Reread: Exhalation

 

I recently got a chance to see Ted Chiang in person at SJSU. He was great, and it triggered me to re-read Exhalation. One of the big themes of the book now that I've heard Ted Chiang in person is the debate over whether we have free will. Interestingly enough, I feel like Chiang's stories actually strongly imply that we do not have free will, while at the talk he gave, he claimed that he's strongly on the side of having free will! The explanation for the apparent contradiction, he said, was that "You actually want to have your entire experience (your upbringing, what you've read, learned, etc) to come to bear on your decisions. Free will cannot exist in an environment where you're just randomly picking between choices." In one of the stories, a character states that you're the result of all your previous choices, so by making a decision to be a kind person, you make it easier for yourself to become kinder in the future. I thought that was a great insight.

Another aspect of the stories that jumps out now that I've seen Ted Chiang in person is that the stories all have some uplifting aspect or even optimism built into the endings. He explained it as being the kind of person for whom it's easy to take the negative view of life, and when he works on a story, he spends a ton of time immersed in it, so he consciously chooses stories where there's some redemption, because it's not good for himself to be immersed in negativity.

The book is great. Every story is worth reading, and not a single one is a dud. It's also a short quick read. I highly recommend it.