anxiety of people in the early days of reform and opening-up，Rural Love Story deals with the anxiety of today's countryside, and science fiction actually deals with our anxiety about technology and the future." After introducing science fiction knowledge in many ways, Raz returned to the definition of science fiction——a fundamental but significant issue. He emphasized that science fiction is about possibilities, not impossibilities, so there is no need to treat intellectual errors as "obvious mistakes".
During the questioning session, there was a fascinating and profound exchange of ideas. Li Runyue from the School of Physical Science asked about the dilemma of "following mainstream values or sticking to the writer's ideas with a focus on science and technology". In response, Raz suggested that "science fiction creation is an act of pleasure to both others and yourself, and one can have fun with it without violating ethics and laws, or one can create according to the scope of readers' acceptance in order to accumulate resources of readers."
Later, Raz presented certificates to the winners of the Science Fiction Essay Contest. Associate Professor Zheng Baochun of School of Chinese Language and Literature concluded that: "It was an impressive evening. Mr. Raz's detailed description of science fiction promoted the integration of our creativity and imagination with the trend of the times!"
Translator: Yang Fan
Date: April 23, 2021
