I'm mostly a sporadic reader but I felt like I needed a place to talk about what I read.
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4% complete! Johnny has read 1 of 24 books.
Where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. Criminal …
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory is a 2018 book by anthropologist David Graeber that argues the existence and societal harm of …
Did you know that while we think of money as notes issued by the government, the truth is that the …
What exactly are the Weird and the Eerie? In this new book, Mark Fisher argues …
Didn't have enough time the last few weeks to get into it, and now my rental period is unfortunately already over. Shelving it for now
What exactly are the Weird and the Eerie? In this new book, Mark Fisher argues that some of the most …
Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these …
Okay, here's a short take on each story in this book, roughly ordered by how much I liked the story (best to worst).
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom
Every aspect of this story worked for me. The setup for the technology, the characters, the central question around responsibility. Caveat: the physical explanation wasn't entirely coherent, but it was easy to look past. The subject of this story reminded me very strongly of what I read 6 or so years ago on "trans-world identity", a topic that fascinated me back then. Apparently it still does today.
Exhalation
An allegory about entropy, built in such a clean and beautiful scenario that it could almost be used as educational material. This one had the perfect length for a short story too, I think.
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
I really liked the writing style and the setting of this one. Also …
Okay, here's a short take on each story in this book, roughly ordered by how much I liked the story (best to worst).
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom
Every aspect of this story worked for me. The setup for the technology, the characters, the central question around responsibility. Caveat: the physical explanation wasn't entirely coherent, but it was easy to look past. The subject of this story reminded me very strongly of what I read 6 or so years ago on "trans-world identity", a topic that fascinated me back then. Apparently it still does today.
Exhalation
An allegory about entropy, built in such a clean and beautiful scenario that it could almost be used as educational material. This one had the perfect length for a short story too, I think.
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
I really liked the writing style and the setting of this one. Also the idea of a time machine that is consistent with relativity is fascinating.
The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling
Still not sure if I've figured this one out completely. It draws an intriguing parallel between how written language and digital recordings shape the meaning of human memories. It's a thought I haven't had before, that's for sure. Though I'm not convinced of the historic accuracy of the the half that is concerned with the external introduction of writing into cultures without it.
What's Expected of Us
This one basically expands on a question from "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" that wasn't really relevant in the context of that story. It's really short, just 3 pages or so but very nicely condensed. The notes at the end of the collection put a spin on it that hadn't immediately occurred to me: what if there existed a physical demonstration that life was pointless?
The Lifecycle of Software Objects
I've written about this one before – bit too long, characters too bland – but the core of the story is very good nonetheless. In particular the different perspective it offers on "artificial beings" and the role nurture and human connections play in whether we see something as conscious or alive.
Omphalos
What if young earth creationism was real, and a belief in God was backed by science? A very curious "what if", because the universe it takes place in is fundamentally very different from ours. This one is more of a "look at what this would look like" kind of thing, but it makes an interesting point about faith anyway.
Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny
Maybe I lack a decent understanding of pedagogy to properly engage with this story. It was written as a museum's informational text about a peculiar exhibit from around the turn of the 19/20th century, which was fun but didn't serve to make the story itself more interesting. I will give Chiang credit for his very convincing portrayal of the weird ideas British people back then had about raising children.
The Great Silence
Just didn't do it for me as a short story. It's mentioned in the notes that this one comes from an art installation involving other media, I think that's the main reason.
Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these …
What a read. Will write down my ranking and thoughts of all the stories later
The Martian meets Multiplicity in Edward Ashton's high concept science fiction thriller, in which Mickey7, an "expendable," refuses to let …
The surprise fourth volume in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach series—and the final word on one of the most provocative and …
Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these …
Just finished the fourth story, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", and I'm not sure how to feel about it. It reframes the age-old questions around "human-like" AI as questions about emotional connections between humans and "digients", which are somewhat akin to purpose-built pets. It manages to put a fresh spin on the subject and feels very believable in its technological and economical details. However, I think the story fails on a narrative level. It's too long, first of all, and it only clumsily ties together the different directions it explores. Unfortunately I couldn't really relate to the characters either, which were too bland considering how long we followed them and their relationships for.
I wouldn't say it was bad, but I liked the previous stories much better.
Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these …
The first two stories in this are already absolute bangers.
Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these stories will change the way …
Der 15-jährige Kafka Tamura reißt von zu Hause aus und flüchtet vor einer düsteren Prophezeiung seines Vaters auf die Insel …
A worthy conclusion to the trilogy. It ties together the mysteries of the previous two books, but leaves open the meaning of the big picture. While there were some pointers as to what Area X actuallly is, I was longing for a bit more material to make sense of it. It makes sense that we can never fully understand it, but I will admit it leaves me slightly unsatisfied.
I wasn't a huge fan of the changing perspectives, although I saw their benefit for the narrative.
In general, a bit of the spark of the first two entries was lost for me here – not because Acceptance was worse, but because of the immense increase in available context from the other books to guide you through what's happening, reducing the unsettling nature somewhat. Which isn't to say Acceptance doesn't make you feel uneasy. It certainly does.
