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Interview with Ted Chiang

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Re: Interview with Ted Chiang

#11

Post by shizcakes »

elorant wrote: post #6

I’ve just finished reading “The story of your life” the other day and I can’t say I’m impressed. Based on the comments I’ve read about the movie I expected it to be mind boggling. The author claims that knowing the future affects free will but he doesn’t bother explaining how could anyone know the future or why would there be only one – quantum mechanics for example states that there could be countless futures/univer…

I found it to be a story where the payoff takes a little while to percolate. It did not hit me immediately - I even had to search around for an explanation. It is intentionally left a bit open, and the specific "scientific" details are left up to your imagination, beyond the linguistics work. Once it hit me, though, I slowly became more and more impressed.

Re: Interview with Ted Chiang

#13

Post by ivraatiems »

bbctol wrote: post #7

I'm so glad that this movie is getting Ted Chiang more exposure. He's one of the most interesting and creative science fiction authors out there, despite and unbelievably small output (he has literally published fifteen stories over almost 30 years, and picked up four Hugos, four Nebulas, and a ton of other prestigious awards.) Maybe this will finally motivate him to quit his day job and write more, or at least get m…

As a writer, I have a sneaking suspicion that Ted Chiang writes a lot more than he publishes. You just don't get as good as he is without lots and lots of practice. I have a feeling there are a lot of projects he scraps that we never get to see, and many of them are probably pretty great.

Personally, I find him and his quality-over-quantity approach inspiring.

Re: Interview with Ted Chiang

#14

Post by macintux »

sandworm101 wrote: post #3

The greater the marketing hype before a film arrives in my town, the greater the inevitable disappointment. Perhaps Arrival is great, but imho the truly great ones don't invest in such a hype machine. The "100% at rotten tomatoes" line in the commercials give me pause. I checked. It's at 95, not 100. I can see why. Scores do change, but it's just more evidence of heavy marketing. The best scifi, the really good stuff…

It's flawed, certainly, but I found it compelling. Took me quite a while through the credits before I could compose myself to leave.

Probably the best $5 I've spent in a long time (morning showing).

Re: Interview with Ted Chiang

#15

Post by chroma »

sandworm101 wrote: post #3

The greater the marketing hype before a film arrives in my town, the greater the inevitable disappointment. Perhaps Arrival is great, but imho the truly great ones don't invest in such a hype machine. The "100% at rotten tomatoes" line in the commercials give me pause. I checked. It's at 95, not 100. I can see why. Scores do change, but it's just more evidence of heavy marketing. The best scifi, the really good stuff…

> The best scifi, the really good stuff, doesn't hit a home run with reviewers immediately.

Wait, so your expectations for the movie would be higher if the Rotten Tomatoes score was lower?

Re: Interview with Ted Chiang

#16

Post by ivraatiems »

elorant wrote: post #6

I’ve just finished reading “The story of your life” the other day and I can’t say I’m impressed. Based on the comments I’ve read about the movie I expected it to be mind boggling. The author claims that knowing the future affects free will but he doesn’t bother explaining how could anyone know the future or why would there be only one – quantum mechanics for example states that there could be countless futures/univer…

Your appraisal's right, his work is more philosophical/speculative than "hard" SF. But I don't see a problem with that. There's room for both in science fiction. If you don't particularly prefer the spec-fic stuff, there's nothing wrong with that either. It depends on what you see the purpose of scifi as being: Is it to explore cool tech/science we can't explore in reality yet, or is it to use tech/science to ask questions we can't answer in reality yet?

Re: Interview with Ted Chiang

#17

Post by DGAP »

sandworm101 wrote: post #3

The greater the marketing hype before a film arrives in my town, the greater the inevitable disappointment. Perhaps Arrival is great, but imho the truly great ones don't invest in such a hype machine. The "100% at rotten tomatoes" line in the commercials give me pause. I checked. It's at 95, not 100. I can see why. Scores do change, but it's just more evidence of heavy marketing. The best scifi, the really good stuff…

It's very good, I'd recommend seeing it. Avoid spoilers if you can.

The cinematography is gorgeous and the whole movie just feels extremely tight and well put together with nothing extraneous. Its small flaws are overshadowed by just how good it is. HN commenters just like to shit on things as soon as they're popular to feel smart.

Re: Interview with Ted Chiang

#18

Post by BatFastard »

I truly enjoyed the movie Arrival! Highly recommended.

The least amount of "its a movie" was required of any movie I have seen in years. I did not see where it was going, and I was thrilled when it got there.

Re: Interview with Ted Chiang

#19

Post by BatFastard »

chroma wrote: post #15
sandworm101 wrote: post #3

The greater the marketing hype before a film arrives in my town, the greater the inevitable disappointment. Perhaps Arrival is great, but imho the truly great ones don't invest in such a hype machine. The "100% at rotten tomatoes" line in the commercials give me pause. I checked. It's at 95, not 100. I can see why. Scores do change, but it's just more evidence of heavy marketing. The best scifi, the really good stuff…

> The best scifi, the really good stuff, doesn't hit a home run with reviewers immediately. Wait, so your expectations for the movie would be higher if the Rotten Tomatoes score was lower ?

I pay more attention to the user rating than the critics rating, critics are either paid off, or what they like in a movie is different than most movie goers.

Re: Interview with Ted Chiang

#20

Post by mrec »

cousin_it wrote: post #12

Ted Chiang is cool. But I think "Story of your life" isn't his best work. If you're going to read one story by Chiang, a good one is "Liking what you see": http://www.ibooksonline.com/88/Text/liking.html

Yes, that's probably my fave too, and the least fantastical of his.

I saw Arrival last night, and was very struck by the fact that despite having read and loved Stories of Your Life and Others, I couldn't remember anything of the plot.

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