Please post your blog response to the story here. You can feel free to respond in any substantive way you choose (that means going beyond superficiality: likes, dislikes, summary, et cetera; none of that will be acceptable or given credit), but some starting points to consider are the structure of the story, the way in which it plays with and against the genre of science fiction, the effect and themes of the story, the language and craft, et cetera.
Anything less than 250 words will not receive credit.
“Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang is a story written in great detail, as if the reader were standing right there with the narrator. The story Chiang writes uses the idea of two stories inside a story to depict his message. The narrator initially starts the story by telling her daughter’s life story to her daughter, after she presumably passed away. The story alters from storytelling about past memories of the narrator’s daughter to another, seemingly unconnected story about the narrator’s experiences communicating with aliens. An interesting aspect of the story is how the narrator is telling her daughter the story. The narrator uses present tense, and even future tense in some instances, even though she is telling the story about past events to a future version of her daughter. Conversely, the story about the narrator and her partners speaking with aliens is in past tense. This difference allows the reader to speculate about who and where the daughter is. In the beginning of the story, it is difficult to see the relationship between the two. However, as the stories continue, they become more intertwined and seem to fit together to tell one story all together. The two separate stories each give great details, setting the scene of each individual plot line, without confusing the two. Although one story is strictly science fiction, and the other is strictly fiction, the two stories mold together to form one cohesive story. The relevance of how each story is mentioned is not very clear, but it allows the reader to speculate about what the outcome will be during the entirety of the story.
ReplyDeleteIt was cool to see the final connection between the two different stories at the end of the main one. It is definitely a different style of writing that proves to work very well with keeping the reader intrigued.
DeleteI agree, as the story went on it became clearer and clearer how the separate stories fit together.
DeleteI definitely acknowledge the intertwined plot with the different stories and It definitely added suspense and action into the short story.
DeleteLike you and Colby mentioned, I also think that the story became clearer as you kept reading. I also think it is a double fiction as I mentioned in my post as it’s a story with two fictional stories in it.
DeleteSayawni Lassiter
Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” was an easy read, but kind of confusing. The story mainly focuses on the narrator’s current situation, which is interpreting an extraterrestrial language and trying to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrials, but then occasionally sidetracks to short, detailed paragraphs about who we later find out is her daughter. I was very confused when these paragraphs would come about because I could never find the correlation with the overall story. The times that the narrator would take about her daughter she would use multiple verb tenses like “I remember when you will be” which made it very confusing on what was going on. The story itself though was well thought out because a connection can be made that the initial paragraphs of the story can almost be seen as the last paragraphs after they talk about making the baby (so basically just foreshadowing). I could not really tell though if any of the stories of the heptapods had any correlation with the short paragraph about her daughter and I think that is where I started to get confused as to why the author even mentioned the short excerpts about the daughter’s life. At the end of the story all confusion about why the daughter is mentioned is cleared up. The story slowly shows that the person the narrator works with ends up being her husband and that without the interactions with the heptapods there would be no daughter, therefore giving the author no story to write about.
ReplyDeleteI agree it was confusing at first to figure out what is happening between the two stories, and trying to make that connection. Once it was evident that the whole story was foreshadowing the night her daughter was conceived, it all made ,much more sense.
DeleteI agree it was hard to follow in the beginning. However, I found the way that the narrator intertwined two seemingly unconnected stories together to form one cohesive story an interesting way to give meaning to her story. It was a very unusual way to tell a story, but it kept the reader interested.
DeleteAlexandra Lewis
DeleteI also had a hard time in the beginning. It took me awhile to understand the relation of the two stories.
The short story “The Story of Your Life” was very interesting to read because with each small story from her daughter’s past, came more information about her, Louise Banks. Since the story starts off with what I thought was going to be a proposal turned conceiving of a child, I was hooked. After each short story, I find out that Louise eventually gets divorced from her husband and remarries, as well as him. Louise’s job is quite interesting. From my understanding, she is a language specialist, that the military hired to decipher how aliens talk. Aliens, also known as heptapods, use words that all stem from the word heptapods, and Louise is smart enough to figure this out. With every work encounter, and trying to decipher the heptapods, Louise flashes back to a moment in her daughter’s childhood. The first flashback is from her daughter’s death, then goes all the way back to the day after she was born. There are breaks within the explanation of the heptapods where Louise remembers her daughter, who had black hair and blue eyes, which separate the dense mathematical and physics related talk. Eventually a topic of discussion among her coworkers relates to a memory she has of her daughter. The workers were talking about non-zero-sum gain, which means that both parties win, and that was a word that Louise couldn’t think of when her daughter asked her that when she was 13 years old. This could symbolize how Louise’s life was consumed by her work, and sometimes her daughter felt neglected. The story ends by Louise answering her husband’s question about making a baby, which was a very creative way to end it. The whole story went in a complete 360 degrees by going back to where it all started, how they conceived their child.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I assumed the question would be a proposal rather than a question to have a child together. I also enjoyed how the story did a full circle and came back right to the start, which made me feel satisfied while reading the story.
DeleteI also agree that is was extremely satisfying to see the story tied back to the beginning with its relation to the conceiving of her daughter. It was not what I was expecting, but it helped end the story on a happy note.
DeleteThe short story “The story of your life” was very interesting in my opinion. The protagonist, Louise Banks started out by telling how her husband asked her to have children which seemed to be a very important moment in all of their lives. At first, with each memory she became explaining of this child I could not pin point if it was a son or a daughter, but later we do find out it is her daughter that these flashbacks and memories are coming from. I also suspected that her daughter/child was no longer in their life in some way as she seemed emotional and always referring to the past; the only time that Louise mentioned the present it seemed to be about work- which was another interesting part of her life. Her work seemed rather important and interesting, she was able to work with Aliens from what I collected and even teach them english and to become more human like. She ended up divorcing her husband and even finding love again, but her daughter unfortunately passed away in the middle of this whole story, which clearly explained the past tense and emotional tone showed at times. The details to the story made it even better, these flashbacks that she had with her daughter seemed so realistic and readers could picture and feel her pain and joy. It also was very interesting to me how the story was all over the place in the middle but wrapped up to make sense with the beginning. Overall, i enjoyed the story and helped me learn more about short stories.
ReplyDeleteI found Ted Chiang’s short story “Story of Your Life” to be a very interesting read. It was structured oddly, with every few paragraphs describing a different scene or story, slowly revealing information about her and her daughter’s life. The story begins on the night her daughter was conceived, two years into her first marriage. We slowly learn that Louise, the narrator, eventually has her daughter, gets divorced, and then both her and her husband remarry other people. Louise reveals that she has an interesting job as a language specialist and that she is hired by the military to help them figure out how aliens communicate and talk. Through her work experiences, she gets some flashbacks from her daughter’s childhood. The flashbacks to her daughter’s childhood are periodically interrupted by “work talk” about aliens and “heptapods” which are odd four legged, three armed creatures. These work-related stories seem unconnected to the stories relating to her daughter, but as we trek further into the story they slowly begin to intertwine by revealing how Louise’s life was possibly overtaken by her job rather than her role as a mother. I found it very interesting that these two different genres, science fiction and fiction, were tied together in one story. Everything is tied together on the last page when Louise finally relates her work to her personal/family life. She says that her experience with heptapods changed her life by allowing her to know her daughter now. She then questions whether she is “working toward an extreme of joy, or of pain” which I think relates to a struggle of balancing life between family and work/passion. The story ends with a discussion between her and her first husband about whether or not to conceive their child, which ends with the answer yes. I believe that this symbolically answers the question or family or work. I think that is also could relate to a possible theme of family.
ReplyDelete“Story of your Life” was one of the more enjoyable pieces of science fiction I’ve read. It starts off more realistic, although a bit confusing. The timeline first created by the narrator is hazy, and leaves a lot of room for questions and individual interpretation. She retells her daughter the story of her life after she’s passed away, and weaves it into the story her current job: working with military officials and communicating with aliens — all the whole working with her ex-husband. The way Ted Chiang structured the story requires careful reading. The narrator retells the story of her daughter’s life back to her after she passes away, which you would assume would require using past tense verbs, but she insteads switches between past tense and future tense. Chiang did this very strategically, but the reader doesn’t know this until the end of the story. Towards the end of the story, the narrator explains an interesting fact about the heptapods, “What distinguishes the heptapods’ mode of awareness is not just that their actions coincide with history’s events; it is also that their motives coincide with history’s purposes. They act to create the future, to enact chronology.” This is an allusion to the narrator’s way of retelling these events, including flashbacks and then moving forward. At the end of the story, the narrator makes it back to the flashback after being reminded of her daughter. She finally answers the question asked in the beginning paragraphs, which is whether or not she wanted to create her daughter. This story comes together to form the daughter’s past, her present (at various different times), and the end of her future.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed this piece of fiction. I think it's important for stories to raise questions, and allow room for individual interpretation as well. Great job explaining the structure of the piece.
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ReplyDelete"Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang was very well written, highly detailed and very interesting. Chiang managed to construct a hidden story within a story. By integrating parts of the narrator describing events with her daughter throughout the story from the beginning, Chiang instills a sense of mystery in the story. The seemingly random jumps to memories of her daughter raises questions as readers, which is a great way to keep readers actively engaged in the story as a whole. Chiang does a great job using great detail in the story, so readers can paint vivid pictures of everything that is occurring. As the story progresses, bits of information are learned about the heptapods, in a chronological structure, while memories are woven in to break away from the chronologic order. Towards the end, it is revealed that the memories are of the future, using the heptapod’s way of viewing life. This reveal brings all of the questions and ambiguities from the story to a close, and leaves the reader with a sense of closure. The story is far more than a linear adventure. It accompanies multiple pathways to add depth to the story. It also doesn’t make it obvious to what the two stories have to do with each other right away. Giving away too much information from the start would make the story less interesting, because there wouldn’t be a sense of wonder. Chiang effectively fused the two stories in a way that left the readers wondering how they related.
ReplyDeleteThe story, "Story of Your Life," was an interesting read. The structure is setup as a story of two-stories. In the beginning, there is the narrator, taking to her daughter, who has just been conceived. Further into the read, the narrator introduces aliens. Within the narrative of her language discoveries are vignettes of her lifetime relationship with her daughter. Interestingly enough, these aliens don't seem like they have a connection with the story. But, nonetheless, in order to communicate them, Louis used different objects and gestures to connect with what they were trying to say. As a result, she ended up concluding their speech and writing are unrelated, so thus comes Heptapod A and Heptapod B. "What if the experience of knowing the future changed a person?" Before doing her extensive research on both of the Heptapods, it made it confusing with short excerpts of the daughter. It was difficult to catch the connection. However, after she began to excel in Heptapod B, she began to think in Heptapod B too. This allowed her to see her own future. Learning, she'll have a daughter, but her daughter passes young. This brings the theme to the story to be free will. Knowing one's future means it stays leaving them no free will whatsoever. Towards the end, when the Heptapods after left, it the left the reader on a vague note. It was never established why, but everything ties in when Louis agrees to having a baby; being fully aware it will die young.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same and how difficult it was to find a connection between the two stories the author is telling. But the end ties them together perfectly giving the reader insight as to what was happening. I find the end very eye opening and showing how she wanted to have a baby even though she knew the outcome, it all made sense why she was telling these two stories.
DeleteI also found it very confusing with the two stories until I read the ending and then I understood why it was written to be that way. I didn't think aliens and Louise's unborn daughter had anything to do with each other until I looked up Fermat's Principle of Least Time and how Louise learns her future which makes sense why she writes about her daughter reading back.
DeleteIt's interesting how the connection of the aliens and the daughter are a vital piece of the story, but it's hard to catch a connection at first.
ReplyDeleteThe short story “The story of your life” by Ted Chiang was probably one of the most interesting stories that i have ever read. It was a series of intertwined plots that kept the piece interesting throughout. Although the changes in perspective were initially kind of confusing, once I got the hang of the shifts from the past, present to future tense I was able to enjoy and indulge in the story. I thought that the shift from this sense of motherhood was interesting because Chiang setup of a perfect family environment to an investigation with aliens and working with them. The initial passage with the narrator’s letter to the daughter seemed unrelated at first but then I realized later how interconnected it was in relation to the double fiction that was taking place in the piece. I also noted how the author jumps between two narratives which gives a nice aura and suspense to the story. When Mrs. Bank’s daughter passed away it clarified the past letter that she wrote in the beginning of the piece. The details and dialogue in this piece were quite compelling in the sense that it was thrilling. It had a constant forward moving motion which kept the story quite interesting while action based. The subject in itself was interesting as well, such as the fact that Mrs. Banks worked with aliens and even taught them how to live as humans and speak english. It was a very alluring plot and overall, I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteThe plots were very intertwining. The author used flashbacks to foreshadow the daughter's life. The details were intelligent and well written. The fact that Mrs. Banks worked with the aliens had a big part of why she mentally missed most of her daughter's life; she felt neglected.
DeleteThe “Story of your life” by Ted Chiang was well written and interesting. The structure was a bit confusing of the way it started out the article, however it was very detailed and well thought out. The “Story of your life” began by talking about how they were going to tell their child about the night he was conceived to being at work, discussing the discovery of evidence that aliens exist at work. The structure of this article goes from the extraterrestrial communications with the suspected aliens to side paragraphs that are later revealed as her daughter by the topic of her daughter coming up in a discussion with her co- workers. Past tense verbs were used consistently. The plot of the story is drawn around the daughter’s life, flashing back many times. The story starts telling the story about how and when she was conceived, talks about the aliens, and then the side paragraphs are the flash backs of the daughter. For example, the article flashed back to the daughter’s death and then flashes back all the way back to the day the daughter was born. In the beginning of the article it is hard to see the connection between the daughter and the aliens but then the story reveals the intelligently thought out structure by foreshadowing the daughter’s life with flashbacks. The theme that was portrayed in this article is the negligence of the daughter due to the mother keeping her focus mainly on her work and not her daughter’s life.
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting that she used the flashbacks to tell the future, it’s a creative juxtaposition.
DeleteIn “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, it starts off in a different person’s point of view. The title itself explains how the short story is going to be about someone else’s life. The story is about a woman, Louise Banks, met her husband which lead to the conception of her unnamed daughter. This is not your classic short story, rather it is a simple plot but is written and explained in a different way. The changing of tenses plays a major role in the whole short story. It starts off as the narrator telling their unborn daughter, well so you think, about her life. It’s actually her mother telling her daughter who has passed the start of her story, beginning from the daughter’s conception. The entire story is foreshadowing her daughter’s conception. The short story as a whole is an easy read, once you understand what tenses and plot the narrator is explaining. There’s times that the narrator mentions about her daughter, “I remember when you will be”, which when you think about it actually makes no sense at all. I truly enjoyed the science fiction short story, it was different. When you first start reading you think it’s going to be one of those stereotypical stories about aliens, or alien abduction, but its main focus is about the daughter. Turns out that the connection between the daughter and the aliens are crucial when understanding the short story, which is kind of difficult to see in the beginning.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started reading. “Story of Life” by Ted Chiang, I found it very simple to read but a little bit confusing. The structure of the story wasn’t easily recognizable at first until you read a little further into it. I realized it was a mixture of two separate stories going back and forth throughout. The one story was about the narrator’s daughter who had died but addressing her in the future tense saying what could’ve happened but also saying things about the past. But there doesn’t seem to be an identifiable correlation between the science fiction story about working with the aliens to communicate and her separate story to and about her daughter in the beginning. At the end, it seems to all come together to be telling the story about the aliens because without them she wouldn’t have met her husband and had her daughter. The science fiction story was a tool used to tell the story to her daughter if she were here about how she came to be. I really liked the use of back and forth with the science fiction and her addressing her daughter. The author uses enough specific detail when writing the science fiction part to make the reader feel as though it is real and like this could actually happen. The language was very understandable and detail orientated. This language throughout the story made it very easy to read but the structure was hard to follow until the end when the author put it all together.
ReplyDeleteThe mixture of the intertwining stories was a great point. I really enjoyed how the author did this, it kept the readers on their toes and made us want more. I like how you say that the use of the science fiction story was to explain to her daughter about how she came to be.
DeleteAs i started reading "The story of your life" by Ted Chiang, I thought it was going to be about how the speaker and Gray fell in love and made the child. After the first part of the story that quickly changed. I was very confused because they stared talking about aliens. Thought the beginning of the story i was so confused as to why the topic kept changing. The author would be talking about her progression with communication with the aliens and then would suddenly change to talking about a memory she has of her daughter. The more i read the more i understood that she was talking about the aliens was because it was where her and Gray met. As for the structure of the story, it was very complex. I have never read a story that changed topics so fast like this one did. The story bored me at first but that was because i was super confused. I began to really enjoy the story and was excited to learn about the progress the author was making with the aliens. I found myself wanting more of the aliens when she was talking about memories with her daughter, however; when she was talking about the aliens I couldn't wait until she talked about her daughter. All in all this was a fantastic story and i really enjoyed reading it. I do with the story ended differently and we learn more about the aliens. Why did they come visit earth? Why did they leave so suddenly? What happened with the "gift exchange"? Other than that this was a great read and i really enjoyed the structure of the story.
ReplyDeleteAlexandra Lewis
ReplyDeleteThe piece, “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang confused me at first, not necessarily because it was hard to read, but because of the structure of the story. It seemed to jump back and forth between two stories and it actually took me a few pages to keep up with the story and how it was written. It was definitely an interesting read as it included extraterrestrial discoveries, and although it was cool to read about, it was awhile before I realized the correlation between the two stories. I feel like the correlation was not extremely direct, it makes sense that the story of the aliens is the reason the narrator met her husband and eventually had her daughter, but in general the two stories never crossed paths which is something I was waiting for to happen while I was reading until I realized it was before the daughter was born. I think that the author did a really good job with setting each scene. Because of how detailed each description was, it made it easier to follow along and feel like you are in the situation with the characters, especially when small anecdotes of times with her daughter were described they felt very relatable. I think the ending made the whole story come full circle, since the story starts by the husband asking Louise if she wants to make a baby and ends with her answer. It confirms how the two stories are interrelated. Instead of leaving the reader with further questions about the family, everything tied together in the end.
The Story of My Life was a not so short, short story where two separate stories finally combine into one in the end. Throughout the story many parallels are said to intertwine both stories. A perfect example of this is when the daughter cannot remember something her dad has told her but then her dad says that same phrase a paragraph away from each other. The language used was relatively easy with not a lot of complex words being used. Every concept that was remotely difficult would be explained to the reader immediately, so the reader never had any questions of this sci fi world. The story of the Heptapods is the more science fiction story as it involves aliens and intricate languages. The second story of watching the child grow up and knowing its future just as a heptapod would was much more fictional. The narrator herself wrote this short story in a seemingly heptapodic way knowing exactly what her daughter was going to do in the future all the way through her death. There is an intriguing theme of discovery in the Heptapod story was new languages are being learned and communication is slowly improving with another race. It makes the reader believe that this could seriously be a way in which can contact aliens. The second story had both dark and jubilant themes throughout its many scattered passages. At one point a face was unrecognizable because of the damage done to it. At other points first steps are being taken and mom is being loved.
ReplyDeleteJust by the first couple paragraphs of "Story of Your Life," you can already tell this is going to be a story about someone's child who died. The line, "I'd love to tell you the story of this evening, the night you're conceived, but the right time to do that would be when you're ready to have children of you're own, and we'll never get that chance," was the first hint that something bad happened to the character the narrator is speaking about. A lot of the beginning of the passage speaks as if they are talking in past tense, like all of these events have already happened. This makes it a bit confusing at first because I felt like I was trying to catch up with the story the narrator was telling. At the beginning, I felt like the story took a big turn from talking about the life of their child to all of the sudden speaking about aliens. The piece all together was extremely detailed, especially when talking about the arrival of the aliens. Throughout the narrator's story she keeps remembering things about the future of her daughter and little details about when she was born and how she died. The flashbacks are often when she is working with the heptapods. At the end of the short story, she is reminiscing on her daughter and how much the heptapods changed her life. It all wraps around and connects to the beginning of the story where she was talking with her husband.
ReplyDeleteI agree the connection was hard at first, at the beginning the narrator was talking about her daughter and then all of the sudden it started to talk about aliens and I was confused.
ReplyDeleteTed Chiang's "Story of your Life" is structured with two stories going on at once. One being about Louise Banks' daughter who had just been conceived and one being about Louise Banks' job as a linguist deciphering a group of aliens dubbed "heptapods" language. Chiang oscillates between these two stories and it's confusing at first to follow along how they intertwine, but as the story goes on it becomes clear when Louise sees her future and how she will have a daughter who passes away young as well as the divorce of her husband later on in her life. Despite including an abstract concept such as Fermat's Principle of Least Time, the science fiction in this piece isn't too hard to follow and actually makes sense when used in context with how Louise learns her future. The theme of the story is that knowledge of the future prevents free will from existing which I found really interesting because it presents the questions of if knowing the future changes a person's actions and feelings towards a situation or person. I also found it really compelling how despite Louise knowing her future that she said yes to having a baby with Gary. Perhaps Louise is in denial about what will happen and will try to make changes in her future to prevent her daughter's death from happening. The amount of detail in the story helps the reader become immersed into the scenes especially where Louise is writing about her daughter's life about how she has to go bed, or her college graduation, or how she wanted to go shopping with her friends without her mom. It just helps the reader relate to what's going on in her life and evoke emotion when we find out that the daughter dies young.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the amount of detail does immerse the reader into this non fiction world. The story of her daughters life is very helpful to keep the reader entertained. It is very interesting how you pointed out that the knowledge of the future does inhibit free will as I know realize that was a main theme I missed.
DeleteAfter reading Ted Chiang’s “The Story of Your Life”, I immediately wondered what other writings Ted Chiang has composed. The entire story was written in a style that was entertaining to read and kept the reader wanting to continue. When beginning this writing, there was several parts that forced me to read over again. The author constantly through the story changes timeline, characters, and the settings, which only became clear several pages in. The most stable part of the writing was the narrator’s encounters with an alien race, as she attempted to decode their language. Louis Banks was a linguistics professor, which qualified her to communicate with this new species visiting Earth. The interesting part of the story was that the narrator, acting as the author, was writing to her deceased daughter, describing the world from her eyes. The constant switch between telling of events with her daughter and then meetings with aliens is very dynamic and did not follow the conventional plot line. I was not sure of what the climax of the story was, but I believe it now be when the “heptopods” leave Earth. This seems to be end of the rising action, at which the narrator has described all progressive events. Overall, I definitely felt close to the narrator, through her emotional turmoil's for her daughter, and her apparent loneliness that enveloped her towards the end of her life. Author makes it clear in the beginning that the narrator's daughter has passed away, but also creates the dynamic character of who she was through past memories
ReplyDeleteI felt as if I had to read it again to be able to fully grasp the main concepts hidden within the story. I had trouble finding the climax too, but I understood the overall message once I reached the end of the story.
DeleteTed Chiang’s “The Story of Your Life” was a very well and interestingly written piece. What I liked the most about the reading was the fact that I felt as if it was me the narrator was talking to. The fact that Chiang was successfully able to make readers feel this way says a lot about his skill as an author. The stories within the story are so blunt/real, but it is very confusing to try and keep up as well. It seemed like there were multiple stories being told at certain points, but at the end, they all came together to turn into one ironic outcome: Louis agreeing to have the baby. It was ironic because the consequences of having a baby were extremely negative, but a beautiful baby would be born out of it. It was a touching story with plenty of twists that keep you on edge. But I thought it was quite sad overall. As far as the vocabulary goes, it wasn’t hard to decipher. It was easy to read and very understandable. The pace seemed to be dragged out a little bit considering the length of the story, but it was also very detailed. When the author began talking about aliens, that was when I was at my peak of confusion. I didn’t know where the narrative was going. There were short excerpts/vignettes about her daughter, and then there was her encounters/research with “heptapods”. It all tied together at the end which is what made the narrative as interesting as it was.
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DeleteClement Bowe
Ted Chiang's " The Story of your Life " was a well-articulated piece. I liked this story because it makes the audience raise questions throughout the book. The narrator feels as though he is speaking directly to the reader as he explains. The structure of the story was difficult for me to read which in turn made the concept of the story hard for me to grasp. I was disappointed that the two daughters never met each other, I spent the majority of the time waiting for it to happen. I found the aliens to be one of the most interesting parts of the story because they added an implied theme. I saw the aliens as other people who contrast with the popular or common understanding of experiences; they tried to impose their existence through communication dive into the story value of trying to connect with " the other." The story heavily emphasizes the importance of communication, using both the plot and character development. Chiang wanted the readers to realize that communication can alter and create better lives for those who attempt to connect. Dr. Banks committed herself to language as she was a linguist, a person who studies the art o communication in daily life. I believe that this story is much deeper than the first time I had read it and I feel as though there are still more things that I need to try and understand. Now that I am used to the structure of the book, maybe I can try to understand more themes hidden inside of the book.
I also found that the story was overall very sad, but there is so much dynamic storyline that it really brings the reader into the writing.
DeleteAs I mentioned in my post about the photographer, I think these stories are in a way connected because they both have a sense of double fiction. Again, what I mean by double fiction is that they have a fictional story and another fictional story within it. This story on the other hand is a bit more confusing as there initially no direct correlation between the two stories but as you kept reading, it became clearer and clearer. One thing I noticed that really stuck out to me was Chiang’s use of the verb tenses. She would seamlessly fluctuate between the tenses, which caused for the initial confusion, but as the story went on, the reader discovers that the female Chiang is speaking to is her daughter. After reading the story and sitting back and reflecting on it, I realized this story is one of those stories you tell your kids once they are grown up and they ask how their parents met. I realized this after noticing that through the supposedly meaningless stories are very meaningful in the end because they all connect to the story of her daughter’s life. I also feel as if this story is a telling of her daughter’s life as she is remembering and reminiscing on it because it’s hard for her to talk about her. I feel like this story is a way for her to release all the hurt she has and has felt regarding her daughter’s death. Overall, I really enjoyed the story because I liked how the story came full circle despite it being a little confusing in the beginning.
ReplyDeleteSayawni Lassiter