The absolute lack of imagination. At least in its better days, there was actually inspired, original pieces of art coming out of the imperialist core, such as Lord of the Rings or Star Trek, whereas nowadays we rarely get anything beyond prequels, sequels, and live-action adaptations. If I didn’t know that there was a whole other world beyond the West, I might have supposed that the power of the human mind had in general come to a standstill. My particular gratitude extends to the brilliant Liu Cixin, whose superb Trisolaris trilogy proves the contrary.