Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This collection of eight smart short stories is most well-known for the eponymous story that served as the basis for the movie "Arrival." The stories are sci-fi, but in the broadest sense of that word. "Speculative fiction" is probably a more apt descriptor. At any rate, the pieces all have nerd appeal and offer philosophical food-for-thought as well as entertaining stories.
1.) "Tower of Babylon:" The Biblical myth re-imagined. What if god didn't sabotage construction by introducing varying languages and spreading humanity to the four winds? What if, instead, the tower did eventually reach to the heavens?
2.) "Understand:" A man who suffered severe brain damage due to a fall through thin ice, is put on an experimental medicine that begins to stimulate neurogenesis on a massive scale. The protagonist becomes preternaturally intelligent, realizes that such super-intelligence is considered a threat, but is able to keep one step ahead of the ordinary minds who pursue him. That is until he runs into another patient who had a similar accident and treatment. A thinking man's "Lucy" (referring to the Scarlett Johansson movie), this piece considers the question of how different people would use such a gift, and whether differences could be reconciled.
3.) "Division by Zero:" If a scholar's life was invested in an idea or way of thinking about the world, but then the scholar proved that that way was in error, might it cause a descent into madness and even a crumbling of one's world?
4.) "Story of Your Life:" This is the story that the Amy Adams' movie "Arrival" is based upon. The protagonist is a linguist charged with helping to communicate with a newly arrived alien species that has a very different approach to language. In the process of learning their language and interacting with them, she begins to see the world as they do - time being an illusion. Stories from her daughter's life, which the lead character has seen in full before conception, are interspersed with the description of her work with the alien language.
5.) "Seventy-Two Letters:" This is a golem story. In this world, names have the power to animate matter and golems can be created. (A Golem is a living being created from inanimate matter; the idea comes from Jewish folklore.) The story ads a layer to the question of what would be created if humans could make a simulacrum of themselves - e.g. Frankenstein's Monster style - and asks the reader to consider what would be the reaction to the dawn of an era in which the golems might be able to make themselves.
6.) "The Evolution of Human Science:" This is one of the shorter pieces and is also the least story-centric entry. It considers philosophical questions around the development of meta-humans.
7.) "Hell is the Absence of God:" This story is also not as story oriented as most of the others, but it is thought-provoking. It revolves around a support group for people who've lost significant others in tragedy and asks one to consider the various approaches to belief in the wake of tragedy.
8.) "Liking What You See: A Documentary:" This clever piece imagines a technology that prevents wearers from being able to recognized beauty (and ugliness as well.) As the subtitle suggests, it's presented as if it were a documentary that is following a college's debate over whether to require the student body to use said technology.
I enjoyed this collection of stories. "Understand," "Stories of Your Life," and "Seventy-two Letters" are gripping stories, and all eight are thought-provoking and well-written. I'd highly recommend this book for readers of short fiction, particularly speculative fiction.
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