
Ted Chiang: Realist of a Larger Reality - apollinaire
https://www.publicbooks.org/ted-chiang-realist-of-a-larger-reality/
======
jamesjyu
Ted Chiang is the reason I started writing fiction. A few months ago I got the
chance to meet him and have him critique one of my stories, as well as pick
his brain on his process. I wrote about it here for those that are curious:

[https://tinyletter.com/jamesyu/letters/meeting-ted-chiang-
an...](https://tinyletter.com/jamesyu/letters/meeting-ted-chiang-and-slow-
writing)

~~~
hestipod
Do you still enjoy it and how do you keep your love for it? I took up writing
for a bit years ago because I love stories and reading, but I quickly found
out I hated actually writing. I enjoyed ideas, intros, getting started...but
none of the rest of it and it felt like work and a bother. I stick to reading
now and wonder how common it is to have fun ruined by work when you aren't
realistic about what its like on the other side. Like people who love taking
photos...then learn to hate cameras as they struggle to earn shooting weddings
and instagram models.

I love Chiang and wish he had more and longer stuff. Quality over quantity I
guess.

~~~
gchamonlive
do you jump right into writing? Do you write long or short stories? Do you
scribble stuff just for fun?

writing is a continuous process as well as a developed skill. You should write
stuff just for fun, just for picking up your own language and structure. Then
write short stories that are easy to manage.

For larger books you have to create a solid structure first. Characters
traits, genealogy and interactions, world lore for fantasy, timeline
flowcharts, anyway all the backstage setup so you don't get lost or contradict
yourself. It is a lot of effort, but is just a natural continuation of the
first two exercises (writing for the fun of it and writing short pieces).

~~~
andrewflnr
There are lots of successful authors who just jump into longer works and make
it up as they go. Building background can help, but is not mandatory. There
are very few absolutes in writing.

That said, writing for an audience beyond yourself is work, just like anything
worthwhile.

~~~
gchamonlive
sure, but I wrote that in the context of someone jumping in and feeling
overwhelmed

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i_am_proteus
Ted Chiang's two collections of short stories are near the top of my list for
best fiction of this century.

Anyone with an interest in technology and humanity will find them to be a
phenomenal read.

~~~
goostavos
It's really the humanity of the books that gets me. Division by Zero is one of
his pieces that I find myself thinking about all the time for that very
reason. It just captures this somberness about how relationships can grow and
change and sometimes end.

I do now have a Ted Chiang shaped hole in my life after finishing his
collections. I just haven't found another author that really gets into the
heart of what sci-fi can be.

~~~
sooheon
Try Greg Egan's Axiomatic. I picked it up from a free books charity knowing
nothing about it, and found the author to be a little "harder" than Chiang but
with the same focus on the humanity to be found in sci-fi.

~~~
davidivadavid
For a taste, make sure to check out _Closer_ , available here:
[http://eidolon.net/?story=Closer](http://eidolon.net/?story=Closer)

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llbowers
If you're undecided on reading Chiang's work, I would suggest checking out the
movie Arrival based on one of his short stories.

I found it to be a wonderful adaptation and inspired me to dive into his
works. I've found a joy reading his work that I haven't experienced in reading
sci-fi since coming across Philip K. Dick when I was much younger.

~~~
lalaland1125
One interesting thing about the movie Arrival is that they actually completely
flipped the message of the story in their adaptation!

An explanation of the differences is ROT13 encoded below to avoid spoilers:

Gur zbivr Neeviny vf fhcresvpvnyyl onfrq bss Grq Puvnat'f fubeg fgbel "Fgbel
bs Lbhe Yvsr". Obgu vaibyir gur neeviny bs nyvraf ba rnegu naq qrgnvy n
yvathvfg'f nggrzcg ng haqrefgnaq gurve ynathntr naq ubj yrneavat gung ynathntr
nssrpgf gung yvathvfg. Ubjrire, gur rssrpg bs yrneavat gur nyvra ynathntr vf
pbzcyrgryl qvssrerag va obgu fgbevrf.

Va gur zbivr, yrneavat gur ynathntr pnhfrf gur yvathvfg gb tnva gur
fhcreangheny novyvgl gb frr vagb gur shgher. Va fgrerbglcvpny Ubyyljbbq
snfuvba, gurer ner n ohapu bs npgvba fprarf jurer gur cebgntbavfg vf enpvat
ntnvafg gvzr gb erynl n zrffntr sebz gur shgher gb gur cnfg.

Ba gur bgure unaq, va gur obbx, yrneavat gur ynathntr erfhygf va n fuvsg bs
crefcrpgvir sbe gur yvathvfg. Gur yvathvfg qbrfa'g rknpgyl orunir nal
qvssreragyl be erprvir nal arj vasbezngvba. Gurve bhgjneq orunivbe vf rknpgyl
vqragvpny gb orsber gurl yrnearq gur ynathntr. Gur qvssrerapr vf gung gurve
vagreany crefcrpgvir unf fuvsgrq terngyl. Guvf vf fbzrjung cuvybfbcuvpny naq
pna or n ovg pbzcyvpngrq gb pbaprcghnyvmr, ohg Grq Puvnat qbrf n znfgreshy wbo
rkcynvavat gung arj crefcrpgvir va gur fgbel.

~~~
llbowers
Very interesting. I loved both but for some reason I did enjoy the short story
better (I'm definitely not always a "The book was better"-type person either),
and I think this explains why. I'll have to go and check them both out again
and keep this in mind.

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6thaccount2
These stories are all amazing (talking about the anthology with story of your
life) and out of them came one of the best sci-fi movies in a long time.

My favorite story though is the one with the two people who become super
intelligent and go to war amongst each other. That one was crazy.

~~~
r00fus
It ended rather abruptly but possibly fittingly.

The narrator on the audiobook (Todd MacLaren) is the same as the one who
narrated Altered Carbon, one of my favorite listens.

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pseudolus
It takes an incredible skill set to create a short story and hold a reader's
attention, all the more so when science-fiction is involved. Given the
relative paucity of his output, he clearly approaches his work like a master
craftsman - slowly building and removing all the excess.

~~~
renjimen
I find his stories really cut to the core of an idea with so little excess, as
you put it. The ideas he explores are so well chosen too.

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zabil
I love Ted Chiang. My favourite is "Hell is the absence of God" from the
collection "Stories of your life". It drew me in.

~~~
Simon_says
Basically every story in that book is a gem.

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Ididntdothis
He is a good writer. I love the story "Tower of Babylon".

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darkkindness
I used to avoid sci-fi because of non-realism. Not my cup of tea to read
insanely powerful tech used in really disappointing ways (e.g. Sophons from
Three Body Problem writing timestamps), or for example societies in 2030 that
are culturally unchanged from 2010.

Then I tried Blind Date with a Book, which is where the book gets wrapped in
brown paper and labelled with some hints about the book, so you know what kind
of book you're buying but not the title or author. I ended up unwrapping
Chiang's Story of Your Life, the short story collection. Chiang ended up
pulling me back into sci-fi. Every story had sci-fi elements that were
thought-provoking without being unbelievable, not to mention phenomenal
worldbuilding, which I am a real sucker for.

Even if you're not a sci-fi fan I'd recommend several of the stories in Story
of Your Life -- Tower of Babylon really left an impression in my friend group,
to say the least.

~~~
poopchute
I really enjoyed Ursula Le Guin's scifi for those reasons. The technology in
Le Guin's stories basically doesn't matter; her stories revolve around
relationships and culture. As an example, a story that focuses on a 2 planet
system that has a slavery based society. On one planet, the slaves rebel. But
even after their successful rebellion, the freed slaves fail to acknowledge
that their women are essentially still slaves since they lack all basic human
rights. Another story is about a planet/moon system where a few hundred years
prior an anarchist culture secedes from the planets staunchly capitalistic
culture, and then moves to the moon. The story follows a
physicist/mathematicians life in an anarchist society. Another story deals
with the toll that war has on people with telepathy. They have empathy for
their enemies, but none the less they are in a situation in which they must
kill those they have a telepathic connection with.

All the plot lines I talk about are in the collection of books belonging to
the "Hainish cycle" series. Every book in the series is very good.

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bsder
I'm going to counterpoint. I didn't dislike Chiang's stories, but none of them
really blew me away either.

Generally the feeling I always get from his stories is the writing is very
good, but the stories have always been executed by others, better.

I read his stories and didn't mind them. But I don't see myself going back and
rereading them like I would for Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, etc.

I happily passed the collection on to someone else and don't feel any need to
replace it.

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MattRix
I loves his new collection of a short stories, some are better than others,
but overall there are a ton of unique ideas on display. The Merchant and The
Alchemist's Gate is such a great time travel story in particular. I didn't
enjoy the one about digital creatures (it went on for way too long!) or the
one about the child-bearing device.

~~~
tingyue
"Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" was really stunning for me, personally.
Also enjoyed the titular story, though I had already read it before the
collection came out.

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smileypete
A short story of his in audiobook form:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLsGfN-F2rs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLsGfN-F2rs)

Not /the/ best narration, but I enjoyed it all the same.

