Chapter 33 postscript
I have to admit that the idea of "Timequake", including the name Kilger Trout, originally came from that ridiculous, obscure, and even hard-core sci-fi fans would not touch it. The booklet called "Timequake" ——Mr. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who has an Einstein-like funny face, has been shivering all his life, and made many people feel ashamed, wrote in the "patchwork" novel:
"The timequake of 2001 was a muscle cramp of fate in the universe. At 2:27 p.m. in New York City on February 13 of that year, the universe had a crisis of confidence. Should it expand without limit?" Extension? What's the point?
"The universe shuddered a bit with loss of mind. Maybe it should have had an initial family reunion followed by a big bang.
"It suddenly shrunk ten years. It shot me and everyone else back to February 17, 1991, when it was 7:51 a.m. for me, standing at the blood bank in San Diego, California. In front of a group of people.
"However, for some reason known only to the universe itself, it has decided to cancel the family reunion, at least temporarily. It continues to expand. Which faction, if any, casts the crucial vote in expanding or contracting, I do not know .Although I have lived eighty-four years, ninety-four if you count the reruns, there are still many questions about the universe that I cannot answer.
"Some people are saying now that the 'replay' lasted for ten years, and only four days were missing, which means that God exists and that he uses the decimal system. They say that he has ten fingers and ten toes like us, and does arithmetic. Sometimes it is used to count."
I believe that since then, no one has been able to describe the "back in time" hypothesis with such boldness and wit - come on, that is the whole universe!But Vonnegut's sense of humor never has any restraint because the other party is the universe or God.Well, although I tried to pay homage to this master of black humor in the novel, overall, it seems to be not successful-look, I just put a scientific explanation for "timequake" in the novel, and The series of murders, conspiracies, psychological analysis, and interlocking plot advancement... everything seems to be full of cheap "science student thinking", every move, every move, every step, but it is far from being "witty" .But at least one thing makes me proud-the whole story, although lacking a sense of humor, is dark enough!
When I finished reading "Timequake", I was thinking, maybe I will never be able to write like Vonnegut in my life, but my talent for storytelling must be used somewhere-the idea of "Timequake" is Like a spark, it illuminates the pattern of the whole story in an instant: a serial murder, a time regression, a tough detective, an unexpected murderer, the fate of several people intertwined with each other, leading to the ultimate blind man ending.At first, of course, everything wasn't so clear, just the outlines—I knew I was going to write a story that thrilled me: what a detective had to do because he went back in time, before the serial murders happened, Just to solve a "murder that hasn't happened yet", but soon he found that things were far from as simple as he imagined...
I let the story unfold over and over in my head.On the way to and from get off work, the murder is happening in my head, and I consider how the murderer can plausibly lure the victim, and how to dispose of the body to destroy the evidence-until I realize that I have passed the station; before going to bed. Time also belongs to this story. I think about which clues should be brought before the "Timequake" to make the story seamless, and how the detective should act so that he will go astray by fate. In these imaginations, I unconsciously fell asleep, and had nightmares all night.
Those days of making up stories were really tormenting!
It has to be admitted that I actually prefer Robert Sawyer, Vernor Vinge, Jeff Leigh Deaver, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and "CSI" to pass the time-yes, I'm actually no better than most fans of best-selling novels, science fiction, and American TV series. It's just that I occasionally use the works of masters as a facade.So, since I typed the first word on the screen, I have clearly realized what kind of novel I want to write-it must be good-looking, the reader is attracted to it, and the kind of reading is not burdensome "Good-looking", but no matter how good it is, it will not be read a second time. This is the fate of a detective novel; it may be mentioned and praised, and I still have a little bit of this point A little self-confidence, but it will never be compared with those "master works" I respect-if it can be considered a "homage", a "sci-fi novel with a breakthrough in structure", A "surprising detective novel", no matter what kind of evaluation it is, it has already made me laugh.It's destined to be on the "pulp fiction" shelf, but that doesn't mean I wrote it casually—I can assure you that it's a hard-fought, serious science-fiction mystery.
You probably would not have guessed how difficult it is for a so-called "science student" who has retaken college physics twice to understand the concept of "entropy of the universe" and apply it to the novel as the theoretical basis of "time shock"— —Although in the whole novel, these theories are just a few lines of inconspicuous words; I’m afraid you can’t imagine, for the criminal psychology, trace forensics, police organization structure, English pronunciation of Japanese names in the novel, and the appearance in the novel The model of the model and the type of the gun are accurate, and how much information I have consulted - the sum of them probably far exceeds the number of words in this novel.Having never been to Pittsburgh, or even abroad when I was writing this novel—the farthest I had been was Beijing and Hong Kong—at first I turned to Google Maps and Google Earth, I hoped to be able to figure out the geographical environment of the city I wanted to write about, but I soon discovered that it was wishful thinking to find the landmarks I wanted on an English version of the city map plus satellite photos that I was completely unfamiliar with. Tell you where is the police station, where is the restaurant, and where is the red light district.So I had to call my classmate in the US - at 2 pm - he first reminded me in a limp voice that there is a half-day time difference between the US and China, and then yelled at me, I live in fucking San Francisco, far from Pittsburgh It is farther away from Beijing than Shanghai!I had no choice but to admit defeat—hence the note “all the geography of Pittsburgh in this article is fabricated by the author, please do not verify it”—those road names, like all people’s names, were all made up by me .
As for why I chose Pittsburgh, an American city that is half a world away and unknown to everyone, as the stage of the novel, instead of choosing Shanghai, where I am nearby——First, it is my little selfishness, to protect my Let’s talk about the city, there are already enough “urban legends” in Shanghai, I don’t want to add another “serial killer”; second, since it’s “half the world away, no one knows about it”—isn’t it more convenient to write?Forgive me for being lazy, this is my first novel, from the moment of spark, to conception, to writing, to completion, to communication with editors, and repeated revisions. It is bumpy and hard.
In the end, when I looked at the file called "The Detective in Time (Final Draft)" in the file manager, the sense of accomplishment was hard to express in words.
I know you're going to disagree -- but I'll say it anyway, writing is one of the most exhausting jobs in the world -- but luckily, I really love it.
Finally, I would like to thank those friends who gave my novels good reviews and always encouraged me to write them down. Without you, I might have given up halfway.
I would also like to thank my wife for supporting me and for tolerating my life of turning day and night upside down and black and white during my writing days-every time you need someone to accompany you shopping, eating, or exercising, I am either writing or sleeping.
Finally, I would also like to thank the readers of this book - I sincerely hope that when you pick up this book, you can spend an unforgettable time.