Earlier this century, two major news outlets in the US -- the New York Times and the Boston Globe -- ran stories about a new literary term making the rounds among writers and publishers overseas called “lab lit,” for ''laboratory fiction''. Stories about scientists and researchers doing lab work in pursuit of work on climate issues, epidemic and pandemics, butterfly migrations and host of other germane topics.
While some commentators have said it is a new genre, others have said it is just a subgenre of science fiction. Other media critics have said that lab lit is a label that won't stick and is just a trendy thing for now. Five more years, and nobody will use it anymore. But others disagree and say lab lit has a long shelf life, so to speak.
Lab lit has already arrived in Taiwan's literary circles. Taiwan’s entry into the new genre, The Man with Compound Eyes, published in Mandarin in 2011 by Taipei nature writer and novelist Wu Ming-yi (吳明益), will be published in English in New York and London, in September.
His novel fits neatly into the category because it takes place in the future — 2029 in Taiwan — and encompasses themes of environmentalism, lab research and academics and climate issues.
The New York Times put it this way: LINK TO KATHERINE BOUTON'S 2012 NYT PIECE ON LAB LIT.
A British writer in the Guardian said that the literary world is now witnessing the rise of lab lit worldwide.
After the news stories went through the usual social media stages of tweets and retweets, a literature professor in the USA announced that she had created a seminar that she will teach early next year titled “The Cultures of Lab Lit” using the lab lit theme as a main theme of the class.
Lab lit is a broad category, and it can apply to novels that are dystopian in nature, or utopian, or just plain ordinary potboiler thrillers. Wu’s lab lit novel, set in 2029, is set to take the world by storm once translated into English and French, with some already comparing it to Life of Pi by Canadian novelist Yann Martel.
Read SOLAR by Ian McEwan and FLIGHT BEHAVIOR by Barbara Kingsolver to get a feel for read lab lit.
With carbon dioxide emissions in terms of parts per million (ppm) now hovering at around 400ppm, lab lit nolveists have their work cut out for them. Wu Ming-yi’s lab lit novel will be part of this new genre and his success should help pave the way for lab lit i novels and films to find a place in global literary culture, too.
While some commentators have said it is a new genre, others have said it is just a subgenre of science fiction. Other media critics have said that lab lit is a label that won't stick and is just a trendy thing for now. Five more years, and nobody will use it anymore. But others disagree and say lab lit has a long shelf life, so to speak.
Lab lit has already arrived in Taiwan's literary circles. Taiwan’s entry into the new genre, The Man with Compound Eyes, published in Mandarin in 2011 by Taipei nature writer and novelist Wu Ming-yi (吳明益), will be published in English in New York and London, in September.
His novel fits neatly into the category because it takes place in the future — 2029 in Taiwan — and encompasses themes of environmentalism, lab research and academics and climate issues.
The New York Times put it this way: LINK TO KATHERINE BOUTON'S 2012 NYT PIECE ON LAB LIT.
A British writer in the Guardian said that the literary world is now witnessing the rise of lab lit worldwide.
After the news stories went through the usual social media stages of tweets and retweets, a literature professor in the USA announced that she had created a seminar that she will teach early next year titled “The Cultures of Lab Lit” using the lab lit theme as a main theme of the class.
Lab lit is a broad category, and it can apply to novels that are dystopian in nature, or utopian, or just plain ordinary potboiler thrillers. Wu’s lab lit novel, set in 2029, is set to take the world by storm once translated into English and French, with some already comparing it to Life of Pi by Canadian novelist Yann Martel.
Read SOLAR by Ian McEwan and FLIGHT BEHAVIOR by Barbara Kingsolver to get a feel for read lab lit.
With carbon dioxide emissions in terms of parts per million (ppm) now hovering at around 400ppm, lab lit nolveists have their work cut out for them. Wu Ming-yi’s lab lit novel will be part of this new genre and his success should help pave the way for lab lit i novels and films to find a place in global literary culture, too.