How To Live Safely In a Science Fictional Universe

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2010

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Before You Read

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 6

Part 1, Chapter 7-Interlude 10

Part 2

Part 3-Part 4, Chapter 27

Part 4, Chapter 28-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Discussion Questions

Essay Topics

Charles Yu’s novel engages with some of the philosophical ideas raised by thinkers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Albert Einstein, and Kurt Gödel. Choose one (or any other thinker whose ideas resonate with Yu’s). How do Charles’s experiences echo their work?

How does Yu’s approach to metafiction differ from autofiction? How does the narrative imply or deny that the novel is autobiographical?

Discuss the conflict of the novel in terms of antagonism. Which character(s) presents the biggest obstacle to Charles’s journey? How does Charles overcome them?