#exhalation

[seturselfonfire]

[szynkaaa]

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

I knew I wanted to do a cut out cover at some point, but I also wanted the cutout to serve a good purpose. The front cover is made of 4 layers: cardstock, laminated gold leafs, thicc cardstock, and then bookcloth with reflective htv ironed on it. Gottay turn on the flash light to see it shine on camera.

I wanted to achieve a floating affect for the gold leafs above the lungs. edges are gold foiled (still practicing that bit).

The dust jacket illustration took me the longest - 12h to paint it. But it's fun! I started book binding to have something to do while I had bad art block, but it looks like I'm back to making art again too while binding books, which is neat :)

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[sadmezcalita]

One of the most fucked up things about American liberals is when they try to be pro-immigration solely by saying "think of all the awful, lowpaying, exploitative jobs immigrants do! We cant just expect Americans to do them!"

Like all they're really saying is that they want to keep a cheap labor class so they can keep benefiting from exploitation. Every anti deportation interview coming out is by rich ranch owners and agriculturalists who specifically hire undocumented people since it's easier to underpay them and deprive them of basic labor rights. It's actually fucking sickening.

[bedlam-moon]

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/

fun short scifi story we read recently

big rec

[oceanvuongs]

— ted chiang, exhalation

[shortstorytournament]

Short Story Tournament

EXHALATION by Ted Chiang (2008) (link) - tw: apocalypse, death

Every day we consume two lungs heavy with air; every day we remove the empty ones from our chest and replace them with full ones.

A STUDY IN EMERALD by Neil Gaiman (2003) (link) - tw: death

A murder had been committed in that little bedsit. The body, what was left of it, was still there, on the floor. I saw it, but, at first, somehow, I did not see it.

[carica-ficus]

Review: Exhalation

Author: Ted Chiang

Date: 01/08/2024

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

_________________________________________________

These last two months have been extremely hectic for me, so this review is long overdue, but I finally managed to find the time to sit down and write it all out. I've fallen in love with Ted Chiang's writing ever since I read his first collection - "The Stories of Your Life and Others" - so I knew I'll dive into "Exhalation" as well. Turns out, August was the perfect time to do so as I had extra time to read while traveling, the local bookstore finally got extra copies available, and I was feeling very nostalgic for his writing considering I watched "Arrival" a few weeks prior.

This collection features 9 short stories of different lengths and different themes, but all of them somehow connect to the human state of being and our perception of the world. A big part of this collection is the exploration of what makes us human. Chiang spends a great deal challenging the reader's view on their own definition of humanity and its limits.

Many stories revolve around technology and how it shapes the people who use it, especially the dependency on certain inventions and humanity's reliance on them. Chiang takes on a new approach on traditional ideas - like time travel - and offers a new take that is more personal to the reader. He doesn't judge his characters' actions. Instead, he offers understanding and sympathy, which the reader can connect to.

Love is another inadmissible theme in this collection. The feeling of longing, grief and care are often presented as the main instigators of Chiang's stories, especially when it comes to their evolution or stagnation throughout time. Some stories focus on trying to save what is lost, while others concentrate on analyzing the change that awaits in the future - all while presenting it through interesting theories and imagined, futuristic scenarios.

Unfortunately, as much as this collection offers, there is a few things that demote its impact. A few stories feature an almost precise, direct explanation of the presented ideas, which, consequently, takes away from the experience. Instead of allowing the reader to make their own conclusions, Chiang steps in and proposes them for them. It's a bit disappointing, especially considering most of his work thrives from the freedom to create a personal opinion about it.

Furthermore, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" turned out to be too long and a little dull. As the longest story in this collection, it should have provided the pinnacle. In fact, it is literally the center of the book, being the 4th story and spreading out almost right at the middle. Unfortunately, it falls short of delivering something greater. The theme is really interesting, especially since it reflects upon modern problems of outdated software and the profitability of "useless" sites, but the story is too stretched out and certain plot points don't provide the impact they should.

Personally, I hoped I would have loved it a little bit more, but my disappointment also stems from my high regard for this author due to the impact his first collection had on me. When all is taken into account, "Exhalation" provided a stunning new collection of stories which truly expresses the greatness of Chiang's creativity and craft. If you're looking for a memorable collection of science-fiction short stories, "Exhalation" is a good pick.

[peonybookblog]

Leading contenders for my favorite reads of 2024 so far! Get them through Bookshop.org:

Exhalation | Piranesi

[se-hace-camino]

"Sex isn’t what makes a relationship real; the willingness to expend effort maintaining it is."

[szynkaaa]

Dust jacket illustration for my rebind of Ted Chiang's Exhalation

My original dust jacket idea was to have the lungs in the android's branch out like a tree and grow out of their mouth into a big tree, but when I sketched it out it kinda looked more like gore and horror LOL

The other concept I had was a close up of their chest with the lungs glowing and also growing out of their body like vines overtaking something, but I wasn't happy with the pose

Anyway in the end I settled for "what if we all have an android in our lung" jk jk

Gonna hit up the printer tomorrow and then post photos of the book with the dust jacket on

[er-cryptid]

[sadmezcalita]

Go Inanna

[juniperusashei]

Exhalation by Ted Chiang - 3/5

Ted Chiang’s writing has been compared to Black Mirror, but Exhalation felt more like a humorless Rick and Morty to me. Aside from the first story, it’s clear that Chiang is more of an “ideas guy,” because most of the stories in this collection felt like they were more about some extremely conceptual sci-fi technology. For this reason, a lot of them felt too long, but would have been acceptable if they were just a couple pages long.

The first short story, “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” was a strong opener that set expectations way too high for the rest of this collection. Perhaps I liked it because it was the only one that wasn’t sci-fi. Rather, it’s a fantasy story about time-travel via alchemy, and takes place in medieval Baghdad, and uses an Arabian Nights-esque frame story to tell multiple little tales. I found it creative and unexpected, and wish I could read more like this.

A lot of the rest of the stories were overlong and relied on one sci-fi concept (a prism that lets you talk to yourself in parallel timelines, a universe where entropy is physically quantifiable, a machine that disproves free will). What really bothers me is at the end Chiang includes “Story Notes” explaining everything to an unnecessary degree! None of the stories really needed explanation, but to include such an appendix is a bizarre move that I haven’t seen since I read In the Land of the Lawn Weenies as a kid. It feels a little insulting to the audience’s intelligence, as well as proof that Chiang is more interested in the concept than actually developing a convincing story. The exception to this is “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling”; despite being high concept (what if all your memories were recorded?!), it focuses more on the character drama. By no means was it free from the philosophical pontification that got so old in this book, but its pathos provided relief from the clinical and sterile rest.

[shortstorytournament]

Short Story Tournament

EXHALATION by Ted Chiang (2008) (link) - tw: apocalypse, death

Every day we consume two lungs heavy with air; every day we remove the empty ones from our chest and replace them with full ones.

THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE by Pamela Zoline (1988) (link) - tw: apocalypse, animal death

All the objects (819) and surfaces in the living room are dusty, gray common dust as though this were the den of a giant molting mouse. Suddenly quantities of waves or particles of very strong sunlight speed in through the window, and everything incandesces, multiple rainbows. Poised in what has become a solid cube of light, like an ancient insect trapped in amber, Sarah Boyle realizes that the dust is indeed the most beautiful stuff in the room, a manna for the eyes.

[carica-ficus]

"I hope that you were motivated by a desire for knowledge, a yearning to see what can arise from a universe's exhalation. Because even if a universe's life span is calculable, the variety of life that is generated within it is not."

- Ted Chiang, "Exhalation"