The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Lightspeed Magazine originally published this science fiction essay in 2012, and it won nominations for a Nebula Award and a Sturgeon Award. Although science fictional in nature, this meta piece is about the creation of art and the manifestation of intelligence in different species.

The story’s structure is reminiscent of an academic lecture. It has no plot and no individual characters, so its appeal lies in the imagery and the ideation of the author, along with the language he uses to explore the ideas he is setting forth. In this story, bookmaking is the universal constant: “[E]very species has its unique way of passing on its wisdom through the ages, its way of making thoughts visible, tangible, frozen for a moment like a bulwark against the irresistible tide of time” (1).

Reading means different things to these different races, and words, as we know them, are not necessarily involved. Language is also interpreted very freely. Instead, reading reflects the way a race thinks and views the world, providing different perspectives based upon the way their bodies (or lack thereof) work.

This story represents the way that science fiction has always used ideas to spur thoughts of new worlds and new perspectives since the pioneering days of John W. Campbell’s Astounding Fiction. Additionally, it highlights how science fiction reflects humanity and investigates human values by allowing us to look at our habits, lifestyles, feelings, and emotions through an alien lens.

Liu ends the story with a poetic signature:

Pockets of sentience grow in the cold, deep void of the universe like bubbles in a vast, dark sea. Tumbling, shifting, joining and breaking, they leave behind spiraling phosphorescent trails, each as unique as a signature, as they push and rise toward an unseen surface. Everyone makes books (9).

In this passage, Liu notes the constant movement of the universe and the trail that “they” leave behind as a signature, hinting at the fleeting, chaotic nature of life and the universe and suggesting that each species makes books to mark their “trail,” or leave a piece of their present for the future.

Liu also alludes to intelligent species not noted in the essay. The bookended refrain of “everyone makes books” implies that reading isn’t just about looking at words on a page; it is about the intelligence behind the reading, and how those books are shaped by, and help to shape, existence. Every species he lists has a different way of creating and understanding books, and each method of bookmaking has a profound impact on how those creatures see the world and use their intelligence.