當地時間11月8日,中國著名科幻小說家、《三體》作者劉慈欣在美國華盛頓被授予克拉克想像力服務社會獎(Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society),成為獲得該獎的第一位中國人!
科普:克拉克獎
亞瑟·克拉克爵士(Arthur Charles Clarke)是20世紀享譽世界的英國科幻小說家,其科幻作品多以科學為依據,代表作《2001:太空漫遊》(2001: A Space Odyssey)於1968年被導演斯坦利·庫布裡克拍攝成同名電影。
由亞瑟·克拉克基金會設立的克拉克獎,每年度會評選出終身成就獎(Award for Lifetime Achievement)、想像力服務社會獎(Award for Imagination in Service to Society )、創新者獎(Innovator Award)三大獎項,以表彰世界上最卓越並最富創造力的思想家、科學家、作家、技術專家、商業領袖以及創新者(The Clarke Awards recognize and celebrate the world's most illustrious and creative thinkers, scientists, writers, technologists, business leaders and innovators)。
英國物理學家、宇宙學家霍金(Stephen Hawking)曾於2017年獲得過克拉克終身成就獎。
2012年,克拉克想像力服務社會獎首次設立,獲得過該獎項的作者包括《使女的故事》作者、加拿大小說家瑪格麗特·阿特伍德(Margaret Atwood);多次獲得雨果獎和星雲獎、代表作有《火星三部曲》的美國科幻小說家金·斯坦利·羅賓森(Kim Stanley Robinson)等。
劉慈欣曾獲得過雨果獎、全球華語科幻星雲獎等重量級獎項,但這次的克拉克獎,對他來說意義非凡。
因為阿瑟·克拉克是劉慈欣非常崇拜的科幻小說家,每次做閱讀書籍推薦,他也總會推薦克拉克的作品。
劉慈欣曾在央視《朗讀者》節目中談道:「我所有的一切作品都是對阿瑟·克拉克最拙劣的模仿。」
在頒獎禮致答謝詞時,劉慈欣還表示,正是克拉克將自己引進了科幻閱讀和寫作之門。
It's an honor for Liu that he got the award under the name of his favorite sci-fi master. Liu said in his reception speech that Clarke was the one that led him into sci-fi world and ignited his imagination ever since the 1980s.
值得一提的是,劉慈欣這次的獲獎演講全部用英文完成。
他的英文有多好呢?中國日報記者此前問過《球狀閃電》和《三體2》的譯者周華(Joel Martinsen),得知,書的英譯本大劉是全文看過的。
而這篇英文演講稿也非常精彩,劉慈欣用詩意和深沉的文字表達了自己對於「想像力」(imagination )的理解,以及對宇宙和星辰大海的嚮往。
劉慈欣在演講中說,自己在上世紀80年代首次接觸到克拉克的著作,想像力第一次「被激活」(These two books, for the first time, brought my imagination to life)。
他回憶起讀完《2001:太空漫遊》的那天深夜,他走出家門仰望星空,第一次真正看到了宇宙:
For the first time in my life, I was awed by the magnitude and mystery of our universe, the feeling which you only get facing religion.
我第一次對宇宙的宏大與神秘產生了敬畏感,這是一種宗教般的感覺。
如今,科技的發達使得世界越來越像科幻小說了,但劉慈欣不無遺憾地表示,在IT所營造的舒適安樂窩中,人們對太空漸漸失去了興趣。
The imagination of science fiction is abandoning the vastness and profoundness that Arthur Clarke once opened up, instead people are now embracing the narrowness and introversion of cyberpunk.
科幻的想像力由克拉克的廣闊和深遠,變成賽博朋克的狹窄和內向。
但劉慈欣仍然一直在努力延續著克拉克的想像,一直在描寫宇宙的宏大神奇,描寫遙遠世界中的生命和文明,他相信:
The vast ocean of stars can always carry our infinite imagination.
浩瀚的星空永遠能夠承載我們無窮的想像力。
來看大劉英文演講視頻:
以下是演講稿雙語全文:
Ladies and Gentleman,
女士們,先生們:
Good evening!
晚上好!
It’s my great honor to receive the Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society. Thank you.
很榮幸獲得克拉克想像力服務社會獎。
This award is a reward for imagination. Imagination is a capability that should have exclusive belonged to God but we, as human beings, luckily have this too. It is far beyond our imagination to grasp the meaning of the existence of imagination. A historian used to say that the main reason why human beings have been able to surpass other species on earth and to build civilizations is that we are able to create something in our heads that does not exist in reality. In the future, when artificial intelligence becomes smarter than us, imagination may be the only advantage we have over AI.
這個獎項是對想像力的獎勵,而想像力是人類所擁有的一種似乎只應屬於神的能力,它存在的意義也遠超出我們的想像。有歷史學家說過,人類之所以能夠超越地球上的其他物種建立文明,主要是因為他們能夠在自己的大腦中創造出現實中不存在的東西。在未來,當人工智慧擁有超過人類的智力時,想像力也許是我們所擁有的惟一優勢。
Science fiction is a literary genre based on imagination. And the first sci-fi works that impressed me were those by Arthur C. Clarke. Together with Jules Verne and George Wells, Arthur Clarke was among the first Western modern sci-fi writers to enter China. In the early 1980s, the two novels 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous With Rama were published in my country. At that time, the Cultural Revolution just ended. While the old life and faith had collapsed, the new ones had not yet been established. Like other young people, I felt lost during that period. These two books, for the first time, however, brought my imagination to life. My mind opened up like it has never before. I felt like a narrow stream finally embracing the sea.
科幻小說是基於想像力的文學,而最早給我留下深刻印象的是亞瑟·克拉克的作品。除了儒勒·凡爾納(Jules Verne)和赫伯特·喬治·威爾斯(Herbert George Wells)外,克拉克的作品是最早進入中國的西方現代科幻小說。在上世紀80年代初,中國出版了他的《2001:太空漫遊》和《與拉瑪相會》。當時文革剛剛結束,舊的生活和信仰已經崩塌,新的還沒有建立起來,我和其他年輕人一樣,心中一片迷茫。這兩本書第一次激活了我的想像力,思想豁然開闊許多,有小溪流進大海的感覺。