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Mike Evans
As one of the many listeners on Trisolaris, Listener 1379 lives an isolating, monotonous life—until he receives Ye Wenjie’s communication from Earth. Unlike most Trisolarans, this listener does not feel that mere survival is a satisfying purpose in life; instead, he dreams of art, culture, and community. Because of these aspirations, and because he sees a chance to “make his own humble life glow,” the listener replies to Ye Wenjie’s message, urging her not to reply and thus to keep Earth’s location secret from the Trisolarans. Eventually, the listener’s brave actions inspire a larger movement of pacifism across Trisolaris. The listener embodies the novel’s exploration of the role individual actions (and legacies) play in history as a whole.
Listener 1379 Quotes in The Three-Body Problem
The The Three-Body Problem quotes below are all either spoken by Listener 1379 or refer to Listener 1379 . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 32 Quotes
The metallic Trisolaran spirit has infiltrated each of our cells and solidified. You really believe it can melt again? I'm an ordinary man living at the bottom of society. No one would pay any attention to me. My life is spent alone, without wealth, without status, without love, and without hope. If I can save a distant, beautiful world that I have fallen in love with, then my life has not been wasted.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Listener 1379 Character Timeline in The Three-Body Problem
The timeline below shows where the character Listener 1379 appears in The Three-Body Problem. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 32. Trisolaris: The Listener
One night, during a Chaotic Era, the listener at Post 1379 was contemplating the incredible loneliness of the universe. All of a sudden,...
(full context)
At first, the listener was touched to imagine the beautiful oceans and forests of earth. But soon, his excitement...
(full context)
...of the signal, they could not know how far away it was. Therefore, if the listener replied by warning the citizens of earth not to respond, he could potentially save earth...
(full context)
The listener typed out a short message—“Do not answer! Do not answer!! Do not answer!!!” Knowing that...
(full context)
...the elements (possibly by thick walls or by going underground). When he learned what the listener had done, the leader felt nothing—Trisolaran society viewed most emotions as a form of weakness....
(full context)
The princeps called the listener to his palace, and the two began to debate whether earth’s “warlike” society was more...
(full context)
...the Trisolarans make it to the stability of earth, they too could create art, the listener was not so sure; he believed that “the metallic Trisolaran spirit has infiltrated each of...
(full context)
...all of the 6,000 Trisolarans who worked for him be dehydrated and burned for allowing listener 1379 to commit such a grave crime. Then, the princeps ordered the Trisolaran fleet to...
(full context)
Chapter 33. Trisolaris: Sophon
...with their invasion, not all of the Trisolarans were united behind this common goal. Like listener 1379, many Trisolarans had become pacifists. For this reason, the princeps now wanted to control...
(full context)
