Take a photo of a barcode or cover
khinkyaw 's review for:
Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thoughts on each story:
Tower of Babylon: ⭐⭐ it was a little slow-paced for me
Understand: ⭐⭐⭐.5. The story kept me hooked and I was intrigued by the way the character's intelligence developed. I liked that increased brain power meant that the character was able to control their bodily functions and control the way they presented themselves on a chemical level. I also liked the opposition of two super intelligent people and their different philosophies. Even between two super intelligent beings there was no one ideal or absolute smartest goal to strive towards. In fact, in the end the more altruistic, humanistic person won, which is different from the way super intelligence has been depicted in our media.
Division by zero: ⭐⭐⭐.5
Story of your life: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Absolutely loved it. I thought the exploration of foresight, pre-determination and free-will was unique in this story.
Seventy-Two Letters: ⭐⭐ The story itself was a little boring for me though the concept and themes seemed interesting. Things like automation and "AI art" (though this story came out well before chatgpt and midjourney and dalle) as well as how in the name basically became similar to DNA/genetic material.
Evolution of Human Science: ⭐⭐⭐. Eh
Hell is the Absence of God: ⭐⭐⭐⭐. Just here for vibes. Really loved that Neil went to hell and I enjoyed Chiang's story notes about it.
Liking What You See: A Documentary: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. This was such a fascinating story. I think I lean more in favour of having calli however, some of the arguments against were definitely convincing. But at the end of the day, I would love to have a choice to turn off my ability to see attractiveness in people. Additionally, there was this story note: "Yet any discussion of beauty's advantages is usually accompanied by a mention of the burden of beauty" and this just made me think of the back and forth between discussions of 'pretty privilege' and the advantages you're afforded for being conventionally attractive vs pushback from 'pretty' women who insist being pretty is a burden because of harrassment and misogyny while failing to recognise that misogyny affects every woman regardless of beauty.
Tower of Babylon: ⭐⭐ it was a little slow-paced for me
Understand: ⭐⭐⭐.5. The story kept me hooked and I was intrigued by the way the character's intelligence developed. I liked that increased brain power meant that the character was able to control their bodily functions and control the way they presented themselves on a chemical level. I also liked the opposition of two super intelligent people and their different philosophies. Even between two super intelligent beings there was no one ideal or absolute smartest goal to strive towards. In fact, in the end the more altruistic, humanistic person won, which is different from the way super intelligence has been depicted in our media.
Division by zero: ⭐⭐⭐.5
Story of your life: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Absolutely loved it. I thought the exploration of foresight, pre-determination and free-will was unique in this story.
Seventy-Two Letters: ⭐⭐ The story itself was a little boring for me though the concept and themes seemed interesting. Things like automation and "AI art" (though this story came out well before chatgpt and midjourney and dalle) as well as how in the name basically became similar to DNA/genetic material.
Evolution of Human Science: ⭐⭐⭐. Eh
Hell is the Absence of God: ⭐⭐⭐⭐. Just here for vibes. Really loved that Neil went to hell and I enjoyed Chiang's story notes about it.
Liking What You See: A Documentary: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. This was such a fascinating story. I think I lean more in favour of having calli however, some of the arguments against were definitely convincing. But at the end of the day, I would love to have a choice to turn off my ability to see attractiveness in people. Additionally, there was this story note: "Yet any discussion of beauty's advantages is usually accompanied by a mention of the burden of beauty" and this just made me think of the back and forth between discussions of 'pretty privilege' and the advantages you're afforded for being conventionally attractive vs pushback from 'pretty' women who insist being pretty is a burden because of harrassment and misogyny while failing to recognise that misogyny affects every woman regardless of beauty.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide