• Alienation
    • The idea of “enoughness” could either symbolize satisfaction and an elimination of desire or how Charles’ family is forced to live a minimalist life due to an inability to socialize due to alienation
    • Charles’ father creates a “celestial navigation” for Charles; relates to idea of two cultures and Asian STEM professionals
    • All of the characters move away from the sense of “enoughness” and plentitude into a world of alienation
  • The Family
    • Yu uses longer sentences with many sentences to represent his search for his emotional truth, but in doing so, he implies that what he feels cannot be translated to the page
    • Each of the family members are unable to talk to each other due to some unknown larger forces; represents the concept of the “elephant in the room” that confines all of them and prevents them from communication
      • This larger force is perhaps the idea of Asian miscommunication? And the cultural taboo against emotional expression?
  • Charles’ Mother
    • Decides to live in an hour time loop, but also blames Charles for putting her in there
      • Concept of free will vs. determinism
      • Important to note that the loop replays a dinner scene with Charles and his father, shows her nostalgia for old times with her husband and son
    • Charles’ mother’s decision to choose a loop where she cooks dinner further cements herself as a woman who can only connect with her family through domestic labor; represents the idea of the trailing partner who only immigrates because of their partner
      • Trailing partners are deprofessionalized and are unable to do work in their new countries, leading to feelings of alienation
      • Trailing partners can only do gendered work
      • Secondariness and deprofessionalism are two recurring themes in Asian-American fiction
    • In the scene outside of time where Charles sees his mom as The Woman My Mother Should Have Been, The Woman My Mother Should Have Been represents his mother as the best version that she could be
      • Charles runs away because he realizes that she was completely independent of the father-son axis, that she had her own aspirations and dreams but was forced to live as a domestic laborer
  • Genre and Metafiction as Solutions
    • In Yu’s description of Universe 31, he creates a metaphor for the Asian-American immigration experience inside of the universe of the book
      • Uses science fiction to describe the universe which is indicative of the concept of the Two Cultures
      • Easier to use science fiction because it is more sanitized, less emotional, more objective
    • For immigrants, there are various genres that are related to their stereotypes; two cultures, generational convergence, STEM careers
    • Metafiction is defined as a genre that is self-referential about its existence as fiction and breaks the fourth wall
      • The use of science fictional “guides” between chapters is metafictional and is used to further describe the Asian-Americans and their experience
    • Yu’s use of genre ambiguity (horror, science fiction, realistic fiction, etc.) is class ambiguity
  • If your path is carved out by your family, then you HAVE to know “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe”
    • Two cultures, STEM focus, have to be able to learn to work around your parents and handle your expectations
    • Asian-Americans not doing STEM don’t lose their parents; their parents feel like they lose their children, as they are no longer able to connect with and understand them
  • Ultimately, the story is about Charles’ father and his attempts to return back to a time before his A and B story split, as he believes that his immigration caused this split