/lit/ - Literature

Exhalation - Ted Chiang (2019)
Reduced from discord posts.

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
The ideas are fine but that's about all.

Exhalation
It was quite an interesting story and I liked it. It says one of its inspirations was PKD's The Electric Ant, which I also liked. I like self-examination in general.

What's Expected of Us
An enjoyable and amusing story. What's the difference between a Calvinist and a hard determinist? Semantics. Would people react like this though? I don't know. It wouldn't make any difference at all to me. Now, if we could see everything that is going to happen and still be forced to go through with it? That would be annoying. I remember reading another story where scientists proved that almost all people were philosophical zombies. That was amusing as well.

The Lifecycle of Software Objects
I didn't like it.

Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny
Silly and meh. Robots as rearers almost never work out well. Lack of human touch is a real problem.

The Great Silence
Nobody here but us birds. Unenjoyable.

The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feelings.
I don't think I'd use Remem. I think I'd get stuck in the past. It wouldn't be good for me or a lot of other people.
My past is an ever receding horizon and I don't know if I mind that.
I don't know what to think of the "right" versus "true". Who's to say that the initial information was ever true to begin with?
That's some real promotional testimonial with its optimism. People using technology to make themselves into better people? Since when? Since WHEN?
This is definitely my favorite story of his two collections by far.

Omphalos
My first thought was to take it face value. Creationism is real, because they're in a simulation, but it wasn't?
As far as I'm concerned, the simulation argument is a religious one.
It was ok.

Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom
I don't think I'd use this service, as Dana says, I don't have to wonder, I know I've made mistakes. I don't need something to tell me how my life could have been different, that's easy to imagine. I don't think this is the worst or darkest timeline by any means though.
This may be the worst social network possible. Rather than comparing yourself to all these people who seem to be Living Their Best Life, so why aren't you, except it IS you and you aren't doing that. Truly people will find all the ways possible to make themselves miserable.
"authors faced competition from pirated copies of books they might have written."
Ah, so you thought global competition was bad, huh? Better start preparing to compete against an infinite number of yourselves. Oh, but I never became a novelist in this timeline and I'd love to read the books I'd have written without actually having written them. Even only the absolute best of all worlds would be more than could be experienced than a lifetime.
What a nice ending. Enjoyable.

Rating: 4/5 Rating anthologies and collections is a bother.