I am newish thanks to a recommendation. This was GREAT. Last summer, about this time a great friend who I walk with occasionally shared about Ted Chiang. I picked up an array of his short stories and was mesmerized. Thanks for reminding me to return to the Ted Chiang fold and read some more.
Love your moment of Zen. I channeled it in an upcoming post about my trip to the Minnesota State Fair. You never know when that moment will happen :)
Cactus Friends: A Psychedelic Love Story is about a woman who attends a plant medicine ceremony and sees a clue that reveals a real event taking place somewhere else. Basically fiction about using psychedelic cacti to unlock telepathic/weird mental skills.
This is reminding me of those free will vs predestination debates we used to have in Sunday school when I was, like, 10. My brain hurts just thinking about it! 😄
I'll admit to feeling lost and incredibly ignorant when it comes to science fiction, but you've intrigued me to perhaps read Chiang. I'm wondering if you've ever read Octavia Butler? The other thing that came to mind when I was reading your post was a book that I read many, many years ago called "The Holographic Universe" that was almost de-stabilizing -- I remember feeling as if I'd lost my equilibrium, that equilibrium was an illusion anyway.
I recently read this book too! I enjoyed the whole book but this story and the last one called “Liking What You See”. I’ve got to pick up his other book Exhalation soon here too.
I just downloaded the book from Libby so I’m excited to read it. Thanks!
As for knowing our future and designing change based on that knowledge, we all know our life will end. Does it change our journey? After working in hospice for so long, the answer I see is usually no. We like safe. We like the known. It’s comforting. And we always think we have more time. At end of life, I find more people drawing back to their own history and close ties rather than seeking anything too new. That being said, it makes a case for changing our trajectory before the end is near. But do we?
I personally like the unknown. I enjoy creating a new history of my life. But I wouldn’t want the burden of knowing too much about the future. Knowing it ends is enough for me. I needn’t know how. Why spoil the journey? The journey is all we own.
That also being said, we are currently traveling across the country in our brand new RV because we are now 62, are not in crisis and just decided to buy it and GO. We still have jobs and responsibilities but we made it work because I told my husband that this is the autumn of our lives. Best go now before we wither. We always have our safety net. Best to add to our story while we still have time to create it.
I am newish thanks to a recommendation. This was GREAT. Last summer, about this time a great friend who I walk with occasionally shared about Ted Chiang. I picked up an array of his short stories and was mesmerized. Thanks for reminding me to return to the Ted Chiang fold and read some more.
Love your moment of Zen. I channeled it in an upcoming post about my trip to the Minnesota State Fair. You never know when that moment will happen :)
Cactus Friends: A Psychedelic Love Story is about a woman who attends a plant medicine ceremony and sees a clue that reveals a real event taking place somewhere else. Basically fiction about using psychedelic cacti to unlock telepathic/weird mental skills.
This is reminding me of those free will vs predestination debates we used to have in Sunday school when I was, like, 10. My brain hurts just thinking about it! 😄
I'll admit to feeling lost and incredibly ignorant when it comes to science fiction, but you've intrigued me to perhaps read Chiang. I'm wondering if you've ever read Octavia Butler? The other thing that came to mind when I was reading your post was a book that I read many, many years ago called "The Holographic Universe" that was almost de-stabilizing -- I remember feeling as if I'd lost my equilibrium, that equilibrium was an illusion anyway.
I recently read this book too! I enjoyed the whole book but this story and the last one called “Liking What You See”. I’ve got to pick up his other book Exhalation soon here too.
I loved Arrival, as did my screenwriting teacher husband, as well as some other screenwriter friends we know of.
Curious what you'll think of it.
I just downloaded the book from Libby so I’m excited to read it. Thanks!
As for knowing our future and designing change based on that knowledge, we all know our life will end. Does it change our journey? After working in hospice for so long, the answer I see is usually no. We like safe. We like the known. It’s comforting. And we always think we have more time. At end of life, I find more people drawing back to their own history and close ties rather than seeking anything too new. That being said, it makes a case for changing our trajectory before the end is near. But do we?
I personally like the unknown. I enjoy creating a new history of my life. But I wouldn’t want the burden of knowing too much about the future. Knowing it ends is enough for me. I needn’t know how. Why spoil the journey? The journey is all we own.
That also being said, we are currently traveling across the country in our brand new RV because we are now 62, are not in crisis and just decided to buy it and GO. We still have jobs and responsibilities but we made it work because I told my husband that this is the autumn of our lives. Best go now before we wither. We always have our safety net. Best to add to our story while we still have time to create it.
Have you read Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow? Another beautifully constructed (ostensibly sci-fi) book. It stayed with me so vividly, for so long.
LSD for the win. 👏 Yes. Yes. Yes.