In “Story of Your Life,” arguably one of Chiang’s most famous short stories (you may have seen Arrival, its movie adaptation), aliens arrive unexpectedly on Earth with mysterious intentions.
“Division by Zero,” for example, revolves around a woman’s exploration of one mathematical formalism-and her subsequent breakdown when she realizes that all math is theoretical. In his collection of short stories, worlds are developed and explored not just through the driving forces of plot and action, but also the unfolding of a scientific theme which oftentimes culminates in what Chiang terms a “conceptual breakthrough.” Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others, however, delves into the genre in a subtly different way. The communication of her story and the way that it is told is a powerful tool to look at the world more objectively and from a holistic point of view rather than look at events as they come.The genre of science fiction can conjure thoughts of bold encounters like galaxy-wide explorations or dystopias with AI creations gone wrong. Communication needs to be understood in order to gain insight about the aliens and their perception of the world, and it is also needed to understand the relationship between Louise and her daughter. The word communication holds great significance because it is the way that people interact with others, it doesn’t matter whether it is ASL or in an alien language, it is an integral part of life and weaves together what defines each of us. The act of hearing the story is a powerful action that is part of the performance.
This is paralleled with a memory of Louise’s daughter when she wants to hear a story once again even though she knows the story really well (Chiang 171). It is an expression of a promise that actualizes and validates a statement. Language isn’t just used for communication, it is used for action. She is able to “experience past and future all at once… It’s a period encompassing the rest of my life and the entirety of yours” (Chiang 173). “Humans had developed a sequential mode of awareness, while hetapods had developed a simultaneous mode of awareness” (Chiang 165). She begins to see that there are two different interpretations of how the universe works. The difference in perception also causes Louise to change the way she thinks. This extreme is also reflected in Louise’s relationship with her daughter when she compares the extremes between her daughter’s innocent jubilant laughter and her “blithe disregard for self-preservation” (Chiang 150). They look at it in terms of extremes, either a minimum or maximum just like Fermat’s principle. In addition to differences in use of language, the aliens look at the world differently. The alien’s perception of human writing is redundant since Hetapod B is comparable to a specialized language such as math equations or notations for music (Chiang 138). The entire language is like building blocks stacking on top of one another getting bigger and bigger with more complex sentence structures. The structure is complex and builds on top of one another and requires the aliens to know what the semagram looks like even before it is written. Outsiders will not be able to understand the “inside joke”.Īsides from the spoken language, the written language that the aliens use is in free-word order. The cryptic language is only comprehended by the people who have agreed on a common set of rules and can abide by the interpretations. In another instance, when the daughter is sixteen, she will use cryptic language to communicate her impression of her mother’s date. When the protagonist’s daughter is five she is confused about being honored and being a maid of honor, the confusion that a five year old has with new terms is similar to the process that Louise is undergoing since she is trying to learn the alien language, yet has to make sure that both the aliens and humans are on the same page when learning vocabulary or else confusion and misinformation will ensue. These instances usually have to deal with interactions that incorporate nuanced undertones of language.
While the difficulties with the aliens increase, readers are introduced to the protagonist’s daughter through a series of future flashbacks. Along the way, she discovers many obstacles since the aliens do not have the same vocal tracts as humans and humans are unable to pronounce the alien language (Chiang 120).