Episode 162: Every Town Deserves a Library (with Ken Liu)

Science fiction and fantasy are full of wondrous libraries containing everything from powerful artifacts to some dang good reads. How does the idealized view of libraries in speculative fiction compare with the real-life libraries, which are under attack by would-be censors and culture warriors? Also, we talk to award-winning author Ken Liu about his brand new translation of the classic Daoist text, the Dao De Jing.

Notes, Citations, & Etc.

Ken Liu's website, plus Instagram and Bluesky

Here's his translation of Laozi's Dao De Jing

Here's an earlier translation by John C. Wu

Bob Newhart appeared in the TV movie The Librarian: Quest for the Spear in 2004, which led to multiple TV movies and two TV series.

Other important stories featuring libraries include Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey, A Discovery of Witches by Debrah Harkness, Babel by R.F. Kuang, Forgotten Realms (D&D) and Wings of Desire

Fobazi Ettarh came up with the concept of “vocational awe”. Hear her talking about it here.

Ken Liu created a neural network trained on his own writing, called robo_ken, and the result was a story called "50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know."