Story of your Life (and others)

A while ago I was talking about the film Arrival with a friend. I recalled how I was moved by the whole experience; the images, the music, the story (and plot twists), without actually really remembering the exact story arch. All I had were some images and a feeling of understanding. This was not helpful in any way when the friend started asking detailed plot questions like 'how did they create visuals for Heptapod B?' I had no idea what he was talking about. He explained that he had been wondering about that ever since he read the story; how one would visualise Heptapod B.
This was when I found out that Arrival is actually based on a short story, 'Story of your Life', by Ted Chiang.

So the next I did was order the collection which contains this story, called Stories of your life and others, a title which I immediately loved due to its many possible meanings. It contains 8 short stories, some of which are really short-shorts, while other could be considered novellas in their own right.

'Story of your life' is by far my favourite; it is also a better story than it ever was movie. Or rather, the two are almost incomparable. I can't really explain without giving away too much of the plot, but in a story, you can move grammatically between the lines in ways that a film never could. A film can contain flashbacks, but they will always be linear to the main story (if we don't count really confusing films such as Memento). And a short story can explain background theory, in this case on how languages work, without it becoming boring or hard to follow. In a film you're stuck with narration, which breaks the suspension of disbelief and often doesn't really add something. Now I can see what they did with the film (which I rewatched after finishing the story), but I prefer the original written version.

Other stories I really enjoyed were 'Understand', where someone turns themselves into a super high-functioning human being, aware of everything and every interconnected event around them. It was tough going on a couple of instances, but a rewarding read when you actually got through it. 'Hell is the absence of God', about a world in which visitations by angels are a common occurrence, around which a whole industry of spotters and followers and support groups and motivational speakers has arisen. This is one of the stories in which the social commentary, which I think is an inherent part of a good SF story, shines through. The same goes for 'Liking what you see: a documentary', in which it is possible to turn off your ability to differentiate between pretty and ugly people. You attach no opinion to for example birth stains or burn marks, but 'see' all people as equal. A great premise to muse on; would you turn your judgement off? How would this effect our lives, our social interactions?

These were the highlight stories for me. There were a couple I didn't really like, especially 'Seventy-two letters', which is pretty long but doesn't really have a proper point (and was confusing in its time setting), and a couple which were nice reads but won't really stick with me for any time to come, like the three stories that are more of a social commentary.

It has been a while since I read SF, at least proper SF, but this was a really nice experience. Reading short stories is also always better than I remember it, so hopefully I'll discover some more proper collections in the months to come.