Hacker News Reader

Comment by UglycupRawky | Hacker News Reader

It's a truly fascinating piece, but wow, I didn't expect going in that I'd come out not liking him. On the other hand, I didn't really know anything about Liu Cixin or his work before now, so maybe this is all well-trodden ground for everyone else.

View on HN

I think you have to look very hard to find anything positive written about China or Chinese people in western establishment media.

Especially anything that gets posted on HN.

The reverse, to a lesser extent (only about Western politics), is also true in Chinese media.

Turns out totalitarian states are not very popular amongst a wider global audience. Not much positive gets written about Venezuela or North Korea either.

The journalist worked hard to achieve that effect.

You sure it wasn't Liu Cixin's own statements that were working to achieve that effect? The journalist just asked questions and wrote down his response.

"Just"? We must have been reading different articles.

If the author simply transcribed every conversation and printed it, we would still come out with the same impression that this is a guy with some pretty shitty beliefs. Everything else in the article is just window dressing around those facts.

How do you know that? At best, you can talk about yourself.

I'm starting to suspect that you share the same shitty beliefs yourself.

I'm not sure what beliefs exactly you have in mind, but I'll ask what makes beliefs 'shitty'?

Other than being different from your own beliefs, that is.

Perhaps he chose to be cautious with his remarks in case any authorities happen to read the New Yorker.

Sigh. And many chinese still support that authority.

In much the same way that many people support the political faction/party of their choice.

you really don't have to like the author in order to have fun or appreciate his works.

Orson Scott Card being the prime example of this.

Or H.P. Lovecraft.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com