Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
The divide between genre fiction and literary fiction is
blurry at best, and sometimes the most arbitrary
criteria are applied in deciding which section of the
bookstore will serve as a novel's home. Despite the
well-known adage, I’m convinced that some books are
judged by their covers. Audrey Niffenegger's novel,
The Time Traveler's Wife was kept off the sci-fi
shelves—a remarkable achievement given its story
line—but this would have been impossible if, instead of
its soft-focus cover photo more suited for a childhood
memoir, it had one of those gaudy pulp fiction
monstrosities that most time
travel stories are given.
The same could be said of
Slaughterhouse Five and
Time's Arrow.
I’m even more distressed,
however, by the fate of
genre stories that are as
well written as literary fiction,
but are exiled in the science
fiction ghetto—where they
are forced to peddle their
sophisticated wares to
adolescents and Trekkies.
In this regard, few authors
have been more unfairly treated than Ted Chiang.
He should be writing for The New Yorker and
interviewed in The Paris Review. But those periodicals
seem blissfully unaware of this richly talented writer;
instead, his lovingly crafted work shows up in Asimov's
or The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Needless to say, when The Best American Short
Stories are selected each year, or the O'Henry
Awards handed out, Chiang is out of the running.
But readers, you shouldn't let your own mind be
ghettoized by the blindness of the reigning arbiters
of taste. Chiang is the real deal. His debut book
Stories of Your Life and Others is one of the finest
collections of short fiction I have read in the last
decade. These tales possess the imaginative frisson
that is a trademark of the best conceptual fiction, but
also bespeak a confident prose style and a willingness
to take chances in tone and narrative structure that
one rarely encounters in genre writing.
The premises here are often quite simple. "The Tower
of Babylon," the opening story in the book, takes a
familiar Old Testament account and turns it into a
postmodern fable similar to what one might find in
José Saramago or even Franz Kafka. Along the way,
Chiang constructs an alternative cosmology that is
both frightening and fanciful: as his workers erect
higher and higher levels of the tower they have built
to reach heaven, they gradually rise above the level of
the sun, the moon and the stars. Eventually they run
into a granite-hard ceiling to the universe—and need to
call for miners who can break through the rock barrier
and reach the divine presence beyond.
"Hell is the Absence of God" also takes its starting
point from scripture. Here the visitations of angels are
an everyday event, but fraught with danger—their
appearance is akin to a natural disaster, with as many
casualties as miracles left in their wake. The story is
provocative and extravagant…and likely to inspire
heated discussion about the nature of evil, the
meaning of love, and the underpinnings of belief.
You may walk away from these stories without any
clear sense of Chiang's own religious leanings, but he
clearly believes in the power of Logos, the creative
energy latent in the Word. Several of the stories in this
collection approach this concept, each in a different way.
In "Seventy-Two Letters," Chiang offers his personal
variant on Steampunk lit—here he envisions an
industrial England powered not by steam or coal,
rather by golem servants, each empowered with a
piece of parchment with a magical combination of
characters. Instead of Intel Inside, they have
Incantations Inside. New magical spells lead to new
technologies, and companies patent permutations of
letters the way biotech firms lock up genetic markers
and strands of DNA.
In his story "Understand," Chiang adapts the storyline
of Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon, envisioning a
medical treatment that creates a super-intelligent
human being. We follow this newly-minted genius as
he battles with healthcare professionals, government
agents, and eventually an even more intelligent rival.
Again the Logos makes its appearance: one of the
man's obsessions is to create a new language that will
help him understand not only his own inner workings,
but perhaps even the nature of existence. Chiang is
operating at multiple levels here, as in so many of his
stories in this collection: "Understand" can be read as
a bizarre variant of hard-boiled crime fiction or for its
speculative daring in re-imagining the boundaries of
consciousness and knowledge.
As these abbreviated plot summaries make clear,
Chiang pursues bold, sometimes outlandish storylines.
Another tale in this collection describes the mental
anguish of a great mathematician after she proves,
with the most rigorous logic, that 1 = 2. In "Story of
Your Life" Chiang even presents an alternative way
of conceptualizing time and causality—showing how
radically different our existences might be if we
perceived events as teleologically-driven. Of course,
this is a science fiction story not a philosophical treatise,
so Chiang embeds his alternative worldview into a tale
about creepy aliens arriving from another galaxy.
Imagine a cross between Fermat's last theorem and
The War of the Worlds, and you will get some idea of
the flamboyant hybrids this author has created.
Even so, such thumbnail descriptions hardly do justice
to the riches of the stories themselves, which are not
just brilliantly conceived but also artfully executed.
Indeed, I'm tempted to take copies of this volume out
of the science fiction section of the bookstore and slip
them in with the great works of literary fiction. Trust
me, they won’t be out of place. In the meantime, do
yourself the favor of making the acquaintance of
Chiang's work. This author, whose tales come back again
and again to the power of the Word, has also made a
compelling case for the power of his own words.
by Ted Chiang
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
The divide between genre fiction and literary fiction is
blurry at best, and sometimes the most arbitrary
criteria are applied in deciding which section of the
bookstore will serve as a novel's home. Despite the
well-known adage, I’m convinced that some books are
judged by their covers. Audrey Niffenegger's novel,
The Time Traveler's Wife was kept off the sci-fi
shelves—a remarkable achievement given its story
line—but this would have been impossible if, instead of
its soft-focus cover photo more suited for a childhood
memoir, it had one of those gaudy pulp fiction
monstrosities that most time
travel stories are given.
The same could be said of
Slaughterhouse Five and
Time's Arrow.
I’m even more distressed,
however, by the fate of
genre stories that are as
well written as literary fiction,
but are exiled in the science
fiction ghetto—where they
are forced to peddle their
sophisticated wares to
adolescents and Trekkies.
In this regard, few authors
have been more unfairly treated than Ted Chiang.
He should be writing for The New Yorker and
interviewed in The Paris Review. But those periodicals
seem blissfully unaware of this richly talented writer;
instead, his lovingly crafted work shows up in Asimov's
or The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Needless to say, when The Best American Short
Stories are selected each year, or the O'Henry
Awards handed out, Chiang is out of the running.
But readers, you shouldn't let your own mind be
ghettoized by the blindness of the reigning arbiters
of taste. Chiang is the real deal. His debut book
Stories of Your Life and Others is one of the finest
collections of short fiction I have read in the last
decade. These tales possess the imaginative frisson
that is a trademark of the best conceptual fiction, but
also bespeak a confident prose style and a willingness
to take chances in tone and narrative structure that
one rarely encounters in genre writing.
The premises here are often quite simple. "The Tower
of Babylon," the opening story in the book, takes a
familiar Old Testament account and turns it into a
postmodern fable similar to what one might find in
José Saramago or even Franz Kafka. Along the way,
Chiang constructs an alternative cosmology that is
both frightening and fanciful: as his workers erect
higher and higher levels of the tower they have built
to reach heaven, they gradually rise above the level of
the sun, the moon and the stars. Eventually they run
into a granite-hard ceiling to the universe—and need to
call for miners who can break through the rock barrier
and reach the divine presence beyond.
"Hell is the Absence of God" also takes its starting
point from scripture. Here the visitations of angels are
an everyday event, but fraught with danger—their
appearance is akin to a natural disaster, with as many
casualties as miracles left in their wake. The story is
provocative and extravagant…and likely to inspire
heated discussion about the nature of evil, the
meaning of love, and the underpinnings of belief.
You may walk away from these stories without any
clear sense of Chiang's own religious leanings, but he
clearly believes in the power of Logos, the creative
energy latent in the Word. Several of the stories in this
collection approach this concept, each in a different way.
In "Seventy-Two Letters," Chiang offers his personal
variant on Steampunk lit—here he envisions an
industrial England powered not by steam or coal,
rather by golem servants, each empowered with a
piece of parchment with a magical combination of
characters. Instead of Intel Inside, they have
Incantations Inside. New magical spells lead to new
technologies, and companies patent permutations of
letters the way biotech firms lock up genetic markers
and strands of DNA.
In his story "Understand," Chiang adapts the storyline
of Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon, envisioning a
medical treatment that creates a super-intelligent
human being. We follow this newly-minted genius as
he battles with healthcare professionals, government
agents, and eventually an even more intelligent rival.
Again the Logos makes its appearance: one of the
man's obsessions is to create a new language that will
help him understand not only his own inner workings,
but perhaps even the nature of existence. Chiang is
operating at multiple levels here, as in so many of his
stories in this collection: "Understand" can be read as
a bizarre variant of hard-boiled crime fiction or for its
speculative daring in re-imagining the boundaries of
consciousness and knowledge.
As these abbreviated plot summaries make clear,
Chiang pursues bold, sometimes outlandish storylines.
Another tale in this collection describes the mental
anguish of a great mathematician after she proves,
with the most rigorous logic, that 1 = 2. In "Story of
Your Life" Chiang even presents an alternative way
of conceptualizing time and causality—showing how
radically different our existences might be if we
perceived events as teleologically-driven. Of course,
this is a science fiction story not a philosophical treatise,
so Chiang embeds his alternative worldview into a tale
about creepy aliens arriving from another galaxy.
Imagine a cross between Fermat's last theorem and
The War of the Worlds, and you will get some idea of
the flamboyant hybrids this author has created.
Even so, such thumbnail descriptions hardly do justice
to the riches of the stories themselves, which are not
just brilliantly conceived but also artfully executed.
Indeed, I'm tempted to take copies of this volume out
of the science fiction section of the bookstore and slip
them in with the great works of literary fiction. Trust
me, they won’t be out of place. In the meantime, do
yourself the favor of making the acquaintance of
Chiang's work. This author, whose tales come back again
and again to the power of the Word, has also made a
compelling case for the power of his own words.
conceptual
fiction
fiction
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Big Dumb Object
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive
review copies and promotional
materials from publishers,
authors, publicists or other
parties.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Big Dumb Object
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive
review copies and promotional
materials from publishers,
authors, publicists or other
parties.