SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: February 2022] Sea of Dreams
This book came to my work and it was quite a challenge to catalog. Cixin Liu is a Chinese science fiction writer. These are graphic novel adaptations of his short stories. But he did not write the graphic novels. However, I wanted them linked together because there are going to be sixteen of them and they should all go together. If you put them under Liu, then they go into the Chinese authors section. But these are American books created for American audiences. (I wound up making it an American series under Liu’s name).
Anyhow, I had never heard of him before, but these books are blurbed by none other than Barack Obama.
So I decided to take a look at them.
This first one is a dark story about the destruction of the earth (actually, all three are).
The story opens on an Ice & Snow Arts Festival. The artist Yan Dong is completely wrapped up in his sculpture which is abstract and wild unlike every other one. While people are looking at the art, a giant ball comes out of the sky and hovers above the ground. The creature calls itself a Low Temperature Artist. It states that only art matters in the universe–everything else is trivial.
It scoffs at the realistic art pieces and says that only Dong’s is worth considering.
Then it says that it will create the greatest ice-based art. And it slowly begins sucking up all of the water from the earth. It freezes the water and begins preparations for its installation which will remain in space protected by a membrane that will prevent the ice from melting.
Pretty cool. Except of course, that soon, the planet is completely dried out.
The U.N. and other countries meet to discuss what to do. It is impervious to weapons. And it only seems willing to talk to Yan Dong. They fly Yan Dong up into the atmosphere to have a discussion. But when Yan Dong says that he is killing everyone on earth, the Low Temperature Artists dismisses the concerns. Art is more important than life.
It finishes the artwork, which is apparently incredible (hard to convey that in a graphic novel) and which is called “Sea of Dreams.” But as the Artist is about to leave, Yan Dong asks if it can give the water back. But the Artists says he would never destroy his art. It will last at least twenty years. And when the membrane dissolves, the blocks will turn into comets for part two of this great art piece.
The Artists leaves and now it is up to the nations to work together to try to get their water back before the planet is entirely desiccated.
It’s a pretty good story–and pretty scary. The art by Jok is very jagged and harsh. He is an Argentinian artist and I can see that in his style. It works really well in this end of the world scenario. The translation by Magnus works perfectly for this graphic novel. I’m curious how this was put together–what exactly did Magnus translate into English? Liu’s words? Santullo’s words? Did Manus translate it first and then Santullo edited it for the graphic novel?
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