I rarely read short stories, and even more rarely write about them, but I'm about to make an exception! I just finished "Exhalation", a collection of stories written by Ted Chiang. My friend Dan gave me this book last year in a clever and heartwarming bid to get both of us reading again. I had basically no expectations going in; all that I knew about the author was that he wrote the story that was later adapted into the (excellent) movie Arrival, so it was a lot of fun to get acquainted with a new (to me) writer and voice.
MINI SPOILERS
I think it's fair to describe this as a book of sci-fi stories, but it takes some time to make that assessment, mostly because the very first story reads like something out of Arabian Nights. On further reflection, though, even that story is basically sci-fi, even if set during the Caliphate. Someone constructs a device, that device has very well-defined effects, and then the story explores the effects of that device.
Ted seems to play with the same idea across multiple stories. One early concept is fate. That opening story, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate, features a very constrained form of time travel: you can travel to the future or the past, but you cannot truly change anything. If you do something in the past, then you have already done that thing in your past: all of history has already been written. A much shorter story called What's Expected Of Us? has a similarly rigid view of fate. Here, someone invents a device that consists of a button and an LED. The LED lights up a few seconds before you press the button. This seems like a toy or a gimmick, but has profound implications that basically disprove the existence of free will. Both stories seem to say that we cannot change anything, but the emotional impact of that revelation is opposite. In the latter story it causes existential dread and a desperate plea to act as though our actions matter even when we know they don't. In the former story it's mostly a sense of comfort and relief: everything is happening as God has planned, and we needn't agonize over what might have gone differently.
I'd be tempted to say that Ted is a firm believer in determinism or predestination, but he then explores the exact opposite perspective in the last story of the collection, Anxiety Is The Dizziness of Freedom. In this world, pressing a button on a device causes a quantum divergence that leads to two parallel universes emerging from that moment. They are essentially identical at first, but gradually vary as time goes on. In one universe you might get into an argument with your spouse while in another you make love; in one universe you might find a dropped wallet on the sidewalk and decide to return it, while in another you may never see the wallet, or might find one and decide to keep it. In this story and this universe, everything is changeable, not fixed. The diverging realities show that we're all capable of making good choices or making bad choices, and the story gently urges us to be good.
The story that most touched me was The Lifecycle of Software Objects, which sometimes felt like it was written for me. As a software developer, it resonates strongly from both a business and a programming standpoint. With the long scope of the story it captures the obsolescence and decay of digital platforms, programming languages and techniques. It also is very evocative of the online fan communities I've been a part of. I think of something like the Baldur's Gate mod scene and sites like Gibberlings 3 and Spellhold Studios and Sorcerer's Place. Baldur's Gate was a big game back in the day, but most people have moved on to newer and flashier games or left gaming entirely. But a hard-core committed group remains active, more than twenty years later: writing new content and swapping stories and experimenting with new campaigns. Sometimes a seismic shift occurs, like Mac OS dropping support for 32-bit programs, and a good slice of that community will just vanish. The people in that community have passion, but passion isn't enough, you need money to convince programmers to do the boring and tedious job of migrating 20-year-old software to something that will run on your new laptop. Beyond all the tech stuff, this was also probably the most emotionally affecting story: the digients are vulnerable and cute and tragic, while Ana and Derek have incredibly relatable desires and struggles. For a while I resisted reading more of the story because I dreaded where it might be going: not being too familiar with Chiang's writing, I could see it ending with a heartwarming resolution or a funny twist or a soul-crushing loss or a terrifying horror show. In the end it's melancholy and mature, leaving several threads tantalizingly untied but with a lot of thought about where things are headed.
Most of Ted's stories seem to basically take place in our world: he adds an invention or a discovery and then explores how it would change things. A handful of the stories take place in clearly different universes, though. The first is the titular "Exhalation", which was a delight to read mostly because I initially assumed that it did take place on Earth and was narrated by a human, and I had to keep readjusting my mental frame of reference every couple of paragraphs. Another striking story set in what ultimately turns out to be another universe is Omphalos. Unlike Exhalation, the world of Omphalos does seem very earth-like, with cities and lecture halls and a postal service. The world seems slightly askew, suggested early on with alternate spellings for places like Arisona, Yosemeti and so on. The narrator of this story is a "Church scientist", an archaeologist who finds evidence of God's creation by examining tree rings and other natural phenomena. This world consists entirely of believers, and for good reason: there is physical evidence that the world is six thousand years old, and the oldest human remains have no belly buttons, proving they were created and not born. There is a Church, which focuses directly on worship, but all other fields, especially the sciences, also seek to honor God by uncovering more signs of His work.
MEGA SPOILERS
The trippy revelation eventually comes in Omphalos: in this universe, there is a God, and He did create the universe, and He does have a special plan: but that plan doesn't involve this world. Another planet is the center of the galaxy, and the one the narrator lives on is just background, a distant light in the sky for the chosen ones to look up at. It's another shattering revelation that upends peoples' sense of values and purpose, but the story ends with a determination to continue learning and living (which is a decision that the people in "What's Expected Of Us" weren't able to make).
I've been poking away at this collection for quite some time. For better and worse, it's easier to mix in short stories with other readings, and earlier this week I was alarmed to discover that I was in the middle of reading four separate books. That's far too many, but also an encouraging change from some points in the pandemic when I was having a hard time reading any books at all! I now have that number back down to a far more manageable two books. I am pretty happy with my leisurely journey through this collection, though, as it's allowed each story to linger a bit longer and allowed me to chew on them a bit more. There's a lot to like in here, from the graceful writing to the fascinating scenarios to the thoughtful consideration of moral action, and I'm looking forward to reading more in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment