52 pages • 1 hour read
Charles YuHow To Live Safely In a Science Fictional Universe
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Time Loop
The time loop motif allows Charles Yu to investigate the theme of Fate Versus Free Will. When Charles enters the time loop, he wonders about the impact and futility of his actions. No matter what he does, everything will lead back to the moment of his shooting. This opens Charles to the idea of skipping to the end of the book that records the events of the time loop, believing that foresight can equip him with the knowledge to avoid his own demise. Charles soon learns that the middle of his story is more important than the ending, and that he must experience it to obtain the insight needed to live through the time loop. This in turn teaches him to accept every moment that happens to him with intention. Through acceptance, he finds agency.
The time loop is a static system, one that is mirrored by Charles’s decision to live in the Present-Indefinite. By avoiding any real engagement with the world around him, Charles keeps himself in another loop of his own making. He loses his sense of time and fails to progress in his life for nearly 10 years.
The Book
Through the symbol of the book, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Yu explores The Dynamics of Identity, Regret, and Potential. The future Charles assures present-day Charles that he will write the book, but present-day Charles interprets this to mean that he must become future Charles to write it. The book mirrors Charles’s sense of self. He cannot identify with his future self, because he does not see himself as capable of writing the book. On the other hand, the book represents the potential he has to share his knowledge with others, including himself. This is why the book is presented as “part engineering field manual and part autobiography” (102).
Some of the metafictional features of the book underscore the novel’s ideas on identity and potential. The blank page at the end in particular shifts in meaning as Charles undergoes his journey. Charles initially interprets the blank page to be a portent of his death. When he survives his shooting, the blank page represents the freedom to live life as he wants. TAMMY also points out that the interludes are always thematically aligned with Charles’s experiences. This points to the fact that the book could have only ever been produced by Charles, summoning information on each aspect of his universe only when it becomes relevant to what he is thinking or feeling.
Boxes
Boxes are a recurring symbol for human limitation while also hinting at the possibility of transcendence. They first appear at the end of Chapter 3 when Charles recalls the boxes that populated his father’s garage, such as the prototype box and graph paper boxes. The boxes of the time machine and its prototypes offer protection to travelers while also preventing them from leaving and getting stuck in other times. The first time Charles and his father travel into the past, they are unable to arrive, because the prototype lacks a landing mechanism. In this sense, the box limits them from validating their scientific endeavors, even as it protects them from dying upon impact in the present. Present-day Charles uses the TM-31 in a similar way, insulating himself from the world by living in the Present-Indefinite for an extended period of time.
Language is also seen as a box for expression. Charles uses grammar and narration to articulate his thoughts and experience, but fails to use words to engage with the people in his life, like his mother. More often than not, Charles uses language to push them away, such as he does with Phil soon after he enters the time loop.
However, the box is also a positive symbol for transcendence, such as when Charles sees it in his father’s graph paper. Charles’s father breaks through the limitations of each box to draw mathematical expressions that advance human endeavor. This makes Charles feel as though anything can be resolved or understood through science, inspiring him to pursue a career related to science fictional studies.
