Daniel Gill

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Daniel is Currently Reading

Daniel Gill is currently reading

No More Mr. Nice Guy

by Robert A. Glover

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Aug 05, 2024 05:40PM

Daniel Gill is currently reading

My Happy Marriage (Light Novel), Vol. 1

by Akumi Agitogi

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Jun 12, 2024 08:12AM

Daniel Gill is currently reading

Napoleon: A Life

by Andrew Roberts

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Apr 20, 2024 06:42AM

See all 14 books that Daniel is reading…

“Big Sister Shen tells me this used to be a sleepy fishing village. But with the economic reforms and the opening up of China, urbanization brought construction everywhere. To get more compensation when the government exercised its eminent domain powers, villagers raced to build tall towers on their land so as to maximize the square footage of the residential space. But before they could cash in, real estate prices had risen to the point where even the government could no longer afford to pay compensation. These hastily erected buildings remain like historical ruins, witnesses to history.”
― Ken Liu, Invisible Planets: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese SF in Translation

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“imagine instead that you’re a fifth-century AD student of philosophy. You have come to the great center of learning that is the city of Alexandria in Egypt. (Don’t forget to visit the lighthouse, I hear it’s wonderful.) You already have a good education under your belt—you are literate, and have studied some rhetoric—and now you are going to try to master philosophy. What’s the first thing you will study? Of course it will be Aristotle. In late antiquity even Platonists introduced their students to philosophy through Aristotle, saving Plato’s texts for more advanced research.”
― Peter Adamson, Classical Philosophy

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“In my view, “what if” is at the heart of science fiction. Starting with reality itself, the writer applies plausible and logically consistent conditions to play out a thought experiment, pushing the characters and plot toward an imagined hyperreality that evokes a sense of wonder and estrangement. Faced with the absurd reality of contemporary China, the writer cannot fully explore or express the possibilities of extreme beauty and extreme ugliness without resorting to science fiction.”
― Ken Liu, Invisible Planets: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese SF in Translation

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“If you think about it, nearly all argumentative discussion works like this: a topic for debate is identified, and the parties to the discussion try to find some point of agreement as a basis for further argument. If no point of agreement is found, then no argument is possible. Arguing without agreed premises isn’t rational disputation, it’s just posturing and shouting—I refer you to the political debating shows one sees on television nowadays.”
― Peter Adamson, Classical Philosophy

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“Science” is itself one of the greatest utopian illusions ever created by humankind. I am by no means suggesting that we should take the path of antiscience—the utopia offered by science is complicated by the fact that science disguises itself as a value-neutral, objective endeavor. However, we now know that behind the practice of science lie ideological struggles, fights over power and authority, and the profit motive. The history of science is written and rewritten by the allocation and flow of capital, favors given to some projects but not others, and the needs of war. While micro fantasies burst and are born afresh like sea spray, the macro fantasy remains sturdy. Science fiction is the byproduct of the process of gradual disenchantment with science. The words create a certain vision of science for the reader. The vision can be positive or full of suspicion and criticism—it depends on the age we live in.”
― Ken Liu, Invisible Planets: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese SF in Translation

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