Reviews and Comments

The Weinersmiths strike a pretty unusual but pleasant tone for a fairly critical nonfiction book. It covers a wide range of topics, interspersed with funny anecdotes and illustrations. What I like the most about it is that it doesn't shy away from discussing political and economic realities with a lot of pragmatism. Still, it's a light-hearted read over all and doesn't go super in-depth in any particular area.

My main criticism is probably that the authors were too charitable (imo) with some of the "space libertarians" out there, even though they poke fun at a lot of the ideas.

Jedes Kapitel tat auf seine ganz eigene Weise weh, dennoch habe ich alle von ihnen regelrecht verschlungen. Han Kangs Umgang mit den realen Personen, um die es geht, ist so liebevoll poetisch im Kontrast zu dem, was ihnen widerfahren ist. Große Leseempfehlung, wenn man mit dem Thema umgehen kann und gerade dann, wenn man (wie ich vorher) nur wenig über diese Zeit in der koreanischen Geschichte weiß.

I think this is the first book where I've had to actively stop myself from crying during the first chapter

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

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.

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.

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.

"Buch der Stunde" trifft es sehr gut. Sehr viel relevante Analyse über die konkrete politische Situation in der wir uns derzeit befinden, mit einigen interessanten Ansätzen. Viele Appelle in dem Buch sind den meisten politisch besorgten Menschen vermutlich schon bekannt – trotzdem ist es gut, eine so umfangreiche Übersicht zu haben.

Despite being completely different from the first entry in terms of setting and protagonist, this worked perfectly as the continuation of the story. It was a contrast to other aspects of the first book, too: whereas Annihilation was intentionally built to be impersonal, distant from the characters (except the protagonist), Authority is the exact opposite in being all about the relationships between the protagonist and other characters. Inside of Area X vs. outside of Area X.

Again, this was excellently written, and, despite (or maybe because of) being outside of Area X this time, it was just as eerie as the first one!