A war between interdependent cultures, once friendly and now risking global catastrophe in a brinksmanship quest for world domination. Sound familiar?
Well known to us today, this theme is explored as a sardonic explanation for the end of the dinosaurs and other worldly beings, some 66 million years ago.
Cixin Liu's 2021 dark satire, âThe Cretaceous Pastâ, is a science fiction look forward by reconstructing the past with familiar, disquieting results (originally published in 2020 as âOf Ants and Dinosaurs).
By accident and self-motivated interests, two physically opposite species â dinosaurs and ants â form an unexpected mutually satisfying relationship building on each other's skill sets. This arrangement leads to 3,000 years of economic and technological prosperity throughout the era's Gondwanan supercontinent.
But not without tensions and competitiveness leading to first religious, then, nationalistic, species-bias motivated conflicts. Dinosaurs are presented as creatively innovative but physically inept, while ants as micro fine-motor skilled legions of unimaginative technocrats.
Not unlike the breaking apart of the supercontinent at the time, the dinosaurs split into two competitive subgroups: one with an autocratic, monarchy feel, the other more republic-oriented by its description. And the ants continue in their socialist bureaucracy. The parallels with the current world political orders for all three groups are apparent.
Will the conflicts be resolved or end in a sort of Dr. Strangelove accidental finality marking a geologic boundary for future scholars and explorers to study?
While Liu's dry humor and wit keep the narrative moving quickly forward, the characters, motivations and events are hard to empathize with â sort of like looking at an experiment in a Petri dish. It is interesting, even entertaining, to see the results but at times hard to feel excited.
A similar investigation worth reading is Czech writer Karel Capek's 1936 brilliant science fiction satire of human motives at cross purposes with another species, âWar with the Newtsâ. And along the same lines about efforts doomed to repeat is Walter M. Miller Jr.'s 1959 amusing and disturbing âA Canticle for Leibowitzâ.
You might be surprised by this quick read and find Liu's fable confirms William Faulkner's thought: âThe past is never dead. It's not even past.â
Well known to us today, this theme is explored as a sardonic explanation for the end of the dinosaurs and other worldly beings, some 66 million years ago.
Cixin Liu's 2021 dark satire, âThe Cretaceous Pastâ, is a science fiction look forward by reconstructing the past with familiar, disquieting results (originally published in 2020 as âOf Ants and Dinosaurs).
By accident and self-motivated interests, two physically opposite species â dinosaurs and ants â form an unexpected mutually satisfying relationship building on each other's skill sets. This arrangement leads to 3,000 years of economic and technological prosperity throughout the era's Gondwanan supercontinent.
But not without tensions and competitiveness leading to first religious, then, nationalistic, species-bias motivated conflicts. Dinosaurs are presented as creatively innovative but physically inept, while ants as micro fine-motor skilled legions of unimaginative technocrats.
Not unlike the breaking apart of the supercontinent at the time, the dinosaurs split into two competitive subgroups: one with an autocratic, monarchy feel, the other more republic-oriented by its description. And the ants continue in their socialist bureaucracy. The parallels with the current world political orders for all three groups are apparent.
Will the conflicts be resolved or end in a sort of Dr. Strangelove accidental finality marking a geologic boundary for future scholars and explorers to study?
While Liu's dry humor and wit keep the narrative moving quickly forward, the characters, motivations and events are hard to empathize with â sort of like looking at an experiment in a Petri dish. It is interesting, even entertaining, to see the results but at times hard to feel excited.
A similar investigation worth reading is Czech writer Karel Capek's 1936 brilliant science fiction satire of human motives at cross purposes with another species, âWar with the Newtsâ. And along the same lines about efforts doomed to repeat is Walter M. Miller Jr.'s 1959 amusing and disturbing âA Canticle for Leibowitzâ.
You might be surprised by this quick read and find Liu's fable confirms William Faulkner's thought: âThe past is never dead. It's not even past.â
