Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Publisher – Picador
Published – Out Now
Price – £9.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook
From a soaring Babylonian tower that connects a flat Earth with the firmament above, to a world where angelic visitations are a wondrous and terrifying part of everyday life; from a neural modification that eliminates the appeal of physical beauty, to an alien language that challenges our very perception of time and reality, Chiang’s rigorously imagined fantasias invite us to question our understanding of the universe and our place in it.
Adaptations from books are always interesting. I don’t agree a book is always better – I look hard at you with The Princess Bride. Instead, they offer different variations on a story’s themes - some good and some not. As part of this month’s #TidyTheTBR Challenge I finally read Stories of Your Life And Others by Ted Chiang and the title story led to the incredible film Arrival and now I got to sample the original version and also the other interesting stories in the collection.
A lot of the stories I found in this collection deal with knowledge; it’s pursuit and the consequences which I think is a really interesting approach. It’s less the scientific concepts but the impact that seems to pull the stories along. In the opening tale Tower to Babylon you’re slightly shocked to find yourself in the time of Babylon and people building the Tower of Babel. Chiang makes us witness a journey up this immense tower that itself contains cities and Chiang manages to explain concepts of brick building, how sunset and sun rise alter with altitude; and we feel this epic trek for the builders. All of which is fascinating but the big questions is what will be at the top. A tale that involves God in SF is always unusual but the final explanation is nimble and uses some unexpected science to create something that is awe-inspiring and still raises questions. Highly enjoyable.
In Understand we get a man who gets total knowledge after a terrible accident leaves him needing experimental treatment that keeps boosting his brain. It’s a darker version of Flowers for Algernon with the language of the character getting steadily more complex and cooler in its view of humans and then leads to an almost Scanner like final confrontation as he realises that he is not alone. An SF thriller that is very disquieting as we get into their headspace.
Then in Division by Zero we get a brilliant mathematician who discovers a formula that actually breaks the laws, principles and whole power of maths. Its watching someone break down caused by their own work and we also see their partner’s witnessing of this and the impact on their relationship. Chiang manages to make us understand a very strange concept of how you could make 1+1 = 2; but the power of the story is watching some have a more relatable breakdown caused by work and stress. Its unnerving being a bystander to this and does make you consider how work can take over a life.
Story of Your Life led to Arrival and for me it’s a fascinating and different experience. In this a language expert is asked to start trying to understand a visiting alien’s messages. Chiang explores how language can work but also weaves into this someone seeing all moments of a life at the same time and in particular what this means for the character’s relationship with a future daughter. It’s unusually haunting and also as our linguist is very analytical almost cool in how tragic events are now watched at. This may be caused by the impact seeing time as something all connected but does in the end make me prefer the movie for show in those connections through performances. But it’s a really compelling tale.
A few tales never grabbed me so – golems; strange angels and the power of beauty left me cold as subjects. Overall I preferred Chiang’s later collection Exhalation but this is a tale with some stories that really will make you have a look at the world outside and ponder how this universe and ourselves works. Worth a look!
