If Ted Chiang could write more than one short story a year, I think he might be the greatest living fiction author. Basically everything he writes is a revelation.
Exhalation isn’t quite as good as Stories of Your Life and Others, but it’s still amazing.
It’s specifically because of something written in the forward. I don’t remember the exact quote now, but it got pointed out that he doesn’t put villains in his stories, to which he replies that he learned that in the war. It flipped a switch in teenage me’s brain and I started forming my own opinions after that.
My real answer is a book: Slaughterhouse 5. The movie Arrival pretty much does the same thing, though.
It really changed the way I think about my place in time and space, and the meaning of memories. Made me way less sad about death and entropy.
The book that contains the story Arrival is based on, Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, is my favorite short story collection.
Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House is also a good short story collection.
If Ted Chiang could write more than one short story a year, I think he might be the greatest living fiction author. Basically everything he writes is a revelation.
Exhalation isn’t quite as good as Stories of Your Life and Others, but it’s still amazing.
Slaughterhouse 5 had the same effect on me, as well as reframing how I view morality.
Could you share a bit more on the morality bit? Piqued my interest.
It’s specifically because of something written in the forward. I don’t remember the exact quote now, but it got pointed out that he doesn’t put villains in his stories, to which he replies that he learned that in the war. It flipped a switch in teenage me’s brain and I started forming my own opinions after that.