Good evening.
If this is one of Charles Yu's fictional universes,
the Poetry Center that we've all gathered inside
of this evening, it would be a time machine.
Just as in Charles Yu's novel, How
to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe,
we travel into the past alongside his main character,
whose name also just happens to be Charles Yu.
We land in his childhood neighborhood and watch him
and his friends laugh at poor little Donny,
from two blocks down the street, all because poor little Donny
said he wanted to be Buck Rogers instead of Han Solo.
Or perhaps we might land inside a car,
as Charles is sitting in the passenger
seat, a melted Popsicle dripping all over his hand.
Unable to move because he's just asked
his father for the first time, dad, are we poor?
We'd see these past moments and somehow recognize them
as our own, recognize the main characters ourselves,
because seriously, Donny, who wouldn't choose to be Han Solo?
Or maybe, instead of time travel,
we'd strap ourselves into a conscience machine,
like the one in Yu's famous story, Standard Loneliness
Package, the machine that allows us to feel other people's
emotions for them.
We'd be able to experience the boredom others feel
from sitting at a dentist, the grief of losing a loved
one to cancer, or of course, the pain from getting
your heart broken.
Some of these feelings you've experienced before.
Others we haven't, but know them as familiarly human.
All of this is possible when you read Charles Yu's work.
He is a recipient of the National Book Foundation's
"5 under 35" award, and he's been nominated for two Writers
Guild of America awards for his work on the HBO series
Westworld.
His work has been published by the New Yorker, the New York
Times, Slate and Wired.
And his novel, How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional
Universe, was a New York Times notable book,
and named one of the best books of the year by Time magazine.
Or by-- yes.
Which is all to say that Yu's fictional universes,
mind-bending, and playful, and haunting,
rattle your imagination awake and change
what you thought was possible for words on a page.
If you're like me, it might seem unbelievable at first.
And you might say, well, this is after all, fiction.
But the main-- but as the main character in his novel
says, I know none of this seems very believable.
It probably doesn't even make sense.
But for once in your life, please,
I'm asking you to trust me.
Trust yourself.
Because to call Yu's universes fictional
is almost a lie in and of itself.
What rings more true to me is that I, as a reader,
find myself wanting to call these universes fictional.
Because in all honesty, they come too
close to my everyday reality.
Time travel, telepathy, family, poor little Donny,
loneliness and love.
Charles Yu's work reminds us that all of this
is not an escape from our reality.
It is our reality.
Please join me in welcoming Charles Yu.