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مونو نو آواره
منتشر شده در ماهنامه ادبیات داستانی چوک شماره ۴۰ سال ۹۲
28 pages, ePUB
First published May 1, 2012
About the author
Ken Liu
473 books22.4k followersKen Liu (http://kenliu.name) is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards for his fiction, he has also won top genre honors abroad in Japan, Spain, and France.
Liu’s most characteristic work is the four-volume epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers, not wizards, are the heroes of a silkpunk world on the verge of modernity. His debut collection of short fiction, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. A second collection, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, followed. He also penned the Star Wars novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker. His latest book is All That We See or Seem, a techno-thriller starring an AI-whispering hacker who saves the world.
He’s often involved in media adaptations of his work. Recent projects include “The Regular,” under development as a TV series; “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in season one of Netflix’s breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, with Craig Silverstein as executive producer, adapted from an interconnected series of Liu’s short stories.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.
In addition to his original fiction, Liu also occasionally publishes literary translations. His most recent work of translation is a new rendition of Laozi’s Dao De Jing.
Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
Liu’s most characteristic work is the four-volume epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers, not wizards, are the heroes of a silkpunk world on the verge of modernity. His debut collection of short fiction, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. A second collection, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, followed. He also penned the Star Wars novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker. His latest book is All That We See or Seem, a techno-thriller starring an AI-whispering hacker who saves the world.
He’s often involved in media adaptations of his work. Recent projects include “The Regular,” under development as a TV series; “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in season one of Netflix’s breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, with Craig Silverstein as executive producer, adapted from an interconnected series of Liu’s short stories.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.
In addition to his original fiction, Liu also occasionally publishes literary translations. His most recent work of translation is a new rendition of Laozi’s Dao De Jing.
Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
August 16, 2023
Неначе ласкаве кошеня лизнуло серце.
Безмежна краса у світлі, що гасне
Хоч і близький кінець дня
Безмежна краса у світлі, що гасне
Хоч і близький кінець дня
February 27, 2020
Evacuation of earth due to an asteroid heading its way.
When a tear in the solar sail threatens to send their ship off-course, they look to Hiroto to help.
It then goes into what he learned from his dad, playing go. Sometimes the only way the collective can survive, is by the sacrifice of the individual.
It is about poetry and love.
All things in life are temporary, that everything passes: what matters is not so much an individual’s life, but rather “the places we hold in the web of others’ lives”.
When a tear in the solar sail threatens to send their ship off-course, they look to Hiroto to help.
It then goes into what he learned from his dad, playing go. Sometimes the only way the collective can survive, is by the sacrifice of the individual.
It is about poetry and love.
All things in life are temporary, that everything passes: what matters is not so much an individual’s life, but rather “the places we hold in the web of others’ lives”.
September 30, 2024
3.5🌟想想还是生气所以不roundup
February 7, 2024
[review for title work]
Ken liu has been making me cry since paper menagerie :,)
Ken liu perfectly captures the beauty of losing infinities for others. The moment is even more beautiful now that it’s gone.
“Yet it is this awareness of the closeness of death, of the beauty inherent in each moment, that allows us to endure. Mono no aware, my son, is an empathy with the universe”
“And we walk together down the street, so that we can remember every passing blade of grass, every dewdrop, every fading ray of the dying sun, infinitely beautiful.”
Ahhhhhh
Ken liu has been making me cry since paper menagerie :,)
Ken liu perfectly captures the beauty of losing infinities for others. The moment is even more beautiful now that it’s gone.
“Yet it is this awareness of the closeness of death, of the beauty inherent in each moment, that allows us to endure. Mono no aware, my son, is an empathy with the universe”
“And we walk together down the street, so that we can remember every passing blade of grass, every dewdrop, every fading ray of the dying sun, infinitely beautiful.”
Ahhhhhh
March 12, 2020
I'm not a fan of heavy-handed symbology and cliched stories, so this one didn't resonate with me. Once again, I found the jumping around in time jarring and mostly unnecessary. However, great writing and characters once again carried the story to an enjoyable level. While I found some of the events a bit far-fetched and implausible, the characters had a depth to them many full length novels struggle to capture. Just a shame about that predictable story and ending...
March 25, 2020
unusually romantic and selfless scifi book. im not a lover of scifi books, but maybe because i've never really given them a chance. I did enjoy this book, however I think it couldve been longer - problem with a short story...
August 18, 2016
Quattro racconti. Quattro racconti in cui è racchiusa la summa di quello che per me è lo spirito orientale. Il tema del “doppio”, presente nel primo racconto, e del tempo che trascorre inesorabile lasciandosi dietro la materia e i corpi, presente nel secondo, sono tòpoi della letteratura orientale e non solo, dal momento che anche nella cultura occidentale il tema della fugacità delle cose è ben presente, in genere accompagnato dall'immagine delle foglie (da Omero a Mimnermo, da Dante a Ungaretti). C'è da dire però che nella cultura orientale questo tema acquista un gusto particolare, che si vela di un'inesprimibile nostalgia: un domani, quando non saremo più, qualcuno o qualcosa avrà un ricordo, o una memoria di noi? Che cosa rimarrà del nostro spirito, dei nostri valori, di tutto ciò in cui abbiamo creduto e che ci ha tenuto insieme durante la nostra esistenza terrena? E se fosse l'umanità, o un segmento di essa, a estinguersi? La malinconia struggente del Genji Monogatari rivive in “Mono no aware”, racconto esemplare che dà il titolo all'antologia. Anche gli ultimi due racconti, “Restare indietro” e “Del tutto altrove, vaste mandrie di renne” sono significativi, affrontando il tema dell'evoluzione del genere umano, già prefigurato dai tempi di Akira di Katsuhiro Otomo.
October 26, 2016
Niente è eterno nell’Universo e la salvezza è possibile solo con l’aiuto degli altri e quando si è disposti al sacrificio: sono queste due delle idee fondamentali cui attingono le quattro storie che costituiscono “Mono No Aware”, piccola grande raccolta di racconti tradotti in italiano di Ken Liu.
Sentimenti profondi e rispetto dell’essere umano e delle tradizioni, alla prova dell’avanzata inarrestabile e cruenta di futuri imprevedibili e in rapido mutamento; quattro storie permeate dalla visione della vita, dall'empatia verso la natura e il mondo tipiche delle culture orientali, intessute però con un “sense of wonder” degno della miglior fantascienza classica e tecnologica.
La breve antologia si apre un po’ in sordina con “Simulacri”, un racconto abbastanza convenzionale, poi “Mono No Aware”, forse il migliore di tutti, dà inizio a un trittico di ottimo livello, completato nel migliore dei modi da “Restare indietro” e “Del tutto altrove, vaste mandrie di renne”, due racconti sul tema della “Singolarità”. Lettura emozionante e appagante.
November 4, 2021
Conto de pequena dimensão mas que nas poucas páginas que tem transmite um rolde emoções que muitos livros não conseguem.
Confesso que quando acabei de ler estava com os olhos em lágrimas.
Escrita muito profunda e emotiva.
Agarra o leitor no primeiro instante e apesar de ser pequeno não precisa de mais para ser uma grande leitura!
Confesso que quando acabei de ler estava com os olhos em lágrimas.
Escrita muito profunda e emotiva.
Agarra o leitor no primeiro instante e apesar de ser pequeno não precisa de mais para ser uma grande leitura!
April 11, 2020
Heard as part of the LeVar Burton Reads podcast.
I mean, Mono no Aware is an absolute beautiful story. Beautifully written and with all the parts intricately woven together. Not a word out of place. An elegant build-up to a both exiting and moving pay-off.
And still I have to knock off a star because of the lingering aftertaste of nationalism or maybe a type of national chauvinism. For examplem, at one point the protagonist thinks about how much the Japanese people suffered because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and afterwards, during the occupation. And being a person with a rudimentary grasp on history, I waited for the other shoe to drop. Which it never did. This story, or at least the characters in it, would have you believe that Japan was purely on the receiving end of the suffering in that time period. Yeah...
And that's just the obvious part. There are other, smaller hints that the protagonist is looking down on everyone around him, while pretending that he is the victim of microaggressions. And of course the whole thing ends with a triumph for Japanese culture and way of life, which conveniently diminishes the fact that, in the story, if it wasn't for the American way of doing things, there wouldn't be anywhere for that triumph to play out to begin with.
I feel like it's such a missed opportunity. With a few tweaks, this could have been a beautiful story about the ingenuity and spirit of humankind, exemplified by a Japanese protagonist, but instead, it spends too much time waving the flag of a single nation, while taking potshots at America.
I mean, Mono no Aware is an absolute beautiful story. Beautifully written and with all the parts intricately woven together. Not a word out of place. An elegant build-up to a both exiting and moving pay-off.
And still I have to knock off a star because of the lingering aftertaste of nationalism or maybe a type of national chauvinism. For examplem, at one point the protagonist thinks about how much the Japanese people suffered because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and afterwards, during the occupation. And being a person with a rudimentary grasp on history, I waited for the other shoe to drop. Which it never did. This story, or at least the characters in it, would have you believe that Japan was purely on the receiving end of the suffering in that time period. Yeah...
And that's just the obvious part. There are other, smaller hints that the protagonist is looking down on everyone around him, while pretending that he is the victim of microaggressions. And of course the whole thing ends with a triumph for Japanese culture and way of life, which conveniently diminishes the fact that, in the story, if it wasn't for the American way of doing things, there wouldn't be anywhere for that triumph to play out to begin with.
I feel like it's such a missed opportunity. With a few tweaks, this could have been a beautiful story about the ingenuity and spirit of humankind, exemplified by a Japanese protagonist, but instead, it spends too much time waving the flag of a single nation, while taking potshots at America.
August 24, 2025
November 2 | 4.0
This story reminds me of a haiku by Matsuo Bashō (芭蕉), 1644-1694, who wrote:
“Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggest they
are about to die”
The phrase “mono no aware” speaks to the pathos we have towards things, a poignancy and appreciation of transience. For what makes an autumn leaf beautiful is that it will eventually fall.
This short story details the remaining humans on their voyage through space after the death of the Earth. Their spacefaring vessel with solar sails resembles the kanji for umbrella (傘), which can be decomposed into a cover spread over a frame with multiple embedded copies of the kanji for person (人). This description of the ship creates a perfect metaphor of humanity. Following an incident, our protagonist Hiroto (翔) must sacrifice himself to save everyone else, raising questions about how we comprehend the death of oneself for the sake of a future we cannot join. What gives our ephemeral existence meaning, unless our significance is derived from our impermanence? Is there truth to the Gestaltist notion that we are part of some greater whole? This must be why the author chose an umbrella (傘) as the final shelter of humanity – a shared fate.
This story reminds me of a haiku by Matsuo Bashō (芭蕉), 1644-1694, who wrote:
“Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggest they
are about to die”
The phrase “mono no aware” speaks to the pathos we have towards things, a poignancy and appreciation of transience. For what makes an autumn leaf beautiful is that it will eventually fall.
This short story details the remaining humans on their voyage through space after the death of the Earth. Their spacefaring vessel with solar sails resembles the kanji for umbrella (傘), which can be decomposed into a cover spread over a frame with multiple embedded copies of the kanji for person (人). This description of the ship creates a perfect metaphor of humanity. Following an incident, our protagonist Hiroto (翔) must sacrifice himself to save everyone else, raising questions about how we comprehend the death of oneself for the sake of a future we cannot join. What gives our ephemeral existence meaning, unless our significance is derived from our impermanence? Is there truth to the Gestaltist notion that we are part of some greater whole? This must be why the author chose an umbrella (傘) as the final shelter of humanity – a shared fate.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 18, 2024
La raccolta contiene:
- Simulacro
- Mono No Aware
- Restare indietro
- Del tutto altrove, vaste mandrie di renne
- L’uomo che mise fine alla Storia: Un documentario
includo anche questi racconti che ho letto dello stesso autore:
- Gli algoritmi dell'amore
- Il serraglio di carta
- Il demone di Maxwell
- Memorie di mia madre
- Onde
- Il flagello
- L'azzeccagarbugli e il Re delle Scimmie
- Rinascita
- L'aria non appartiene a nessuno
- Cliente Abituale
Nel complesso sono tutti racconti godibili. Il tema delle relazioni affettive nel metaverso ricorre spesso. Alcuni racconti invece di essere di fantascienza sono più fantasy in stile orientale come “il Serraglio di Carta”, “L'aria non appartiene a nessuno”, e “L'azzeccagarbugli e il Re delle Scimmie”.
Quelli che preferisco sono: “Onde”, “Cliente Abituale”, e l’ottimo poliziesco sci-fi “Rinascita”. Tutti e tre si presterebbero a finire sul grande schermo.
- Simulacro
- Mono No Aware
- Restare indietro
- Del tutto altrove, vaste mandrie di renne
- L’uomo che mise fine alla Storia: Un documentario
includo anche questi racconti che ho letto dello stesso autore:
- Gli algoritmi dell'amore
- Il serraglio di carta
- Il demone di Maxwell
- Memorie di mia madre
- Onde
- Il flagello
- L'azzeccagarbugli e il Re delle Scimmie
- Rinascita
- L'aria non appartiene a nessuno
- Cliente Abituale
Nel complesso sono tutti racconti godibili. Il tema delle relazioni affettive nel metaverso ricorre spesso. Alcuni racconti invece di essere di fantascienza sono più fantasy in stile orientale come “il Serraglio di Carta”, “L'aria non appartiene a nessuno”, e “L'azzeccagarbugli e il Re delle Scimmie”.
Quelli che preferisco sono: “Onde”, “Cliente Abituale”, e l’ottimo poliziesco sci-fi “Rinascita”. Tutti e tre si presterebbero a finire sul grande schermo.
July 26, 2024
Collected in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, this is the story of Hiroto, whos mother ensured he ended up on the last Starship carrying the lucky few to the stars, as the Earth is about to be destroyed by an asteroid.
At 25, Hiroto the last surviving Japanese person detects a tear in the light sails powering their space ship. If it's not repaired, the remnants of humanity will perish. Hiroto volunteers as he's the most familiar with the sails, and uses his knowledge of "Go" (strategy game learned from his dad) to creatively fix most of the issue.
Just when he thinks he's in the clear, he sees another problem and must make a choice. It is at this pivotal moment that Hiroto lives up the Japanese saying which is the title of this short story. It is all at once profound, fatalistic, tragic, brave and yet beautiful - just as Hiroto is.
At 25, Hiroto the last surviving Japanese person detects a tear in the light sails powering their space ship. If it's not repaired, the remnants of humanity will perish. Hiroto volunteers as he's the most familiar with the sails, and uses his knowledge of "Go" (strategy game learned from his dad) to creatively fix most of the issue.
Just when he thinks he's in the clear, he sees another problem and must make a choice. It is at this pivotal moment that Hiroto lives up the Japanese saying which is the title of this short story. It is all at once profound, fatalistic, tragic, brave and yet beautiful - just as Hiroto is.
February 12, 2019
Read to me by Levar Burton.
February 25, 2019
http://www.levarburtonpodcast.com/
read in english
read in english
December 1, 2023
I read the English version of this story, but Goodreads didn't have it.
December 28, 2024
again, the closest thing goodreads had to the solo short story Mono No Aware by Ken Liu. One of my favorites now.
Want to Read
January 20, 2025I've also found this in https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...
October 11, 2025
Ken liu te amo
February 5, 2026
3.5/5
examinations of japanese culture are always pretty interesting
examinations of japanese culture are always pretty interesting
May 16, 2026
Originally read this in The Paper Menagerie, but listening to the audio version was excellent. Really great story, full of heart and just about perfect.
October 6, 2025
read in English with LaVar Burton, could not find rating on Goodreads.
This story was one of the few short stories that have made me cry in all the right ways. A beautiful tale of what it means to be a hero, how family who creates you always remains with you, and how your ancestors will always be part of your story.
Worth another reread. or maybe two or three rereads. I am going to physically get this short story because I think it's so worth it.
This story was one of the few short stories that have made me cry in all the right ways. A beautiful tale of what it means to be a hero, how family who creates you always remains with you, and how your ancestors will always be part of your story.
Worth another reread. or maybe two or three rereads. I am going to physically get this short story because I think it's so worth it.
December 21, 2021
- simulacro
- mono no aware
- restare indietro
- del tutto altrove, vaste mandrie di renne
- mono no aware
- restare indietro
- del tutto altrove, vaste mandrie di renne
November 2, 2022
So heartbreaking, so healing.
LeVar Burton will always be the best narrator I could ever ask for, which is a double-edged sword because his narration made me cry.
LeVar Burton will always be the best narrator I could ever ask for, which is a double-edged sword because his narration made me cry.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews