Exhalation
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • Nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories—two published for the very first time—all from the mind of the incomparable author of Stories of Your Life and Others
Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these stories will change the way you think, feel, and see the world. They are Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic, revelatory.
Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.
In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In “Exhalation,” an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom,” the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.
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Community Reviews
I read this because a podcast I listened to was going to talk about it. I had very little idea what to expect. I noticed that most of the stories followed a similar pattern for me. When I first started a story it felt a little weird. I sometimes thought I knew where it was going - and sometimes I was right. It often felt a little awkward to me because I am used to reading classic literature and look for fairly poetic language, but the stories typically did not have too much poetry to them - at least at first. In the middle I would start to get more interested as it often had elements I did not at all anticipate. Then there would come a part about 2/3 of the way through where I would think "ok I got your point, and it was good, but now this is getting a little long". Finally, the ending would get really good, often containing some of the poetry I was looking for. Sometimes a little sappy, but in a way that was needed. As a result, I always had a fonder memory of the story that my first impressions - I mention this to encourage any uncertain readers to just get through any weirdness that might cause their interest to flag.
My favorite story was "truth of fact truth of feeling" - emblematic because the titles don't always give you a great idea of what the story is about, by the way. It talks about the differences in both culture and cognition arising from writing as a technology (vs a purely oral culture - also as opposed to digital memory and various interfaces with it). As a writing teacher and avid reader, it held both a personal and professional interest for me. The story was also typical because it featured a creative approach to understanding problems that have been explored in academic and professional literatures. It answers very clearly the question of what we might lose if people stop reading and/or writing long form prose - quite a lot! But it also had a very nuanced point about how these things influence not just our habits of thought but our actual identities, how memory is inherently narrative and therefore not a reflection of objective facts, and how these features of both writing and memory get mobilized in persuasion, cultural ideas, the justice system, ... really a number of areas. Just a very economical way to discuss these ideas and would work great in a class setting alongside research into these ideas in addition to just having a good story at its core.
I could go through each of the stories like that but I won't - suffice it to say that aside from the pair of super short entries, every story has a similar richness in thematic content.
Highly recommend the book.
My favorite story was "truth of fact truth of feeling" - emblematic because the titles don't always give you a great idea of what the story is about, by the way. It talks about the differences in both culture and cognition arising from writing as a technology (vs a purely oral culture - also as opposed to digital memory and various interfaces with it). As a writing teacher and avid reader, it held both a personal and professional interest for me. The story was also typical because it featured a creative approach to understanding problems that have been explored in academic and professional literatures. It answers very clearly the question of what we might lose if people stop reading and/or writing long form prose - quite a lot! But it also had a very nuanced point about how these things influence not just our habits of thought but our actual identities, how memory is inherently narrative and therefore not a reflection of objective facts, and how these features of both writing and memory get mobilized in persuasion, cultural ideas, the justice system, ... really a number of areas. Just a very economical way to discuss these ideas and would work great in a class setting alongside research into these ideas in addition to just having a good story at its core.
I could go through each of the stories like that but I won't - suffice it to say that aside from the pair of super short entries, every story has a similar richness in thematic content.
Highly recommend the book.
Even if I didn't enjoy the writing style or execution of these stories, the ideas are so very interesting and stimulating that I would say they alone merit the rating I gave. There were a couple that I didn't not care much for personally, but I love Ted Chiang's writing style and exploration of ideas, so I'll be reading more of his work!
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